This content was commissioned by Genshin Impact, a free-to-play action role-playing game developed by miHoYo, a game developer and publisher.

The content was not used to advertise the game directly but served to amplify the brand and enhanced their audiences' experience by partnering with world-class talents across various fields, bridging the gap between gaming and other art forms, creating memorable moments that resonate with both players and spectators of various genres.

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play action role-playing game developed by miHoYo. It features an action-based combat system in a fantasy open-world environment and attracts fans with its anime-art style and music.

In version 4.0 of the game, there are two robotic bosses found in the Icewind Suite challenge at the Grand Court of Fontaine. The game lore states these characters were robotic works of art inspired by a playwright (Coppelius) and his opera (Clockwork Coppelia), but were later given combat abilities.

The setting of the Grand Court and character design therefore took inspiration from opera and movements of the characters from dance and figure skating.

The objective was to bring to life this part of the game with a live action video, reversing the movements of battles in the game back to its inspiration in figure skating, and in the game environment of the Grand Court of Fontaine.

In recent years, there is a growing popularity of outdoor and winter sports in China and ice-skating rinks and skiing and snowboard training shops can be found in uptown malls.

The 2022 Winter Olympics was also held in the capital, Bejing and was broadcasted on public TV and had a large viewership especially amongst the younger audiences. Sui and Han were the Gold medal winners of the pair skating event of the 2022 winter Olympics and brought further spotlight to themselves and the sport domestically and internationally (foreign audiences recognised them on youtube)

A key feature of Genshin Impact is the anime art-style and focus on music production.

MiHoYo has commissioned special programs outside of the game environment including :

-Music performances of the game’s music featuring famous singers, famous symphony orchestras, famous conductors,

-Commissioning anime or 2D animation influencers to introduce the game and sharing their experience playing thru animated content.

With the promotion of winter sports and the popularity of star athletes such as Yuzuru Hanyu, the younger generation (especially in Europe, America and Japan) has a higher degree of recognition of figure skating.

The cooperation with national team sports personalities and Olympic champions has positive value in itself and can bring positive effect to the product. Sui Wenjing, the champion of pairs skating in the 2023 Beijing Winter Olympics, is also a player of Genshin Impact and has published Genshin related content on social platforms and has a favorable fanbase.

A perfect blend of story, choreography, cinematography, CGI integration, music and sound design was proposed in order to bring to life a specific part of the video game, focusing on the nemesis in a scenario without player and gameplay, yet appealing to existing and new audiences.

The story starts from night, using lighting and shadow to draw focus on the performers and costume, displaying their individual skills thru graceful movements, meanwhile displaying partnership and respect between the characters they play.

Slowly transitioning to dawn, the environment is revealed and the performers now display a more harmonious collaboration, yet reflecting a more threatening force and energy, mimicking the specific in-game battle moves familiar to fans.

Sui and Han’s participation further solidifies Genshin’s dedication to partnering with world-class talents across various fields, bridging the gap between gaming and other art forms, and creating memorable moments that resonate with both players and spectators.

A strong collaboration between the creative, production house, performers and the post-production team was required from planning.

It took 8 weeks of pre-production, 1 day to shoot and 10 weeks of post-production.

The production house had to realise the Director's vision with long seamless shots alongside the skaters to capture the cheoreography and intricate details on ice. The skaters had to cheoreograph moves that told the story and perform the technically challenging moves to mimic the in-game battles moves and music.

Post-production teams was involved from the start to ensure the shots would work later so that the entire performance will look like it happened in the Grand Court of Fontaine!

The video was placed on Bilibili (19.2m fans) and Baidu streaming platforms from mid Sept for Chinese audiences and Genshin's Youtube channel (7.2m subscribers) for global audiences from Oct 2023.

This project currently has more than 10 million views on domestic video platforms and has been released in 32 countries overseas. It also marks the beginning of cooperation between "Genshin Impact" and real-life stars for the product.

Rather than data, miHoYo hopes they can influence their player base to learn about ice sports, fall in love with ice sports, and understand more cultural and artistic treasures through this project.

Through the comments, we can also see the successful reinforcement that miHoyo values artists and talents and have attracted new fans amongst ice sports fans.