Don't Give Up On Me - A Big Thank You!

As I'm writing this, it's August 17th, 2022. The day Don't Give Up On Me! was finally released!

It's been at least an hour since the visual novel itself was released, To be fair, right now I'm experiencing that anxious feeling when you don't really know what happens next.  Is it actually going to be a huge success? Is it going to pass unnoticed by a lot of people? Is something really special going to happen? I have no idea, yet I wish I did have.

But there's something I'm keeping in mind through this moment of anxiety.

Don't Give Up On Me! has a clear message, one that goes beyond its lovey-doey story: you can't let stress overshadow the good memories you have with something.  No matter the bad things that come by in a certain situation, they can't be your only focus. You can't forget the positive things you had with this whole scenario.

That's exactly what I'm maintaining in my head while those first few hours of release pass by.

Ryuzi_nea and I did our best to make a story that could impact others. We cautiously and constantly adapted to each other's visions to the game, without overshadowing the project's core and soul. Both of us did the impossible while busy with routine shenanigans, we constantly paused the project to prioritize other things, and respected each other's time until we actually had proper focus on the visual novel itself. And to be fair, even if that took a lot of time to actually finish the game, it's something we don't regret at all. This game wouldn't be the same had we not focused on it properly.

But beyond all of that? We had fun.

We laughed, we had genuinely great brainstorming moments, we supported each other non-stop, and we're proud to say that Don't Give Up On Me is a huge passion project that we're proud of developing together.

I don't know if the game will truly skyrocket, or just be left unrecognized. Yet no matter what happens, it won't be something that'll be left to waste. It'll be a precious memory I'll proudly cherish and hold onto.

I don't know if I'll actually do more of these posts in the future or not, but in case of this being my first and last one, I want to say a big thank you for everyone who's reading this and/or downloaded Don't Give Up On Me. If you haven't, consider to do so! You won't regret it.

And by the way, a little fun fact to tie this all up: we had a lot of anime inspirations to do the visual novel, of course, but our main inspiration... was actually Rick Astley. Seriously, we came up with the game's title because of Never Gonna Give You Up!