How can you balance artistic vision with commercial goals in game audio production?

A good idea to identify the scope is to pinpoint the targeted audience for the audio experience you're trying to create, in my previous experience I needed to cater my musical composition to regions like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt. Each having their own rhythmic patterns, timbre of instruments, and stylistic approaches which defined the direction I needed to follow moving forward with the project!

Understanding the scope of a mobile game project is crucial for balancing the artistic vision with commercial goals. As a game developer and Unity developer, I've learned that the scope directly influences the complexity of audio assets and the need for quality assurance. For instance, a smaller team or budget may require more creative solutions to achieve high-quality audio within constraints. As an App Store Optimization Specialist, I also understand that the audio quality can impact user engagement and retention, which are key factors for a successful mobile game. It's important to align audio design with the overall game design to create a cohesive and immersive experience for players.

Including a stylistic personal touch in a foreign/localized project is one my favorite things to do! Using a synth earcandy in a musical composition filled with oriental instruments, or blending electronic with acoustic sounding drum patterns, or even decisions in the mix and sub frequencies can add a sense of character and flare to the result!

Error-proofing your projects is crucial, always configure your DAW of choice to save regular backups and different versions of your projects in different directories and locations and varying physical media, losing an important project in a very tight timeline where deliverables must be handed is the worst nightmare any audio professional might face. It's always worth it to have backups, always.

When working on any aspect of a game, it is important to remember just how vital collaboration is to the process, and how much of a cross-disciplinary medium it truly is. When working on game audio there are a lot of stakeholders with their own goals to heed. Involve them in the process early and often. Keep them informed. Make sure they're heard. Understand their perspectives well and you can enhance each other's work with your own. Often game development can struggle when stakeholders in different discipline work like islands rather than maintaining the goal of mutual benefit. There is a risk that, for example, your audio may be good on its own but be at odds with another aspect of the game.