Mourning Tide

I started Mourning Tide as a two-week internship project during my third year of high school. I brought together a team of classmates to work on the game and initially focused on coordinating the project alongside my own work on its development. As Mourning Tide began attracting attention after its release, my role gradually expanded beyond development. I took on responsibility for marketing, business development, legal matters, and managing external collaborations, turning what started as a small school project into a long-term project that I continue to work on today.

Two days after release, the game began gaining traction on itch.io. To support its growth, I launched a creator-focused marketing campaign, sending more than 1,000 outreach emails each week while also contacting hundreds of smaller YouTube creators through comments and direct communication. These efforts helped Mourning Tide reach the #1 spot on itch.io's Trending page, and after working directly with the itch.io team, I also secured a featured placement on the platform's homepage. This phase brought the game over 250,000 views and 68,000 downloads on itch.io.

The game's growing visibility led to coverage in CzechCrunch, WIRED, and the print edition of LEVEL magazine. Our team was also invited to appear on Czech Television, Japan Television, and Czech Radio.

In March 2025, I was invited to represent Mourning Tide at a student showcase held alongside the Slavkov Format (S3) summit, where the presidents of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria met at Slavkov Castle. Together with my teammate, I presented the project directly to the three presidents as part of the event, which highlighted award-winning student innovation from all three countries.

In 2024, I managed the partnership with Phantom Publishing that brought Mourning Tide to Nintendo Switch, marking our first commercial console release. That partnership has since concluded, but it gave us our first hands-on experience with console publishing and porting.

Building on the success of the original game, we began developing a significantly expanded version as our final high school graduation project. Through my own marketing efforts, the demo reached 6,000 wishlists on Steam by the time of its release. During development, I took the lead on finding a new publishing partner and secured a deal with Black Lantern Collective, with whom we continue to work today. The Steam demo has since surpassed 15,000 wishlists, and as we prepare for the full release, I continue to lead marketing efforts ahead of launch.

Today, I oversee the project's production, manage legal contracts, lead marketing and community growth, and coordinate communication with our publishing partners. What began as a two-week school internship has grown into an ongoing independent game project, with responsibilities spanning development, publishing, marketing, business, and project management.