The Crimson Diamond Gazette #48
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
Disaster SquadCast episode
"Talking To Women About Videogames" podcast episode part 2 of 2
"Talking To Women About Videogames" podcast episode part 1 of 2
Joystick interview (in English)
Joystick interview (in Greek)
Plans of Adventure Game Devs in 2022 (timestamped link)
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
September 2022
Hello, dear readers! Happy September! Fall is nearly upon us in Ontario and the weather is cooling down fast. We've still been having some sunny, muggy days here and there. I must remember to savour them!
Developer update: Chapter 5, section 2 is complete! I'm testing it now, but will be moving onto developing section 3 soon! The good news is, some bits planned for section 3 worked their way into section 2, which means this last section should take a little less time. My goal is to finish chapter 5 completely by October. We shall see...
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Speedy Adventures (an adventure game speedrunning community!) selected The Crimson Diamond demo as their "short challenge" for the month of September! I've been curious about adventure game speedrunning for a while now, so it was a very pleasant surprise to learn that the TCD demo was chosen! To read the rules for the challenge, you can join the Speedy Adventures Discord community here. The details are in the pinned post under the "short-challenges" thread! You can also follow them on Twitter here!
I tried my hand at a bit of speedrunning, too! I had a lot of fun with it. Twitch chat was very helpful in suggesting possible run categories -- Here are timestamped examples of each kind of run I tried!
100% Completion Run 2:16:09
Any% Completion Run 1:49:95
Open All Doors, Cupboards, and Drawers Run 3:41:68 (I forgot to open both sets of double doors on the ground floor!)
Booze% Run (Nancy becomes inebriated) 0:52:11
All Objects Obtained Run 2:14:42
Shower% Run (Get shower scene ending) 0:45:96
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This didn't QUITE fit into the developer update... But there will be a Dido-cat painting in the lodge, in the next version of the demo and in the final game! Dido was our family's last cat, the sweetest tuxedo cat you ever could meet. The little cubes are Yahtzee dice, because Dido really liked sitting with us when we played Yahtzee and batting at them. My mom has been requesting a pattern for a Dido patchwork quilt for a while now. Once I had the gridded design, it was easy enough for me to start a cross-stitch version too!
Dido is also the star of the watercolour cards I paint for special occasions...
...And she's appeared in a game already! Dido's computer game debut was in Goloso Games' Inspector Waffles! I streamed the process of creating that piece of art, too!
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My Playdate has finally arrived! Hooray! I've had a developer's unit for a while now, but the Mirror app didn't work with that one. The Mirror app allows the user to play Playdate games on their desktop, which means they can be magnified for those who have issues with viewing the small screen; it's a wonderful accessibility feature! This feature also allows streamers to easily stream Playdate games, which I hope to do in the future!
Speaking of showing and streaming Playdate games: I still can't show Recommendation Dog!! (the Playdate game I art directed and made art for), unfortunately! It was produced by Sweet Baby Inc. in association with Panic. When it's released I'll be sure to let everyone know!
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More fun Twitch emotes! Now that the "fish into bucket" animation has been completed, I've created a few fish emotes -- Including an animated one!
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I'm continuing to update the introductory sequence art for The Crimson Diamond on my Tuesday 8pm art streams. I'm making a simple fish-gutting (not too graphic) scene right now, which isn't nearly as detailed as the fish-into-bucket. It's a welcome change of pace!
Here are the art streams I've done since the last gazette: August 16, August 23, August 30, September 7!
Here's the completed fish for the "fish into bucket animation"!
And here's the work-in-progress of the fish gutting animation! Thanks very much to the donor of a remarkable reference photo, it's incredibly helpful (and no real fish involved. It was stuffed fish cat toy!).
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Dan is back in town and ready to stream! We did a "Dan's back" stream, in which Dan gives us an update on what he's been up to -- But it didn't make it into this issue of the gazette, unfortunately! Next time!
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I finished Rise of the Dragon (EGA)! There was not one, but TWO arcade sequences to battle through, both with tricky (verging on unfair) bits! But thanks to the helpful folks in chat, I prevailed! BUT I didn't save Karyn -- So I'll be playing one more time! After that... I have more EGA adventure game plans! I can't wait to show what's in store next!
Here is the Rise of the Dragon Let's Play playlist so far.
My completed Let's Plays:
Personal Nightmare (Horrorsoft 1989) playlist
Last Half of Darkness (Softlab Software Laboratories 1989) playlist
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (LucasArts 1989) playlist
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There's Crimson Diamond merch in my Society 6 store! There is other fun stuff on there (besides buckets), including Nancy walk cycle graphics and The Crimson Diamond logos!
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CRAFT CORNER
I finished the cross-stitch portrait of Kimi Kishiro, avid birder and pal of Nancy Maple! I'm currently working on the little Dido cross-stitch, but after that I'm thinking of tackling one of the Crimson Lodge rooms. We shall see!
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MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION
DID YOU KNOW: Identifying rocks can be fun! No matter if it's quartz, glass, or anything else, finding pretty things on the shore is enjoyable and relaxing. For example, I found this piece of quartz (top, centre) on one of my walks along the Lake Ontario shoreline, sanded and polished it, buffed it with renaissance wax, and wire-wrapped it into a pendant. Pictured are some other bits of quartz(?) I found on the same outing (top and bottom left), some lake glass I also found (bottom middle and bottom right), AND a bit of comfirmed rose quartz from my collection.
I'm not 100% sure that the pendant is quartz. But I've made that conclusion based on the following:
- the other probable quartz bits easily scratch the lake glass. Quartz is harder than glass!
- I have difficulty scratching the lake glass with the pendant, BUT the polished rose quartz has difficulty scratching the lake glass, possibly because it's been polished very smooth. I should've performed the scratch before I'd polished and waxed it!
- the potential quartz is thicker than the lake glass. Most lake glass is fairly thin, unless it comes from the bottom of a bottle or similar.
-the inclusions (coloured imperfections) in the potential quartz look very much like the inclusions that can be seen in the probable quartzes.
- sometimes glass has spherical air bubbles in it. I used my handy-dandy loupe and didn't find any air bubbles.
My conclusion: The pendant is quartz, but I'm happy to be proven wrong! I'm still learning how to identify rocks!
Left: My first attempt at wire wrapping. Right: My much more successful second attempt!
Here are the photos of the quartz as I found it on the lake shore (front and back), and after the sanding, polishing, and buffing with renaissance wax. Renaissance wax is a microcrystalline wax polish used by museums to preserve and enhance many surfaces, including wood, metal, and gemstones. We don't get much quartz on the Lake Ontario shores, so to find one that was already so smooth and symmetrical and a perfect size for jewellry was a real treat!
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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 September!
-- JM