feat: Sound Component for Game Objects

[SelfDevTV]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, audio in Kaplay is handled globally via play(), which feels inconsistent with the engine's "everything is a component" philosophy. When I want sound tied to a game object's lifecycle (e.g., a looping hum on an enemy that should stop when the enemy is destroyed), I have to manually manage this with custom components and cleanup logic. It's not difficult, but it's boilerplate that the engine could handle natively — especially for spatial audio based on object position.

Any more information?

Summary

It would be great to have a built-in sound component that can be attached to game objects, similar to how sprite(), pos(), or other components work.

Motivation

Currently, audio is handled globally via play(), which feels inconsistent with Kaplay's "everything is a component" philosophy. Attaching sound to objects would enable:

• Automatic cleanup when objects are destroyed (no orphaned audio)
• Spatial/positional audio based on object position
• Easier management of looping sounds tied to object lifecycle
• More intuitive API that matches the rest of the engine

Proposed API

add([
    sprite("enemy"),
    pos(100, 100),
    sound("enemy_hum", { loop: true, spatial: true }),
])

Or perhaps split into sound() and spatialSound() for clarity.

Current Workaround

Custom components can achieve this, but it feels like core functionality that would benefit many users.

References

Other engines handle this well — e.g., Godot's AudioStreamPlayer2D as a node that can be part of a scene tree.

[mflerackers]

Yes, it's something I proposed more than 2 years ago, but it's waiting on someone to make a PR.

[SelfDevTV]

@mflerackers can you please link me the issue.

[mflerackers]

There is no issue I think, as we only discussed this on the discord server. But it would be something like sound() with options to pan the sound according to screen x coordinate and volume depending on y coordinate for example. With a playSound() function because play() is taken by the sprite component. A volume property for individual loudness setting. I don't think it needs things like the Doppler effect. Mostly a way to place sounds in the scene rather than the disembodied sounds we have now.

[SelfDevTV]

There is no issue I think, as we only discussed this on the discord server. But it would be something like sound() with options to pan the sound according to screen x coordinate and volume depending on y coordinate for example. With a playSound() function because play() is taken by the sprite component. A volume property for individual loudness setting. I don't think it needs things like the Doppler effect. Mostly a way to place sounds in the scene rather than the disembodied sounds we have now.

I agree. I could try to tackle that if desired

[mflerackers]

Sure, create a PR and we'll discuss and review. If there's uncertainty about the API, we can discuss that here or on the discord.