Lena Raine (said to be pronounced LAY-nə or LEN-ə; born February 29, 1984), also called Lena Chappelle or Kuraine, is an American music maker, creator, and game designer. Raine is famous for creating the music for the games Minecraft, Celeste, and Guild Wars 2. She has also made music for other games, such as Deltarune and Chicory: A Colorful Tale.
Early life
Raine was born on February 29, 1984, in Seattle, Washington. Her father is a musician, and her mother is a dancer. She began learning about music early in life by joining a choir when she was young. Her father also played the violin. She learned about creating music using a computer through a group of fans who enjoy the video game Sonic the Hedgehog. She first made copies of songs she already knew and later created her own music. She later studied music composition at Cornish College of the Arts.
Career
Raine began her career by working on video games such as Dead State and Hackmud, which were released in 2014 and 2016. While living in Seattle, Washington, she worked at large studios like Microsoft and Nintendo, performing quality checks and certification testing. During this time, she also created and released her own music. Later, she was hired by ArenaNet, where she worked for six years as a designer and music composer for Guild Wars 2. At ArenaNet, she and Maclaine Diemer created the music for the 2015 expansion Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. She left ArenaNet in 2016 but continued to compose music for the company as a freelancer.
Raine shared her original music on Bandcamp under the name Kuraine. Video game developer Maddy Thorson hired her to create the soundtrack for Celeste, a game released in 2018, after being impressed by her ability to mix ambient music, techno, and 8-bit sounds. In 2018, she also released a text adventure game called ESC on itch.io. She was the developer and composer of ESC, with visuals designed by Dataerase. In 2019, she released her first album, Oneknowing. From 2019 onward, she continued to work as a freelancer and self-publish her music, including her work on the soundtrack for Steven Universe: The Movie.
Raine composed music for Minecraft, creating four new tracks included in the "Nether Update" in 2020. She returned to Minecraft in 2021 with six new tracks for the "Caves & Cliffs: Part II" update, working alongside composer Kumi Tanioka. In 2022, she added three new tracks for the "Wild Update," and in 2024, she composed five new tracks for the "Tricky Trials" update.
She also helped create the soundtrack for the second chapter of Deltarune and worked with Wishes Unlimited as the composer for the adventure RPG Chicory: A Colorful Tale, both released in 2021. In 2023, Wishes Unlimited announced a new game called Beastieball, with Raine returning as the composer. The game entered early access on November 12, 2024, and its existing soundtrack was released on Raine’s Bandcamp page.
On May 28, 2024, Raine announced Anothereal, a game combining elements of shoot 'em up and role-playing games. She is the primary designer of the project, which began development in 2021. The game is being created by Radical Dreamland, Raine’s independent studio.
Personal life
Lena Raine is a trans woman. In 2014, she published a book titled City of Tigers. Since 2015, she has written more LGBT-oriented fiction when she has free time.