My other recommendation is to throw as much weight into your announcements as you can.

Make a big deal about it.
Don't make them just the same as another throwaway post.

Cover all the bases of the announcement. You can make them informative and still make them personal.

It also confuses the heck out of the timeline, especially as you will often find the pre-announcement still being engaged with long after the main announcement drops.

Over the years running PYG, I've reduced the run up because of this.

Sometimes even deleting old posts too.

Don't dilute the main announcement with a pre-announce.

Or equally obsessing over numbers that are largely unpredictable.

Post away. Anything above nothing is a bonus.

Case in point... followers..
X: 12K followers, Overnight: 11.9K

It really isn't healthy to be obsessing over numbers that fluctuate.

There comes a point in life where expectation just adds undue, unnecessary stress, to an oft-already stressful existence.

I woke up and this did indeed NOT do numbers. 🤫

Off to sleep now, if I wake up and this did numbers. 😅

For now I'm also good with the fact you're probably not going to see this post, because ultimately when it comes down to it; at the moment, hitting the demo and early access is where my focus needs to lie.

And looking at the before vs now screenshots, and playing the past vs present build.

It's clear I'm covering solid ground and strongly indicates this is a project I'm invested in. 😤

In the past I've definitely shared stuff too early into the process, to my detriment.

There's a minimum period with game dev (honeymoon phase) where you need to be sure it's a project you want to see through to the end.

This was key in my decision not to share much upto now.

Been extremely liberating NOT coding it in public.

It's also meant I've just been able to get on with it; albeit slowly in the background in my spare time, without all the additional pressures that come with it.

There's also definitely better timings to start showing stuff.

You can either take it personally, or you can lean into it and still continue to pursue your dreams.

TLDR: Whether you do or you don't, time still passes.