To promote the launch of “Orbs”—Discord’s new reward currency, we created a video that explained how this feature works and still felt genuine to Discord users. Our biggest challenge was to avoid coming off as transactional or corporate. That’s why we decided to stay away from classic “UI walkthrough” or text-heavy explainer videos. So we set out to turn a functional product update into an imaginative narrative that got users excited. We leaned into gaming and entertainment archetypes to create a stylistic world that spoke to the audience through visual metaphors. Our goal was to create a video that felt like entertainment first and information second, using visual storytelling to make the concept of "Orbs" feel valuable, lore-heavy, and compelling for the gaming community. Putting a spin on traditional Discord characters helped us bring this feature to life in a new way.
To break the mold of boring, flat tech explainers, we transformed the routine task of earning digital rewards into an immersive, 'gamer-first' quest. Since the Discord community is so vividly imaginative, we wanted to elevate the simple UI action of redeeming Orbs into a massive, magical ritual. Everything was designed to ensure the user felt the magic, not just the mechanics of clicking a button.
To achieve this cinematic quality at speed, we developed a fusion workflow that married the fluidity of traditional animation with the efficiency of modern motion design. We utilized 2D puppet tooling for heavy body mechanics, allowing us to move quickly while retaining a custom illustrative look. For crucial details like expressive hand articulation, smoke, and magical effects, we leaned heavily on tactical cel animation. This wasn't merely an aesthetic choice; it gave tangible weight and texture to digital items, supported by cinematic lighting and an expanded color palette beyond the brand’s signature ‘blurple.’ By treating a functional product update like a premium game release, we didn't just teach users how to use Orbs, we made them genuinely excited to earn them.
Our video served as the visual centerpiece for the Orbs rollout, accompanying a massive wave of adoption. During beta alone, millions of Orbs were earned and spent, with our narrative helping to contextualize this new behavior for the community. With over 11k+ organic combined views, the video successfully demystified the mechanics in a genuine way, ensuring this wasn’t received as a monetization update, but as an exciting expansion of Discord lore.
This creative strategy, along with a larger campaign, helped transform a functional currency into a desirable object—supporting a launch that saw a 16-fold increase in first-time Shop purchases, with 79% of participants being new buyers.
