On May 18th I released i promise on itch.io. This was a small experience I have been developing with my partner for about a month. The initial idea came from a small video clip I saw of a car driving down a windy, tree lined road at night. The initial prototype took a weekend to make, but polishing it up into a full experience took ~80 hours. Anyone familiar with game dev or any type of creative work understands that the last 10 percent of a project takes the majority of the time. It was a challenge constantly adjusting tiny parameters so that the whole experience would leave an impact on the player. Ideas constantly had to be scrapped or readjusted. It was an exhausting development process, and overall I'm happy with how everything turned out. 

So the game is released. Now what? With every project I've released, as soon as I press the publish button, I immediately clear the project from my mind and take a break. So for the first time I thought that I would actually take the time to celebrate a project release. Game dev is hard. Releasing even a "bad" project takes a lot of time and resources. I think everything you create should be celebrated. Take the time to notice the amount of work you did. The obstacles you conquered. The new things you learned during the process. With every release, you grow your creative and technical skills. So take the time to rejoice after the journey no matter how small or large the project was.

On May 24th I announced an impromptu launch party event for the game. I knew that it was going to take a lot of time, energy and money securing a venue to celebrate. I also didn't want to put too much effort into the celebration (being already exhausted from the development process). There's a large field near my place where I take a lot of walks, so I decided to set up the celebration there. The celebration would take place right at midnight on the 25th. I brought drinks, snacks, a speaker, a small tent with moody lights, and a build of the game. The party was going to take place on a weekday at 12am with one day notice. I honestly didn't expect anyone to show up, but I also didn't mind. I wanted to turn this release into an event. Whether 100 or 0 people showed up didn't matter. Celebrating the release in some way was my only goal. So how did the celebration go?

In total attendance was 2 people. There was dancing and vibing out in the tent with snacks and drinks. It was a huge success. Below is a video summarizing the event.

I plan on doing this for all of my releases. I highly encourage everyone to do the same. You can celebrate alone by treating yourself to a nice night out. Or invite friends or family and bring your project with you. Don't focus too much on the turnout. What matters is that you took the time to celebrate the hard work.