Raine was born on February 29, 1984[4] in Seattle, Washington.[5] Her father is a musician and her mother is a dancer.[6] She had an early exposure to music due to participation in choir at a young age. Her father was also a violinist.[7] Through a Sonic the Hedgehog fan community she was introduced to MIDI arrangement, first recreating versions of songs she knew and then making original music.[8] She later attended Cornish College of the Arts for a degree in music composition.[7]
Career
In her early career, Raine worked on titles such as Dead State and Hackmud, released in 2014 and 2016 respectively.[9] Raine began working at large studios while located in Seattle, Washington;[9] doing quality assurance and certification testing at companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo.[9][10] She did this while releasing her own music before she was eventually hired at ArenaNet.[10] Being best known for her work on the soundtracks of Minecraft,Celeste and Guild Wars 2,[11] she worked on Guild Wars 2 at ArenaNet for six years as a designer and soundtrack composer.[12] At ArenaNet, she and Maclaine Diemer were in-house composers of the music for the game's 2015 expansion, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.[13] She left ArenaNet in 2016,[12] but has continued to occasionally compose songs for its various releases as a freelancer.
In 2018, Raine released the text adventureESC on itch.io. Raine was the developer and composer for ESC, with visuals created by Dataerase.[14][15] In 2019, she released her debut album, Oneknowing.[16] She would continue to do freelance and self-published work from 2019 onward, with her composition work for larger studios, such as her mastering work on Steven Universe: The Movie soundtrack,[17] being released during the same time as her personal work on websites like Bandcamp.[9][10]
She composed music for Minecraft, creating four new pieces of music which were included in the 1.16 "Nether Update" in 2020.[18] A year later, she returned to Minecraft, composing six new tracks for the 1.18 "Caves & Cliffs: Part II" update, alongside fellow video game composer Kumi Tanioka.[19] A year after that, she also composed another three new tracks for the 1.19 "The Wild Update", and then about two years later, she composed five new tracks for 1.21 "Tricky Trials". Raine created the soundtrack for the adventure RPG Chicory: A Colorful Tale,[20] and assisted with the soundtrack for the second chapter of Deltarune, both released in 2021.[21]
On May 28, 2024, Raine announced Anothereal, a game combining elements of shoot 'em up and role-playing video games,[22][23] Raine is credited with being the primary designer of the project, with work having begun in 2021. The game is being developed by Radical Dreamland, Raine's single-person development studio.[24][25]
Personal life
Lena Raine is transgender. She has also written a book titled City Of Tigers, and has begun composing more LGBT-oriented fiction in her spare time.[26] Lena Raine is married to illustrator Aurahack, and they both live together in Vancouver.[27]
^Klaus (September 25, 2021). "Deltarune Chapter 2 est disponible gratuitement sur Nintendo Switch et PS4 via une mise à jour du premier épisode" [Deltarune Chapter 2 is available for free on Nintendo Switch and PS4 through an updated to the first episode]. Nintendo-Difference (in French). Archived from the original on September 26, 2021. La bande originale composée par Toby Fox, qui a été aidé par Lena Raine et Marcy Nabors, ... [The original soundtrack composed by Toby Fox, with assistance from Lena Raine and Marcy Nabors, ...]
^Östergård, Adrian (October 20, 2021). "Minecraft Snapshot 21w42a". Minecraft.net. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
^Ostergard, Adrian (April 19, 2022). "MINECRAFT SNAPSHOT 22W16B". minecraft.net. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
