Team Audio

How to Delegate

Use the subagent workflow to spawn each team member as a subagent:

• custom agent: audio-director — Sonic identity, emotional tone, audio palette
• custom agent: sound-designer — SFX specifications, audio events, mixing groups
• custom agent: technical-artist — Audio middleware, bus structure, memory budgets
• custom agent: [primary engine specialist] — Validate audio integration patterns for the engine
• custom agent: gameplay-programmer — Audio manager, gameplay triggers, adaptive music

Always provide full context in each agent's prompt (feature description, existing audio assets, design doc references).

3. Orchestrate the audio team in sequence:

Step 1: Audio Direction (audio-director)

Spawn the audio-director agent to:

• Define the sonic identity for this feature/area
• Specify the emotional tone and audio palette
• Set music direction (adaptive layers, stems, transitions)
• Define audio priorities and mix targets
• Establish any adaptive audio rules (combat intensity, exploration, tension)

Step 2: Sound Design and Audio Accessibility (parallel)

Spawn the sound-designer agent to:

• Create detailed SFX specifications for every audio event
• Define sound categories (ambient, UI, gameplay, music, dialogue)
• Specify per-sound parameters (volume range, pitch variation, attenuation)
• Plan audio event list with trigger conditions
• Define mixing groups and ducking rules

Spawn the accessibility-specialist agent in parallel to:

• Identify which audio events carry critical gameplay information (damage received, enemy nearby, objective complete) and require visual alternatives for hearing-impaired players
• Specify subtitle requirements: which audio events need captions, what text format, on-screen duration
• Check that no gameplay state is communicated by audio alone (all must have a visual fallback)
• Review the audio event list for any that could cause issues for players with auditory sensitivities (high-frequency alerts, sudden loud events)
• Output: audio accessibility requirements list integrated into the audio event spec

Step 3: Technical Implementation (parallel)

Spawn the technical-artist agent to:

• Design the audio middleware integration (Wwise/FMOD/native)
• Define audio bus structure and routing
• Specify memory budgets for audio assets per platform
• Plan streaming vs preloaded asset strategy
• Design any audio-reactive visual effects

Spawn the primary engine specialist in parallel (from docs/studio/technical-preferences.md Engine Specialists) to validate the integration approach:

• Is the proposed audio middleware integration idiomatic for the engine? (e.g., Godot's built-in AudioStreamPlayer vs FMOD, Unity's Audio Mixer vs Wwise, Unreal's MetaSounds vs FMOD)
• Any engine-specific audio node/component patterns that should be used?
• Known audio system changes in the pinned engine version that affect the integration plan?
• Output: engine audio integration notes to merge with the technical-artist's plan

If no engine is configured, skip the specialist spawn.

Step 4: Code Integration (gameplay-programmer)

Spawn the gameplay-programmer agent to:

• Implement audio manager system or review existing
• Wire up audio events to gameplay triggers
• Implement adaptive music system (if specified)
• Set up audio occlusion/reverb zones
• Write unit tests for audio event triggers

4. Compile the audio design document combining all team outputs.

5. Save to design/gdd/audio-[feature].md.

6. Output a summary with: audio event count, estimated asset count, implementation tasks, and any open questions between team members.

Verdict: COMPLETE — audio design document produced and team pipeline finished.

If the pipeline stops because a dependency is unresolved (e.g., critical accessibility gap or missing GDD not resolved by the user):

Verdict: BLOCKED — [reason]

File Write Protocol

All file writes (audio design docs, SFX specs, implementation files) are delegated to sub-agents spawned as a subagent. Each sub-agent enforces the "May I write to [path]?" protocol. This orchestrator does not write files directly.

Next Steps

• Review the audio design doc with the audio-director before implementation begins.
• Use $dev-story to implement the audio manager and event system once the design is approved.
• Run $asset-audit after audio assets are created to verify naming and format compliance.

Error Recovery Protocol

If any spawned agent (as a subagent) returns BLOCKED, errors, or cannot complete:

1. Surface immediately: Report "[AgentName]: BLOCKED — [reason]" to the user before continuing to dependent phases
2. Assess dependencies: Check whether the blocked agent's output is required by subsequent phases. If yes, do not proceed past that dependency point without user input.
3. Offer options via a concise plain-text choice list with choices:
   • Skip this agent and note the gap in the final report
   • Retry with narrower scope
   • Stop here and resolve the blocker first
4. Always produce a partial report — output whatever was completed. Never discard work because one agent blocked.

Common blockers:

• Input file missing (story not found, GDD absent) → redirect to the skill that creates it
• ADR status is Proposed → do not implement; run $architecture-decision first
• Scope too large → split into two stories via $create-stories
• Conflicting instructions between ADR and story → surface the conflict, do not guess