> Reaper is currently a de-facto standard for game audio design
Such a wide and strong claim, I'm not sure there is a single de-facto choice specifically for "game audio design", I've seen most major DAWs, including Reaper, to be used for game audio. If anything is close to a de-facto standard in video game audio, it'd be Wwise and/or FMOD as audio middlewares, then whatever the artists happen to be familiar with for the actual production.
Unless you're talking about some specific genre here, either music- or game-wise?
From my experience, it’s very rare to see someone not using Reaper for sound design. Some use Pro Tools or Cubase, but they aren’t as common as Reaper. It really has no competition due to how easy it is to prepare dozens of assets with a single render (all with correct naming and loudness) as well as extensions that add features no other DAW has (e.g. Global Sampler, stuff by LKC Tools, etc.).
It’s not very good for music, though, so here, the situation is a bit more diverse. So yes, I’m talking concretely about sound design.
I think now it seems clear you're talking about "sound effect design" specifically maybe, rather than sound design? Particularly because you say it's not good for music production, but plenty of us do sound design together with music product, but I've also never done sound effect design, which it does sound like you're talking about.
I’ve never heard of anyone making distinction between “sound design” and “sound effect design” in gamedev. I don’t know anything about cinema or other creative industries though, but my original post is only about video games.
> making distinction between “sound design” and “sound effect design” in gamedev
I think it's more because I come from the side of music production, "sound design" is something I do all the time, but for the purpose of music production. So maybe because I come from the other side, "sound design" makes it sound like you're talking about general sound design, the same stuff you'd do for music production and music in general, but considering the rest of your message, I think probably other's will easier understand you if you'd say "sound effect design" instead of just "sound design". Kind of like any programming is programming, but "demo scene programming" is a sub-niche of that.
No harm no foul, just thought I'd add some extra context for others who similarly got confused by it as me.
Such a wide and strong claim, I'm not sure there is a single de-facto choice specifically for "game audio design", I've seen most major DAWs, including Reaper, to be used for game audio. If anything is close to a de-facto standard in video game audio, it'd be Wwise and/or FMOD as audio middlewares, then whatever the artists happen to be familiar with for the actual production.
Unless you're talking about some specific genre here, either music- or game-wise?