Unable to deploy single SSIS package into SSISDB when referencing parameters

I'm attempting to deploy a single package into an Integration Services Catalog using the project deployment model in SQL 2016. This however is giving me some grief, as I've configured environmental variables, and am referencing these in project variables. It seems the package requires the project to be able to validate its' variables. Any thoughts on if this is possible? It is looking tougher to control promotions to Production when we have to deploy every package on every occasion.