Hello, dear readers -- Happy February! We've had record-breaking snowfall here in Ontario. It's been a colder, snowier winter than we've had in years. I'm not a fan!

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I AM a big fan of Strange Scaffold. I love the art I've contributed to their games. The latest is Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator, which launched January 29. I created the pixel portraits!

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator screenshot 1

Polygon wrote about it, so did Silconera and Aftermath. And many more!

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator screenshot 2

Vancouver-based Twitch streamer Northernlion played the game and seemed to enjoy it, too!

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator screenshot 3

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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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Last year I was fortunate enough to attend the Polaris Game Design Retreat.

Polaris is a think-tanky conference that invites game designers to meet and discuss different aspects of games, write papers, and share those papers with the rest of the industry.

I contributed to a paper called "Rewriting the player contract: Legibility and trust in game development". It deals with developer promises and player expectations, and how to navigate those things. You can read it here.

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More good news! "Chance's Lucky Escape", the Playdate Season 2 game I made with Goloso Games and Philip Aldous, was nominated for a 2025 Playdate Community Award! It's so nice to be recognized by the wonderful Playdate community. Congrats and good luck to all the nominees!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wasson Bluff work in progress image of an old house overlooking a lake

Slooooow progress is being made on this The Deadly Bluff: A Mini-Maple Mystery (working title) background. I did create a new, fun little system for this game...

Animated GIF of the new sketch system in Wasson Bluff

The player's character will be able to make sketches and show them to other characters! I'm not sure how much this will be used in such a small game, but I couldn't resist this visual gag of such a low-resolution face. :P

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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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VOD thumbnail from February

More streams! Slow art progress, getting better at DOS Double Dragon, a lot of progress in Karuizawa Yūkai Annai.

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

January 20th art stream, January 27th art stream, February 3rd art stream, February 10th art stream

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

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Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (MSX version 1986, Enix) progress! I'm very impressed with this game. What a strange story, but very compelling! I had a lot of trouble getting to this party (see above), but it's all good now.

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)

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Double Dragon DOS PC Big box, front

I've been playing (and finishing!) the DOS port of Double Dragon on my stream for many weeks now. I just enjoy it so much. I was shocked to see the big box on eBay for $25-30 USD! I couldn't resist grabbing it. It's such a treasure to me. I must admit, pulling the box out of the envelope and seeing that box art in real life blew my mind. I'd seen it so many times as a low-res digital image, and here it was in my hands.

Double Dragon DOS PC Big box, back

Double Dragon DOS PC Big box, contents

Double Dragon DOS PC Big box, manual interior

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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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A hefty baroque pearl set in silver

This baroque pearl and sterling silver pendant is from argenttonic.com

MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION

DID YOU KNOW: Pearls can come from freshwater or salt water organisms, and have been cultured since 960 AD (in ancient China during the Song Dynasty). In those days, small Buddha figurines made of lead would be inserted into freshwater clams and become coated with nacre over time. The process for producing modern cultured pearls was patented by Kokuchi Mikimoto in 1916. Nowadays, 99% of pearls sold are cultured, and can come in a rainbow of colours and shapes.

Baroque pearls are irregularly shaped, often cultured freshwater pearls. Most cultured freshwater pearls develop into baroque pearls, making them an economical way to own a spectacular specimen!

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Denarius Avaricius Sextus Cross-stitch complete!

CRAFT CORNER

Here's the secret cross-stitch project I've been working on for months! It's artwork from Denarius Avaricius Sextus, a text parser EGA adventure game that I streamed. Developer Marnanel Thurman joined me for commentary and to tell fascinating stories about her life. I had such a lovely time during those streams that I wanted to thank Marnanel for her time and company. Once my mom has completed this quilted border, I'll be mailing this over to her.

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 February!

-- JM