I'm a sound designer/audio director looking to get into jamming, but I only really know Wwise and some basic Unreal stuff. It doesn't seem like either of those are too popular with game jams, but I can't really tell.

Do devs come to the table already knowing what software they want to use? Do audio people generally determine that? Are there any pieces of software that are extremely common for audio people to be familiar with? Are we expected to work within the chosen engine natively?

Mostly looking for info and advice on the process of determining which middleware to use. Or maybe whether or not to use it?

Hey! Sound Designer here! Im new to the industry too, but i have a bit of knowledge about it.

It really depends what how much time u have and how experienced your team is. Most of the game jams are 48 hours and most of the teams choose to do a 2D game. Pre programmed Wwise scripts dont work with 2D games u need to do new scripts for everything. About game engine, I saw few projects made with Unreal, most are made in Unity.

About the DAWs and softwares used its up to u to be honest. Remember game jams are to be fun and to make new connections, and show a bit of your work so dont be afraid to join in even if u dont know how it works properly!

Sorry for my confusing english and i hope i cloud help ^^ !