Let it shine
In 2020, a new musical champion—Seraphine—was set to release around the same time League’s virtual pop group K/DA was slated for a comeback. Our creative team decided to create a companion experience where Seraphine would debut with K/DA, in the real world.
The idea? We’d create a long-form, interactive narrative where fans could talk with Seraphine on social media and watch her journey from bedroom artist to pop star. As she grew in confidence, fans could celebrate with her, culminating in an unforgettable performance alongside K/DA.
Behind the scenes
I was the lead writer on Seraphine, and I contributed to narrative design, creative direction, visual direction, production, and social strategy. With the collective efforts of our team, we brought the dreams of a virtual girl to life.
I was responsible for:
Creating the “voice” of Seraphine and drafting an overarching story outline
Weaving narrative beats into planned dates to form a comprehensive months-long journey
Collaborating with artists, game designers, and musicians to establish her creative identity
Writing every post and advising on multimedia content
Engaging with players on social media and crafting a real-time, emergent narrative
Spearheading a Chinese-American diaspora focus group to inform her bilingual cultural background
The story spanned multiple platforms to create an immersive moment. We used Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Spotify, to mark her journey, release 4 songs, and connect her to K/DA. This culminated with the showstopper music video “MORE” and a live performance at Worlds in Shanghai.
The results
Curious fans organically discovered Seraphine’s account and joined her journey along the way. At her peak, Seraphine earned 600,000+ followers on Twitter and Instagram—without any external promotion.
Seraphine won a 2021 Webby award for “Best Influencer” and currently has over 50 million listens across her singles on Spotify.
Her K/DA skin remains one of the highest-performing League of Legends skins to date.
The impact
This project was experimental and came with unforeseen challenges, particularly focused on expectation setting, PR, and the virtual relationship between fans and celebrities. I’d be happy to share more about the valuable lessons we learned.
My personal goal for Seraphine was to speak directly to the experience of often-underrepresented groups in gaming, including women, LGBTQ+ folk, and the second-generation Asian diaspora. Many of my own experiences informed her story.
With Seraphine, we sought to create a hopeful character whose power came from empathy, kindness, and solidarity with others. We were proud to empower a community of passionate fans, budding artists, and anyone who resonated with her.
