The Crimson Diamond Gazette #56
Welcome to the latest issue! News and fun facts inside!
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Find game bugs? feedback@thecrimsondiamond.com
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Donate on PayPal!
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MEDIA
FMM Live: Discussion with Julia Minamata Dev of The Crimson Diamond
2D Game Art Tips for Solo or Small Teams -- Pre-recorded panel
Scene World Podcast #160 - The Crimson Diamond with Julia Minamata
vicek83's "Plans for Adventure Game Developers for 2023" (guest spot)
Exposing Decades-old Secrets of The Colonel's Bequest (guest spot)
Adventure Game Hotspot Streaming Event Guest Spot #1
Adventure Game Hotspot Streaming Event Guest Spot #2
Current "The Crimson Diamond Demo" Speedrun World Records
The Crimson Diamond on Speedruns.com
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 part of 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!
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Editor: Julia Minamata - julia@thecrimsondiamond.com
May 2023
Hello, dear readers! Happy May! The first half of the month was drizzly and cool, but the second half has turned around and delivered some gorgeous weather. Birdwatching has begun again in earnest, as May sees migrating songbirds and shorebirds travelling through Ontario. It's an exciting time, you never know what you'll see!
This year we saw pair of American Bitterns, which my mom has only seen one other time in her fourteen years as a birder (it's the large bird illustrated above). We also saw two Piping Plovers, which is an endangered species. Not to mention a cavalcade warblers: Yellow Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chestnut-side Warblers, Black-and-white Warblers, Cape May Warblers, and more! Also stunning Scarlet Tanagers, which are also depicted in the above card. Happy Mother's Day!
Developer update: The second new room of chapter 6 is nearly complete! I'm finishing up the assets, then the usual testing and polish. For this room I had to take some time to figure out HOW I wanted to make and execute it, as it's a bit different from the usual. But that's part of the fun!
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The EGA Bucket has come to life! Here's the AdventureGameGeek showing off his EGA Bucket bucket hat! The embroidered bucket looks lovely, considering I had to modify its design to work with six specific thread colours and not the glorious fifteen colours of the original Bucket.
AdventureGameGeek is a Youtuber and champion of adventure games, both new and old. His videos are definitely worth a watch. Check out his channel here! Follow him on Twitter here. The EGA Bucket hat co-stars in his latest video, about Fable (1996)!
The EGA Bucket bucket hat comes in khaki, grey, and black! Speaking of which, I've finally gotten around to ordering some samples from my Fourthwall Store (including a khaki bucket hat)! They should arrive in time for the June issue of the Crimson Gazette. I'll be sure to share them here!
I also have a merch store on Society6!
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Shout-out to my lovely Twitch viewers. Justajeffy took this amazing shot of his set-up on a Crimson C'Tuesday, and tweeted it. Nice big box collection, Justajeffy! Crimson C'Tuesdays happen every Tuesday at 8pm Eastern. A lovely bunch of folks come and hang out, join us!
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Last month I shared some of the illustrations I made for Francisco González's upcoming game, Rosewater! Here is the whole set. Rosewater is slated for a 2023 release; wishlist it here! It was such an incredible privilege to be invited to contribute art to one of Francisco's games. He's one of the reasons I get started making The Crimson Diamond, so this commission was a dream come true!
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A reminder that my Patreon tiers have changed! Now, all current patrons will have their names in the credits of The Crimson Diamond when it launches. The default is to have names included, and the name used will be the Patreon profile name. If you'd like to opt-out or use a different name, please message me on Patreon! Here's a link to my Patreon page.
I've also retired my $1 tier, but patrons on that tier will still get their name in the credits, and nothing changes for them! Retiring a tier just means no new patrons can join it.
A heartfelt thank you to all my Patreon supporters. <3
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Twitch streamer SenorJeffe1 played The Crimson Diamond demo! I love when streamers play the demo with their viewers. I learn so much from watching, and it always motivates me to work hard on my game! Thanks so much for playing, SenorJeffe1! You can check out the VOD here!
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Art streams continue! The Royal Canadian Museum's storage basement is filling up nicely, thanks to suggestions from Crimson C'Tuesday Twitch viewers. I'm having a lot of fun with adding little Easter eggs into this scene. What can you spot?
Here are the newest VODs, as of April's gazette!
April 18th art stream, April 25 art stream , May 2 art stream, and May 9 art stream!
Here's a close-up of the larger metal shelving! All done! Check out my weekly Twitch streams, which happen on Crimson C'Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern!
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Legend of the Sword (1988, Silicon Software) Let's Plays continue! This game is a real hidden gem, though I don't care for limited inventory or starving to death! I've started to consult a walkthrough to help me, so I'll be playing something new (old!) soon! If you want to try Legend of the Sword yourself, it's sold on GOG and Steam.
There doesn't seem to be any music accompanying Legend of the Sword, so I'm playing some epic, modern MIDIs during my sessions. I heard this most excellent playlist on FractalMindMike's channel, and he was kind enough to send me the files. It's meant to supplement the tracks for the game "Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders", composed in the style of the original music (by Kevin Schilder). The music was created by a collective called Doomworld. It was released in 2020! Modern retro is near and dear to my heart of course. If you're interested in the music and in Doomworld, check out these links: https://www.jamespaddockmusic.com and http://jimmy.the-powerhouse.net/WAD.
If you want to check out my chat with FractalMindMike on his channel, you can find it here!
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
Rise of the Dragon Let's Play (Dynamix, 1990) playlist
The Sorceror's Appraisal (Yahtzee Croshaw, 2002)
Mortville Manor (Lankhor, 1987)
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CRAFT CORNER
The end is in sight! I'm dithering the back wall on the right side currently. I'm still saving that painting in the middle for last! Maybe I'll have it all finished for June's gazette... We shall see!
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MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION
DID YOU KNOW: The shores of Lake Ontario are full of a wide variety of fossils! I didn't realize this until I shifted my focus from finding quartz or garnets, or shiny rocks of unusual colours. I started looking at what was IN the rocks, and I was very surprised by what I saw! When I take my mom birdwatching, we often end up on the lake shore. It's a wonderful opportunity for me to poke around and see what I can see. I'd been ignoring plain, grey rocks as not being interesting, but as it turns out -- Those are the ones that tend to contain fossils! Lesson learned!
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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 May!
-- JM