Hello, dear readers -- Happy November! The days are getting shorter and greyer, but there are still occasional pops of colour before winter truly begins.

I'm still seeing mushrooms in the local parks but I don't think the colder nights (or frost) agree with them.

Mushrooms that look like frosted flakes

I have no idea what this is but it reminds me of frosted flakes.

Mushroom photo I took in a park

These are Turkey tail mushrooms (at least, I think they are). I like how these ones are growing on this knobby bit of tree.

Ontario in autumn, photo taken by me

As I write this, we've had our first snow in Ontario. And it was a big one! I'm hoping it won't stick around and that there might be still a few weeks to enjoy the golden leaves.

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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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Cafe interior work in progress

Here's a work-in-progress image of my first building interior for my Mini-Maple Mystery. I'm really enjoying this process, although sometimes Aseprite still throws me for a loop!

I've reviewed and revised the design doc and I'm pretty pleased with it now. I've started up Adventure Game Studio again and have started to work on my game template. I'm excited.

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My tiny Over the Garden Wall fan game is now available to play for FREE on my itch.io page (playable in-browser)! I'm so excited to be able to finally share this. It was commissioned by Requiem Cafe in Anaheim, California. Not only that, they connected me with the creator of the show, Patrick McHale.

Patrick in turn got Levon Jihanian (a background painter who worked on the show), The Blasting Company (the musicians who composed the score for the show), AND Elijah Wood himself, reprising the role of Wirt! To not only create a game based on a show I love, but to actually work with people who made the show, was a dream come true. <3

Other folks also worked on it: Ilya Schwarz made the sprites and animated them, Clickpulp helped with technical issues, and Francisco González processed the voice lines.

A preliminary sketch of the game's layout, by me

Here's my layout sketch for the game. Levon did a great job taking stuff like this and painting gorgeous backgrounds. I wrote, designed, and programmed the game, but didn't do much art for it. I DID create the carved wooden frame, the action icons, and the launch screen (see below and the first Over the Garden Wall game image):

tiny Over the Garden Wall in itch.io

My tiny Over the Garden Wall fan game, set up at Requiem Cafe

A friend made it to Requiem Cafe's Over the Garden Wall Hallowe'en event and was kind enough to share these photos!

The Over the Garden Wall event at Requiem Cafe

Requiem Cafe Over the Garden Wall event

The cafe also had merch on sale, including this mousepad featuring Levon's artwork of Wirt's room that appears in game! You can buy it here, while supplies last.

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Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator screenshot

I happy to share another Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator screenshot. Some new little pixel art portraits that I made are featured here, which is lovely to see (the portrait in the bottom left, and the four portraits in the bottom middle).

The below exchange was shared on Bluesky by the Strange Scaffold account, to show how our collaboration works:

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator process 1

Often the art is approved at first submission, but sometimes we need to work together to arrive at what's needed. It's all part of the process!

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator process 2

There was an in-between message I think, where Xalavier requested a ruthless space crab:

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator process 3

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Ars Technica (writer: Samuel Axon) has this excellent article about The Colonel's Bequest and The Crimson Diamond is mentioned --Thanks, Samuel!

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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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Skrolli magazine The Crimson Diamond review

The Crimson Diamond was reviewed in Finnish gaming magazine Skrolli. It's amazing to me that The Crimson Diamond has reached all over the world.

Skrolli magazine cover

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Lion's Mane mushrooms I grew from a kit!

The Lion's Man mushrooms are so weird and wonderful. I grew these from a different kit from a different farmer's market than the blue oyster mushrooms.

Lion's Mane mushroom cross-section

The instructions said to harvest them once they start to yellow on top. I think they're incredibly beautiful.

Lion's Mane mushroom cooking

They browned nicely when I sauteed them and had a lovely meaty texture :).

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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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Here's my Hallowe'en stream costume. I dressed as Miss Scarlett from the 1986 Parker Brothers version of Clue, which was I grew up with. It was very influential on the design of the Crimson Lodge (check out that yellow and green tiled floor of the conservatory in the bottom left of the image, the conservatory in the lodge has the same floor)!

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

October 14th art stream, October 21st art stream, October 28th Hallowe'en art stream, November 5th art stream

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

Miss Scarlett card from the 1986 Parker Brothers version

Here's the card I based my costume on, although I did look at all of the Miss Scarletts / Miss Scarlets across the versions of Clue, which was really interesting!

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The Twilight Zone game COMPLETED!

I finished The Twilight Zone (Gigabit Systems, Inc., 1988). I nearly didn't and I wouldn't have, if not for the help of retro Twitch streamer sonneveld. There was an issue of a missing resource file on a disk that sonneveld fixed for me. Thank you sonneveld! The retro gaming Twitch community is the best.

Here's the playlist for the entire The Twilight Zone Let's Play.

I started a new Let's Play: Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (MSX version 1986, Enix). The second mystery game designed by Yuji Horii. I enjoyed Portopia but there was a bit of a learning curve for me (besides the fact that it's in Japanese). KYA is similarly designed so I was able to get comfortable with it fairly quickly.

Here's the playlist so far.

Karuizawa Yūkai Annai screenshot

Look at how cute this is <3. And you can name the protagonist whatever you want! I named him "Julia Minamata" :D.

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)

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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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MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION (METAL, this time!)

DID YOU KNOW: Japan was once one of the world's leading producers of copper, and maintained that status for nearly two hundred years! This was thanks to the Besshi Copper mine which was established around a visible copper vein at Besshiyama, first discovered in 1690. Sumitomo (a company that was founded in 17th centure Kyoto) developed the mine and recruited workers. The shape of this lovely bit of copper is the Sumitomo Group logo.

Besshi Copper mine closed in 1973. The mine facilities and smelter are now preserved, testament to a long and remarkable history.

I came by this at a flea market in northern Ontario. It caught my eye and I photographed it on my phone, but I didn't buy it. When I got back home I looked it up on the internet and became fascinated. My awesome retro gaming Twitch streamer friend hungrygoriya went back and picked it up for me and I was able to get it from her the next time I visited. I will say it again: The retro gaming Twitch community is the best.

Which reminds me: DOSember is coming soon. If you stream on Twitch and think DOS games are cool, join in! Check out the site to find out how.

More photos of the Sumitomo copper below:

Sumitomo copper piece in box with writing under the lid showing

Sumitomo copper piece with underside showing

Sumitomo copper piece with box, lid writing showing

Sumitomo copper piece, held in my hand for scale

Sumitomo logo on a car tire

Sumitomo isn't just into mining. Check out this logo on hungrygoriya's husband's car tire :D.

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TCD logo cross-stitch progress

CRAFT CORNER

No update on The Crimson Diamond cross-stitch -- I'm working on a secret one that I'll share when complete!

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 November :D.

-- JM