Plant Based Audio is a full service video game audio collective. Composed of a network of Seattle-based game audio freelancers, Plant Based Audio is a flexible and scalable external development partner for your next game.
We provide custom music, sound design, audio implementation, voice acting, and dialogue editing services. We’re passionate about games and rooted in the development community.
Oh, and we know you’re dying to ask. What’s with the name? Are we a secret vegan cult? While Kyle does have an unnatural love of corn and ZW is in fact our token vegan (his official position is Head of Lettuce) our name is actually inspired by our home, the Pacific Northwest. Everybody always loves to talk about how much it rains here, but what they fail to mention is that all that rain means that this place is lush.
That’s at the heart of what we do at Plant Based Audio: we make your game sound lush and vibrant across the board. Whether it’s music, sound design, voice acting, or dialogue editing (or all four!), Plant Based Audio has you covered (like a nice shade tree, yeah?).
Member Owned and Operated
Plant Based Audio is 100% member owned and operated. Our team is fully invested in the work that we do because we’re fully invested in the kind of studio that we’re building.
When choosing an external development partner, you want a team that can take ownership of the work they provide. You might as well choose the team that actually owns.
If you want to work with us or learn more about us, you can send us an email.
The members of Plant Based Audio have experience working with the smallest of indies and the biggest of brands. We understand what it takes to make your project sound good no matter the scale.
Collectively, we have decades of experience between us with decades more ahead. Hopefully, a few of those years will be spent with you working on your next game. Get to know our team and your future colleagues:
ZW Buckley is a composer, music producer, and educator based out of Seattle, Washington. Clients include game developers Machine Elf Studios
and Team Cat RPG as well as children's VR company, PeekaVR. ZW holds an M.S. Creative Technologies from Illinois State University where he
researched and published internationally on music-led virtual realities. ZW serves on the Board of Directors of the experimental music
non-profit, pt.fwd, and the Music Production Advisory Board of Edmonds College.
Kyle is a composer, sound designer, and educator based out of Seattle Washington. After graduating from Central Washington University in 2016
with a degree in music education and another in saxophone performance, he turned to game music and didn't look back. His work is frequently in
various indie games such as Calico as the sound designer, and on the Minecraft Marketplace with Everbloom Games. He's a true swiss army knife
of game audio, working quickly and effectively in composition, sound design, production, voice over editing, subtitles, and anything else you
might need. An active speaker and clinician, Kyle is passionate about game audio education, and is community organizer for Beats to Play Games
to, a thriving community of game audio composers.
After a decade of working in tech startups, Katherine is a “Kat of all trades”. Covering dialogue editing, project management, and voice acting
from her professional home studio. Katherine has been an avid video gamer since she was a kid and understands what gamers are looking for in
their characters. From grunting to spell casting, she has decades of experience listening to the characters that came before her. She identifies
as non-binary and is part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Colin is a technical sound designer, software engineer and educator, providing notable attention to player experience, sonic cohesion and team
workflows. He has provided services for teams of all sizes working with a multitude of tool and game engines; proprietary and otherwise.
Colin is driven to find contextually optimal solutions that deliver the best possible player experiences, and facilitate smooth, iterative development.
ArenaNet - Guild Wars 2
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Meta - Audio R&D
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Studio Aesthesia - Breakpoint
Services We Offer
Music
Music is the emotional core of your game, and stays with your players long after they put the controller down. From high fantasy orchestras
to party starting bangers to literal kids music, our composers will thrive in the world that you’re building. No matter the ask
(“Oh, you need Studio Ghibli-inspired, PS2-era sounding, JRPG tango music? Sure!” - true story) and no matter the scope we’re ready
to score the story you need to tell.
Sound Design
From the most intimate of moments, to the most deafening of impacts, sound design gives weight and body to your game. Our goal as
sound designers is to make your player a true believer. They’ll believe they’re in your charming village, just like they’ll believe
they can punch a hole through those steel beams. They’ll believe it because their ears tell them to.
Audio Implementation
Whether you're needing deep-dive assistance with your technical audio design and audio systems construction, help getting all
of your sounds into your game on time, or if you're just looking for consultation or run-time mixing expertise, we have you covered. We
believe in providing low friction solutions to help you get your game out the door on time, and match the technical and aesthetic needs of
your projects. Our goal is to slot ourselves into your development workflow, whether you need us to take the reins of the audio system or
assist your existing teams, we'll always adapt to you. Think of us as a skill multiplier!
Voice Acting
Now that you’ve spent hours lovingly crafting your characters’ dialogue, we’ll help bring in the best voice actors for your game who can breathe
life into your characters. Using acting skills to show emotion and enhance the player's connection with the story, professional voice actors
will bring your characters to life in ways that simple text on a screen never can.
Dialogue Editing
So you’ve decided to put voice acting in your game, great! 10,000 lines of dialogue has suddenly become 30,000 recordings and, yeah, it’s
probably time to get some help. Dialogue editing is the first step that goes into the sound mix, which focuses on cleaning up the recording
session and smoothing out an actor's voice performance. While it’s often thought of as grunt work (we’ve got six “HUURGH!”s to choose from)
we’re suckers for it!
