Today was another big day for backend development on Aurisona.

As tempting as it is, rather than jumping straight into Unreal Engine, I’ve concentrated my focused on building a solid foundation for user authentication, settings storage, and dynamic audio delivery. The goal is to have a fully functional system before layering in the visuals. That way, when the time comes to build the in-game experience, everything just works: user preferences load instantly, music streams dynamically, and the game is optimized from the get-go.

Today I laid the groundwork for sound profiles and user presets. Now players will be able to choose between preset audio environments like “Sleep Mode” or “Custom Mix” and the system will automatically apply compression, EQ, and separate volume levels for music, nature, and voice. Because I want to maintain a consistent experience across devices, settings save to the user’s account, and free users will have access to presets while premium users can additionally unlock full customization.

To support that, I created a new audio_presets table and added API endpoints to fetch available presets, apply them to a user, and save or retrieve custom settings. These settings are tied into the user’s account, which means they sync across devices and persist between sessions.

Once that was complete and thoroughly tested via the API, I shifted gears and finally started the Unreal Engine portion of the project.

I started by upgrading to Unreal Engine 5.6 and decided to begin with a Blueprint project, since it’s faster for prototyping UIs and interacting with APIs, which is especially important during this early phase… especially since I am eager to see the game take shape, and only have a limited amount of time off from my day job. I set up the project from scratch; an empty world, and began building the login screen. After wiring up the email and password fields in UE, I started building the login logic in Blueprints.

I was running short on time at the end of the day when I realized UE doesn’t natively support JSON in Blueprints. So I did a bit of quick research online and ended up adding the “JSON Blueprint Utilities” plugin to fix that. With that in place, I’ll be able to build the JSON payload from user input and prep the system for posting securely to the login endpoint.

I’m eager to see the backend and frontend finally shake hands. Today brought me one step closer to that moment. Next, I’ll finish the HTTP request logic inside Unreal, parse the response, and save the user’s session tokens locally. Once that’s in place, the client will be able to load each user’s preferences and audio settings directly from the cloud.

The foundation is now fully in place: authentication, presets, user-specific profiles… and I’m nearly ready to start pulling that into the in-game experience.

Tonight, as I head to sleep, I’ll be listening to the first music library I’ve been working on for Aurisona. One last listen to get a sense of any anomalies or spikes in dynamics that draw a listener out of rest. It’s my way of curating, scrutinizing, and ultimately finalizing each musicscape. It’s my way of ensuring the music is effective, beautiful, and perfect for Aurisona.

Here’s to a very restful night’s sleep!

It all starts with infrastructure. Phase 1 of Aurisona’s development is focused entirely on building the essential systems that will power the game.

I’ve been deep in server work, spinning up the first LAMP stack server with NGINX acting as a reverse proxy for Apache (which serves the main website) while also handling the game’s API endpoints. It’s a hybrid setup that balances efficiency with flexibility.

Most of my energy so far has gone into designing and building a fast, optimized database schema and secure API layer to match. I’m taking the time to do it right, because these are the systems that everything else depends on.

The first major system to take shape has been the user authentication and settings infrastructure. I’ve built a secure login system with long-lasting session tokens, complete with refresh tokens for persistent logins across devices. Behind the scenes, every user’s settings, from audio preferences to playback behavior, are stored in a clean, scalable way that will sync across platforms.

My years in radio broadcast experience are helping shape my decisions around the music layer of Aurisona. I’m designing the music delivery system with performance and immersion in mind. The game client never downloads full music libraries; instead, it requests individual tracks as needed, saving a ton of space on your mobile or VR hardware while still delivering a vast assortment of beautiful music to accompany the nature sounds in the game. The system remembers what songs you’ve already heard, spaces out repeats intelligently (dayparting), and ensures the playback feels organic with cross-fades and dynamic compression to ensure the volume remains consistent from song to song. I’m even preparing support for special audio modes (like “Sleep Mode” or “Study Mode”) with tailored EQ, compression, and volume settings. All this without requiring massive installs or storage space on the player’s device.

This is still just the groundwork, but it’s essential groundwork. The goal for Phase 1 is to have a stable and secure back-end capable of supporting a fully immersive, audio-first exploration game across desktop, mobile, and VR platforms.

Next steps include building the nature sound engine, real-time zone-aware audio loading, and integrating the player’s in-game location and biome data into the audio system. After that, I’ll shift toward visual prototyping… but only once the foundation is solid. That is a step I can’t wait for. To be able to bring my vision to life and share screenshots and videos is something I’m really excited for. I’ve been staring at a bash window far too long.

More updates to come as the game unfolds. For now, back to the console.

I’ve been secretly working on a game concept for nearly 3 years. It’s called Aurisona and I’m truly excited to announce that I’ve officially begun development.

What is Aurisona?

A Meditative Journey Through Sound and Nature

Aurisona is a peaceful, immersive exploration game where players walk a serene hiking path through beautifully rendered natural environments. From tranquil forests at dusk to babbling brooks, crackling campfires, and hidden clearings, every step is alive with the subtle, realistic sounds of nature—presented in high-fidelity, binaural spatial audio.

Whether experienced in VR, on a mobile device with headphones, or on PC, Aurisona is designed as an ambient experience you can truly feel. There’s no combat, and no objectives… just the freedom to wander, listen, breathe, and be present in the moment.

Aurisona is uniquely positioned to serve:

• Players with anxiety, sensory needs, or burnout,
• Users with limited mobility or chronic illness,
• Residents in care facilities, hospitals, or assisted living,
• Mindfulness practitioners and their patients,
• Listeners who simply enjoy the peaceful sounds of nature while working, sleeping, or going about their daily tasks.

Aurisona’s Visual Experience

Aurisona is stunning. I’m working hard to make it as photorealistic as possible. Even the gameplay mechanics are designed from the ground up to be entirely organic. Having never played Aurisona before, any player with any technical skill level (or none at all) will be able to navigate with ease.

Aurisona’s Auditory Experience

When you go for a nature walk in the real world, you hear birds all around you, crickets, a gentle breeze in the leaves of tall trees. You don’t hear it the same as a traditional stereo audio recording: The sounds are all around you. That’s what truly sets Aurisona apart: Using fully-immersive binaural audio technology, the sounds of nature while you navigate Aurisona are everywhere, surrounding you. Close your eyes and you feel as if you’re there.

Bask in Nature

Hike the trail in Aurisona and find a spot along the path that offers the soundscape you are looking for. Rest there and enjoy the sounds of nature presented in fully-immersive 3D sound. Blank your device screen and listen as long as you like.

The Early Days

While sitting on my deck one gorgeous summer day in 2022, overlooking our forest, I began to contemplate how I wished I could enjoy that moment all year round. How I wished I could eliminate the sound of the speeding cars on the nearby thruway, and how I wanted to just live in that point in time for as long as possible, with the sounds of songbirds, cicadas and playful squirrels calming my stressed mind.

It was there and then that I began to consider how I might combine what I’ve learned about photorealistic game development while producing VR-based episodes of Category5 Technology TV, with my passion for recording binaural nature sounds.

I almost immediately started recording soundbites. The very first was a lone cricket who was making a lot of noise outside my front window, seemingly performing for me. He was sitting still on the stone patio at my front door, calling out all on his own. So I setup my recording rig (an H4N at that time) and recorded him for about 30 minutes.

That recording sat on my SD card for a year.

I planned the game mechanics, sketched out some ideas, and studied binaural audio techniques, Unreal Engine Blueprints related to spatial audio, and ultimately created the Category5 Matrix spoof as a testing ground, where, in the fly over that occurs after the camera transitions into the vintage TV set, you can hear my first-ever in-engine binaural soundscape. If you listen to that clip with headphones, you’ll notice a lot of elements surrounding you. That was an early test of the techniques I had been learning, to prepare me for the inevitable development of Aurisona.

On August 23, 2023, I imported the cricket audio file, sliced up the recording into dozens of individual chirps, and built the first test environment for Aurisona: A chair in virtual space, surrounded by crickets. The experience was incredible.

Nearly two more years of planning, designing the game mechanics, layout and backend on paper, and here we are: June 11, 2025.

What’s in a Name

Aurisona is a constructed word derived from the Latin auris (meaning “ear”) and sonare (“to sound” or “resound”), suggesting a resonant, auditory experience intended for listening and immersion. Aurisona is a game by Robbie Ferguson (proprietor, Category5 TV Network), designed to transport players into richly detailed natural environments through the power of spatial audio. The game invites users to explore peaceful biomes, discover ambient soundscapes, and connect with others through shared moments of virtual nature.

Aurisona game development has begun!