Listen for the heels: how Madam Koi Koi sounds
In a game about a legend you hear before you see, the footsteps had to be right. Here's how her heels, the doors and the music work.
Every version of the legend starts the same way: you hear her before you see her. Koi... koi... koi. So the footsteps aren't decoration. They're the main way you know where she is.
Real heels, real floors
Her footsteps start from a real recording of heels on pavement, from Mixkit's free sound library. We cut it into single steps and made separate tile and wood versions, so they change as she moves between the hallway and the hostel. Each step lands in time with her walk, and when she starts running the steps come faster and closer together, a rhythm you learn to dread.
The sound is positional. With headphones you can tell which way she is walking, and whether she has turned the corner towards you.
Doors that give you away
Doors use recorded creaks and slams too, also from Mixkit. A door creaking open slowly is one thing. A door being thrown open down the corridor means she has stopped searching.
A score that listens back
The music is adaptive. It sits low while she patrols, and builds when she investigates a noise or catches sight of you. Sprinting, slamming doors and knocking things over are loud for her as well.
Koi... koi... That is not a sound a story should be able to make.
If you play with subtitles on, the game captions her heels and how close they are, so the most important information in the game doesn't depend on your hearing.