“I lost my shoe at the party! Which isn’t hard to do in a sea of almost a thousand people. Fortunately, the next day, it was magically waiting for me at reception,” said Tech Producer, Martyna Lipińska, offering just one appropriate summary of our holiday fun.

The holiday bash that took place at the end of December quickly solidified its place as one of the most epic events in CD PROJEKT RED history (at least, according to those who managed to remember anything from that night).

Nothing could spoil the mood — the dance floor was as full as our stomachs and, somewhat surprisingly, took no victims that night. Perhaps that’s because all the thrill-seekers were busy riding valiant steeds on the merry-go-round, glass in hand, snot-freezing cold be damned! #OnwardRoach.

“In my 11 years with CDP, hands down and around, that was the best party to date. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing. And we should just buy that merry-go-round, and park it in the corner of our lot right next to the back-up power generator,” said Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz, English Adaptation Director.

The speech delivered by John Mamais, Head of the Krakow Studio, was as sharp as the party was entertaining. With an unwavering straight face, he mercilessly roasted directors, producers, and management alike.

“Don’t take yourselves so seriously, guys!”, he cried as the crowd picked their jaws up from the floor.

Agnieszka Szamałek-Michalska and Kasia Rybnik — organizers of the entire event — became convinced that we’re not only rebels by name, but by choice.

And yet, the fun of CD PROJEKT RED was not limited to dancing, revelry, and other alcohol-fueled antics:

“During the party, there were also mini workshops where we made over 600 chocolate truffles, hundreds of ornaments and gingerbread houses, and more than 150 holiday wreaths. I love putting together parties for RED,” Agnieszka recalled after the event.

You can add to these figures the number of times we listened to Last Christmas: zero. And the number of people who have memorized the choreography to Single Ladies: too many.

The heartiest party-goers stayed until four in the morning when the staff “delicately” signalled that the party had reached its end. Though, that’s hardly surprising — we had something to celebrate, another year of work under our belts. To commemorate time invested, our colleagues with 5, 10, and 15 years experience with the studio (indeed, such veterans walk among us!) not only received a firm high five from everyone there, but were also rewarded with a treasure chest of their own. One among them was Jędrzej Mróz, Senior Producer and QA Manager, who has come a long way with us:

“10 years is a long time — a lot of memories, experiences, changes, huge amounts of sweat and tears, but, above all, moments of pride and satisfaction from what we have created together. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. This past decade at RED has been, for me, a return to my roots in QA, where I got my start and of which I am incredibly proud, because it’s one of the best QA teams in gamedev. Another 10 years at RED? I can’t wait to see what we accomplish!”

Half of the studio took the next day off. The other half, despite coming into the studio, worked primarily on maintaining some semblance of focus. However, we’ve since gotten back in touch with reality and have a ton of ideas and work ahead of us. The holiday party gave us a kick in the arse to move forward with rejuvenated momentum and to embrace new challenges. It was a good year, but we’re sure the next will be even better. You can see for yourself. 😉