The Crimson Diamond Gazette #38
Welcome to the latest issue! News and fun facts inside!
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Find game bugs? feedback@thecrimsondiamond.com
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MEDIA
IGDA Twin Cities Talk: "The Practical Magic of Pixel Art"
Steam Next Fest (Oct 2021) Developer's Let's Play of The Crimson Diamond Demo
Interviews from the Multiverse: Julia Minamata
Lockdown Con II "The Indie Games Revolution" Panel (first panel of the day)
WIRED.com's Geek's Guide to the Galaxy
Pixelles BIPOC Creator Program grant recipient
usesthis interview (interview about my hardware and software set-up)
8-bit Ninja interview about The Crimson Diamond (in German)
CAAD52 magazine article about The Crimson Diamond (in Spanish)
Cabel Sasser's Photoshop Revelation clip
HomeTeam GameDev Podcast -- Guest Julia Minamata
CityNews - Canada Showcased Through Video Games
CBC Thunder Bay - Superior Morning Radio Interview
PAX East 2020 "What's Next for Adventure Games" Panel
Adventure Games Podcast episode
Classic Adventurer, Issue 07 -- Featured
Adventure Gamers AdventureX Round-up, part II
Adventure Gamers Announcement Article
Adventure Corner Article (German)
The CGG Podcast: # 44 Third appearance, updates since April 2019!
The CGG Podcast: #20 The Crimson Diamond updates & The Colonel's Bequest
The CGG Podcast: #1 Episode featuring me discussing The Crimson Diamond
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CLASSIC GAMER? JOIN CLASSIC GAMERS!
I help admin a thriving classic gaming community called the Classic Gamers Guild on Facebook. We host plenty of events during the week, as well as contests and a bunch of other great stuff. We even have a podcast and I was the first guest!
To view this issue in browser, click here
Click here for the entire DevBlog
Editor: Julia Minamata - julia@thecrimsondiamond.com
November 2021
Hello, dear readers! Happy November! The leaves in Ontario are showing their lovely fall colours! Some days are golden and glorious, some are cool and drizzly. Both are preferable to the looming winter weather. I hope you're cozy and comfortable wherever you may be!
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The holiday season is upon us! That means my $5-tier Patreons will be receiving a 2021 holiday card in the mail! Anyone at that tier by the time I get my mailing out will be eligible for a card, and new patrons to that tier will receive the following bonuses: Last year's card, a postcard version of last year's card, a Crimson Diamond sticker, and BOTH Crimson Diamond postcards (daytime and nighttime versions!). The 2021 card will have a handwritten greeting inside, and everything will be signed (except for the sticker :P ). Click here to visit my Patreon page!
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A bit of fun development news! I overhauled the text-based inventory window to be more user friendly. That, plus revamped save/load menus and in-game notebook, mean that it's now easier to play The Crimson Diamond with mostly the keyboard!
Text-based inventory:
And here's the (default) graphical inventory!
This overhaul (and some more design improvements) are not available in the current version of the game demo, but will be in the next one!
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I did a talk called "The Practical Magic of Pixel Art" for IGDA Twin Cities back in October! It didn't make it into the October gazette, so here it is now! And here's the description:
The Practical Magic of Pixel Art: Pixel art is sometimes seen as nostalgic, a visual throwback to a time when technological limitations dictated game aesthetics. But thanks to hosts of artists and indie game developers, it’s never been more popular and celebrated! Low-resolution, limited palette pixel art may seem restrictive, but its constraints can be efficient, approachable, and creatively liberating. In this talk we’ll cover a (very) brief history of pixel art and its predecessors, tips and tricks for effective and beautiful pixel art, and examples from the past, present and future!
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Happy Belated Hallowe'en! I had fun creating a quick, no-cost Princess Leia costume with accompanying green screen background! I managed to make little Leia buns with my hair and wore a backwards Puma short-sleeve warm-up jacket that had the right look! Dan wore a LucasArts jacket he bought, which had the name "Arta" stitched in the front. I can't resist having a bit of fun during the spooky season :P.
Here's the back of my costume :D.
Dan composed something really cool for our special Hallowe'en stream! I have a spooky animated clip I made with Adventure Game Studio and The Crimson Diamond assets,and I asked Dan to create a track to accompany it. Usually the music he composes for the game has to be somewhat flexible (and usually looping) to accommodate time for player input. But this animated clip had very specific, baked-in timing, which meant he could approach it more like scoring for a movie or tv show. Here's a link to the stream! Follow Dan on Twitch at DanTheBandMusic to watch him compose tracks from beginning to end!
I started a new bit of pixel art on the art streams! I'm pretty happy with how this nighttime animation turned out:
Click here to see a bigger version!
The new pixel art piece features the same fisherman, but he's catching the fish that he is later seen gutting at the campfire. Progress is going well!
All art and music streams happen on Twitch on Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern, either on a_maplemystery (art) or danthebandmusic (music). Hope to see you there!
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I've started my first Let's Play! GOG had Horror Soft's "Personal Nightmare" on sale for $1.89 CAD (no longer on sale as of this e-publication date). Inspired by the spooky season (and the sale price!) I decided to give it a try! It's a gorgeous EGA horror game that has a text parser AND LucasArts-style SCUMM bar interface. I'm streaming directly from a walkthrough, as the game is punishingly difficult. I'm mostly playing to appreciate the gorgeous art!
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CRAFT CORNER
I've completed my Margot cross-stitch! I'm pleased with my renditon of the EGA palette into embroidery thread, though I'll have to do more portraits to see if the other colours work together equally as well.
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MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION
DID YOU KNOW: Quartz has many faces (and I'm not just talking about the 18 faceted faces of "Herkimer Diamonds")! So many of my favourite semi-precious stones are quartz by other names, and I didn't realize it! Carnelian, tigerseye, amethyst and agate are all quartz, and are all present in my rock collection (see above photo)! I did a little rock talk about quartz during an art livestream, here's a timestamped link!
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INTERESTED IN SUPPORTING THE CRIMSON DIAMOND?
Check the sidebar for links to my Patreon and PayPal! Or visit The Crimson Diamond's Steam page follow the game, and add it to your wishlist! There's a FREE playable demo too, for Windows PC and Mac! <3
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Thanks for reading! Happy November!
-- JM