Hello, dear readers -- Happy August! My mom's morning glories are so glorious. It's been a bit of a mixed bag weather-wise, with spells of heat and then sudden heavy thunderstorms that bring welcome respite from the mugginess.

Another year has passed since The Crimson Diamond launched, back in 2024. What a ride it's been! To celebrate, I've prepared a few things:

The Crimson Diamond key art, 2nd year anniversary promo

The Crimson Diamond has been updated! Minor bug fixes, Nancy can now ask Kimi about ducks, and a few other small things. Patch notes will be at the end of this announcement (warning: spoilers!).

The Crimson Diamond is on its steepest discount EVER: 30% off! This sale will last for two weeks! The Crimson Diamond soundtrack is on sale, too!
The Crimson Diamond commemorative game manual is available for pre-order! This is an actual full colour printed manual, hand-signed, with character bios, maps, and STICKERS. I will ship it anywhere in the world. It costs $12 USD (before shipping costs and taxes). The pre-order ends on September 15, 2026.
The Crimson Diamond big box edition is in the works! I'm still figuring out the details, but it'll likely be ready by the end of the year. It will cost between $35-45 USD (before shipping costs and taxes) and will include the game manual!

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Deadly Bluff work in progress game art of a house exterior

Developer update: Work on The Deadly Bluff (working title) continues. I'm enjoying the double-wide pixels very much. I've completed six backgrounds on stream so far, nearly halfway finished with the background art! This will be a much smaller game than The Crimson Diamond. I'm excited to share it with you.

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I spoke to Kelsey Coffman of GG Women Professionals about The Crimson Diamond! GGWP hosts game dev conversations over on their Twitch channel, check them out here.

I got acquainted with Kelsey via the She Built This: Game Jam, which was hosted by GGWP, Glitched: Women in Game Dev, and Women in Games NYC. I played some of the games on a recent stream, you can find that here.

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The Crimson Diamond key art

The Crimson Diamond is the cozy mystery adventure game I made, and it's sold on Steam, itchio, 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 positive review), it's incredibly helpful for visibility on the store. But please choose whichever option is best for you.

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I had a wonderful conversation with Jonny of indie game garden about The Crimson Diamond -- Here's the transistor.fm link and here's the Youtube link!

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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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Screenshot of my livestream

Streaming continues! Pixel art and pixel games.

I've started playing Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin and very much enjoying it so far!

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

July 14th art stream, Best of Nintendon't 9: Earthrise, July 21st art stream, July 28th art stream, August 4th art stream.

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

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Let's Play Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin! This game continues to beguile me with its gorgeous art and story twists.

Here's the playlist so far.

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)

The Twilight Zone (Gigabit Systems Inc., 1988)

Heart of China (Dynamix, 1991)

Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (Enix, 1986)

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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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Photo of nickel by By Alchemist-hp (talk) (www.pse-mendelejew.de) - Own work, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11536245

Photo from Wikipedia, July 2026, contributed by Alchemist-hp (talk) (www.pse-mendelejew.de)

MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION

DID YOU KNOW: Canada is about to open one of the world's largest nickel mine in Timmins, Ontario! According to this CTV news article, this project is being developed in collaboration with Mattagami First Nation and the northern Ontario community. Nickel is an essential mineral in green energy, and Timmins is estimated to have 4 billion tonnes of it. Hopefully this project will greatly benefit the area and the country at large, while being managed responsibly.

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The Crimson Diamond speech portraits cross-stitched and rearranged

CRAFT CORNER

I've arranged the speech portrait cross-stitches into a 3x4 grid, which will then be reconnected with some fabric borders by my amazing mom. I can't wait to share the finished result!

Here are the DMC Embroidery floss colours I used for this project:

EGA DMC embroidery floss colours

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Holiday card 2025 process 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 August!

-- JM