LOST RECORDS: Welcome to Velvet Cove.

The campaign that turned players into citizens.


Don’t Nod’s Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a two-part narrative game, released eight weeks apart. As a boutique studio, Don’t Nod did not have AAA marketing spending power, and they were also competing with 19,000+ games launched on Steam over twelve months. The critical task: launching Part 1 in a way that kept fans hooked through the wait for Part 2.

The answer wasn’t more content. It was more world.

HAUS of PARK designed an interactive brand experience that transformed a traditional launch gap into the heart of the campaign. Instead of a trailer drop followed by radio silence, players were invited to become citizens of Velvet Cove—the game’s setting—which we brought to life on Discord, in emails, on websites, and across social. It was part ARG, part narrative bridge, and entirely fan powered.

Key to the experience was MoviePalaceOnline.com, a 90s-era website designed with Unreal Engine. Glitchy, nostalgic, and full of narrative secrets, it served as a storytelling engine between game drops. Weekly, fans uncovered corrupted files, decoded puzzles, and emailed in-game NPCs like “CyberBob”, who wrote back.

The Discord became a living town square. NPCs held weekly events. Fans exchanged theories, made mixtapes, wrote fanfiction, and messaged characters directly. Fan-made content even became canon, influencing the ARG’s narrative outcome. With no paid media, the community reached 3,000 members. Over 24,000 people participated in the campaign. Nearly 400,000 messages were exchanged. 500,000 people were reached across platforms. And when surveyed, 90% of participants said they’d buy the next Don’t Nod game.

This was a living, breathing extension of the IP, strategically timed to bridge two product drops, deepen emotional connection, and drive organic momentum. The campaign launched the world, not just the game, and the fandom followed.