The Lost Records: Welcome to Velvet Cove

A social-first branded experience where community became the content.
When Lost Records: Bloom & Rage launched in two parts eight weeks apart, Don’t Nod saw an opportunity to use social platforms not as distribution channels, but as spaces where the story and its community could live and grow together.
Rather than pushing content between releases, HAUS of PARK turned Velvet Cove, the fictional town from the game, into a social ecosystem. A purpose-built Discord server became the town square, complete with a welcome center, radio station, weekly events, and interactive NPCs. Fans didn’t just follow the story; they became its citizens, role-playing, collaborating, and shaping the world together in real time.
At the center of the experience was MoviePalaceOnline.com, a 90s-style interactive website built in Unreal Engine and designed as a diegetic social artifact. Glitchy GIFs, corrupted JPEGs, ZIP folders, and hidden puzzles invited fans to decode clues, submit intel through online forms, and communicate directly with in-game characters via email and Discord. Weekly missions encouraged collective problem-solving and ongoing conversation, turning social interaction into narrative progression.
Inside Discord, the community flourished organically. Players exchanged theories, wrote fan fiction, created art, messaged characters, and even sent them letters and get-well cards. The line between brand, story, and audience blurred as fans co-created the lore alongside the creators.
The experience naturally spilled into other social platforms. Reddit filled with theory threads, TikTok with explainers, Instagram with fan art, and X with in-character posts, all driven by the community rather than paid amplification.
In just weeks, the Discord grew from zero to over 3,000 members. More than 24,000 players from 37 countries participated in the ARG, generating nearly 400,000 messages and organically reaching over half a million people across social platforms. 90% of surveyed players said they were more likely to purchase Don’t Nod’s next game.
Welcome to Velvet Cove shows how branded social content thrives when platforms are treated as places to belong, not just channels to post.