About Bert Cole
I’m a game composer focused on modern retro music for story-driven games—blending electronic texture, industrial edge, and JRPG-style melodic writing into scores built for atmosphere, identity, and gameplay movement.
With more than 20 years of composition experience, I bring a musician’s foundation and a systems-minded approach to game audio. My background as a multi-instrumentalist and Atlanta Institute of Music and Media graduate helps me move comfortably between strong theme writing, detailed production, and implementation-aware scoring.
My work spans titles including Crystal Project, Sector Six, Magic of Spring, Retaliate, Castle of the Underdogs, and more—across lead composer, contributing composer, sound design, and voice roles.
Melodic identity, retro texture, and production-aware collaboration.
A better fit for developers who need authored themes, textured production, and a collaborator who understands game structure.
A retro foundation with a broader production range
I bring retro fluency, strong compositional foundations, and a wider production palette to games that need a distinct musical identity. The goal is not just style accuracy—it’s building a soundtrack that feels authored, memorable, and structurally useful inside the game.
Retro Accuracy, Modern Finish
I can recreate the tonal language of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit eras while still giving the music the weight, texture, and detail expected from current productions.
Strong Theme Writing
Because the work starts from composition—not just sound selection—the result is music with clearer melodic identity, stronger emotional recall, and better world cohesion.
Range with a Clear Voice
I work comfortably across chiptune, electronic, industrial, orchestral, and heavier textures while keeping the score cohesive, intentional, and recognizably authored.
Composer first. Game-focused by design.
I’ve spent years building music across games, albums, and multimedia projects, but game work is where my process feels most at home. It asks for more than a strong track. It asks for pacing, state changes, memory, contrast, and a score that serves the player experience rather than competing with it.
My influences come from classic game soundtracks, especially the golden era of JRPGs, but the goal is never nostalgia for its own sake. I use retro language as a foundation for something more immersive, tactile, and production-ready.
That combination makes me especially useful for projects that need emotional themes, darker synth texture, and a soundtrack that can move between exploration, tension, and release without losing its voice.
Representative credits
- Light Of The Locked World — Zuurix (2025 TBA) • Lead Composer and Sound Design
- Magic of Spring — Zuurix (2025 TBA) • Lead Composer and Sound Design
- Tower of Nod — Tiny Abyss (2024) • Contributing Composer
- Ognisco — Gaido Hermenegild (2024) • Contributing Composer
- Retaliate — Romans I:XVI Gaming (2023) • Lead Composer
- Crystal Project — Andrew Willman (2022) • Contributing Composer
- Playback Trauma: The Beach — RIDENTEM (2022) • Lead Composer and Sound Design
- Castle of the Underdogs — House of Pandas (2021) • Contributing Composer
- Sector Six — Zuurix (2016) • Lead Composer and Sound Design
Especially well suited for projects that need atmosphere, identity, and movement between states
RPGs, Metroidvanias, Horror, Adventure games, and retro-inspired titles that still need modern production quality.
How collaborators describe the experience
“He’s a pleasure to communicate with and delivered a tune that fit the style far more than I imagined.”
“Collaboratively focused... a wide range of styles and colors, with a strong sense of melody.”
“He works fast and creates excellent OST that my players and I love.”
Need a composer with retro fluency and modern production sense?
Send over your game, prototype, mood references, or pitch deck and let’s talk about whether the sound is the right fit.