Hello, dear readers -- Happy October! The lovely autumn weather continues, and so do the wonderful mushrooms. I bought a kit at a farmer's market and grew some delicious blue oyster mushroom. Read on to see!

But first: Here are some mushroom photos I took over the past month here in Ontario... (Note: I'm not a mushroom expert and can't definitively identify mushrooms. These are my best guesses):

Dead Man's Fingers

Bonnet mushrooms?

Northern Tooth Fungus?

Giant Puffball

Chicken of the Woods

Last of the monarch butterflies my mom raised

Bonus Monarch butterfly. One of the last of the cohort my mom raised this year. 20 in total for 2025 :).

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The Crimson Diamond key art

The Crimson Diamond is sold on Steam. It's also on itchio and GOG and FireFlower Games. Sometimes people ask me where the best place is to buy the game, to support me as an indie dev. Steam is best (especially if you also leave a review), it's incredibly helpful for visibility on the store. But please choose whichever option is best for you.

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Wasson' Bluff game backgroud, exterior of house

I'm continuing to slowly learn how to use Aseprite. Here's the second completed background for my Mini-Maple Mystery.

interior of the building for my Mini-Maple Mystery

I've started work on the interior of the building! Sierra On-Line's Gold Rush (1988) used larger characters for the interiors of buildings. I'm trying that out, too.

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Strange Scaffold posted this image on their Bluesky account recently. It's Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator, and it's coming out in 2026! I may or may not have contributed the pixel art ice cream cone alien in the bottom left, who was modelled after Michael Douglas in the movie Falling Down. :D

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At long last, the Adventure Game Geek has made his video about The Crimson Diamond! AGG has always been a supporter of me and my game. I'm very grateful. I even got to chat to him about it near the end of the video. Warning: The video contains spoilers for the game!

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I'm not sure when this happened, but The Crimson Diamond has a TV Tropes page (spoilers)! It's always so fun to discover stuff like this. Same as with its Wikipedia page!

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AdventureX 2025 will be happening soon! Artist Aviv Or created this AWESOME illustration for the event (Bluesky profile here). From left to right: Mick from The Drifter, Prim from Prim, Lola from Rosewater, Arthur from Loco Motive, and Duck Detective from Duck Detective.

Chance's Lucky Escape (by Goloso Games and me) is in the AdventureX showcase this year. Cotton Bureau has some great merch for it and other Playdate games, check it out here if you're interested in wearing something cool at the event! And here's the Catalog store page for the game.

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Speaking of finding The Crimson Diamond stuff on the internet: I found this lovely review on Gazettely that was written about a year ago. Thanks, Naser Nahandian!

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I'm kinda getting into this mushroom thing. I don't have the nerve to forage, but I happily grew blue oyster mushrooms from a kit from The Ugly Barn Farm. They grew amazingly fast, were easy to grow, and were delicious.

Blue oyster mushroom kit 2

Blue oyster mushroom kit 3

Blue oyster mushroom kit 3b

Blue oyster mushroom kit 4

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fourthwall store

If you'd like some awesome The Crimson Diamond stickers, hats, t-shirts and more, I have some fun stuff on my Fourthwall store. I particularly like the embroidered items, and they all ship and arrive quite quickly, no matter where you are in the world.

And if you're interested in setting up a Fourthwall store of your own, here's my referral link (I'd get $15 credit :D).
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VOD thumbnail for October

Livestream VOD round-up. All the streams since last gazette are here:

September 16th art stream, September 23rd art stream, September 30th art stream, October 7th art stream

Crimson C'Tuesday happens every Tuesday at 8pm Eastern on Twitch. Come and hang out.

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I've started a new Let's Play: The Twilight Zone (Gigabit Systems, Inc., 1988). It's an EGA text parser adventure game, so it's very much up my alley!

Here's the playlist.

Big box copy of The Twilight Zone that I acquired

I actually found the big box version of the game at a flea market for $20.10 CAD. Apparently this was the only game Gigabit Systems, Inc. produced and the only game that most of the credited people made. Except for the artist Patrick Moran, who also created a lot of excellent EGA art for Berenstain Bears games.

Big box of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade I acquired

Another game I picked up at the same flea market stall was this big box of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It's in excellent condition and I got it for $20.10 CAD too!

Small Toby creamer that I antiqued

He's not a big box, but this Small Toby creamer was also bought at a flea market. He was $10 CAD, a bargain for his lovely colours and devilish visage.

My completed Let's Plays:

Personal Nightmare (Horrorsoft 1989)

Last Half of Darkness (Softlab Software Laboratories 1989)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (LucasArts 1989)

Rise of the Dragon Let's Play (Dynamix, 1990)

The Sorceror's Appraisal (Yahtzee Croshaw, 2002)

Cruise for a Corpse (Delphine Software International, 1991)

Mortville Manor (Lankhor, 1987)

Legend of the Sword (Silicon Software, 1988)

Loom (Lucasfilm Games, 1990)

Altered Destiny (Accolade, 1990)

The Dark Convergence (Jeffrey Kintz, 1993)

The Dark Convergence 2 (Jeffrey Kintz, 1994)

High Seas Homicide (Sherwood Forest Software, 1993)

Denarius Avaricius Sextus (Thorsoft of Letchworth,1992)

Earthrise (Interstel, 1990)

Lord Avalot d'Argent (Thorsoft of Letchworth, 1995)

Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess (ERE Informatique, 1989)

Omnicron Conspiracy (First Star Software, 1989 / Streaksy, 2025)

Neuromancer -- UNFINISHED LP (Interplay, 1989)

Double Dragon EGA (Technos Japan, 1988)

Double Dragon CGA (Technos Japan, 1988)

Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Enix, 1985)

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Do you love it when people are wearing pants? You might enjoy Pantsmo's Pantaloon Adventure, a free, modded version of Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. eviltentacle is the mastermind of the project, with some assistance from me and Emmfoolery.

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meteorite with its fusion crust showing

MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION

DID YOU KNOW: Meteorites arrive on Earth with an eggshell-thin coating called a fusion crust, which is produced when the surface of the meteorite gets heated during its entry into our atmosphere. This photo is me holding a meteorite that's showing the fusion crust. I attended a workshop about meteorites at the Royal Ontario Museum. I learned a lot of fascinating things!

Guessing the meteorites

Part of the workshop was learning how to idenfity meteorites. The magnet in the bottom right is helpful because many (but not all) meteorites are a little magnetic (due to their iron-nickel content). They're also heavy for their size.

Pallasite meteorite

This is a slice of pallasite, the prettiest meteorite type. The gemmy bits are olivine crystals and the matrix is iron-nickel. This bit has been polished to showcase these lovely features.

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TCD logo cross-stitch progress

CRAFT CORNER

The Crimson Diamond logo is slowly but surely taking shape. I like the lighting in this photo because it shows the raised nature of the stitching. I don't use black embroidery floss for the black areas, despite the colour chart below.

EGA DMC embroidery floss colours

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Holiday card process animated GIF

INTERESTED IN SUPPORTING THE CRIMSON DIAMOND?

I have Patreon and PayPal. Or visit The Crimson Diamond's Steam page to purchase or follow the game. (Steam reviews are super helpful and appreciated!) It's also available on GOG, itchio and FireFlower Games.

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Thanks for reading. Happy October :D.

-- JM