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!

To view this issue in browser, click here

Click here for the entire DevBlog

Editor: Julia Minamata - julia@thecrimsondiamond.com

WWW.THECRIMSONDIAMOND.COM

December 2024

December park photo

Hello, dear readers -- It's December! Already? The year has flown by. Thanks for reading the gazette. 2024 will always be a very special year for me, the year The Crimson Diamond finally launched.

Buy The Crimson Diamond on Steam (For PC and Mac).

It's also on itchio and GOG and FireFlower Games.

If you enjoy the game, please leave a review on Steam! It helps so much to increase its visibility on the Steam store.

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The holiday season is upon us. That means my $5-tier Patreon patrons will be getting their annual holiday card. Plus a BONUS: My mom's thumbprint cookie recipe, which she bakes every year! The cookies in the above image are from the 2024 batch. Check out my Patreon page here. This offer is good until I actually send the holiday cards out, which typically happens some time in the new year. :P

Mom-baked thumbprint cookies

My mom's cookies are the reason why thumbprint cookies are so prominently featured in The Crimson Diamond <3.

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Here's my Twitch recap. Streaming continues to be one of my favourite things to do online. I've really enjoyed hanging out in other retro Twitch streams and making friends. Follow my Twitch channel by clicking this link.

Speaking of which, I'm so excited to be participating in DOSember this year! I posted a highly unimpressive score of 99 in Pizza Worm, heh. Check out this awesome DOSember merch (designed by super streamer FractalMindMike), over on the DOSember site. Proceeds go to a worthy cause in the Twitch retro community.

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I was totally flabbergasted when Polygon included The Crimson Diamond in their year-end roundup of their article "The 50 Best Video Games of 2024". Thanks so, so much, Nicole Carpenter.

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Speaking of incredible mentions: IGN wrote this article (and made a video version!) about indie games and indie devs, and mentioned me and The Crimson Diamond!

I feel very fortunate and happy and proud. :)

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IGA nomination in the Women Led Games category

Another 2024 highlight: I was nominated for The Indie Game Awards in their Women-Led Game category.

An extremely strong field of nominees. I feel very lucky just to be included!

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TheGamer included The Crimson Diamond in their "Game of the Year Editor's Pick, 2024", in the #8 spot. Hooray! Thanks so much.

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WayTooMany Games reviewed The Crimson Diamond. Thank you, Oliver Shellding.

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Jayden over at Ensemble interviewed me about The Crimson Diamond. We talked in-depth about pixels, game design, and community. Read here.

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Zerael at La Ciudad Olvidada reviewed The Crimson Diamond. This one's in Spanish but it's translatable with Google. Thanks so much for reviewing.

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The Games Machine is an Italian language publication that also reviewed The Crimson Diamond. Read the review here. I think it's really cool when non-English outlets cover my game!

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The Crimson Diamond, spotted in the wild on a Torontron! Thanks very much to Scarborough Spots at Eglinton Square mall for hosting it.

Scarborough Spots store

The store looks amazing. They made it look like the outside of a Toronto subway station.

And so much incredible merch. They gifted me this retro Scarborough design t-shirt <3. Here it is on their site.

They also gave me this AWESOME beanie. I don't see it on their site any more, but they still have some merch with this design here.

Cam at Scarborough Spots made this fun little clip of me talking about my game in-store :D.

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Thanks to the Hand Eye Society, I got to show The Crimson Diamond at the Mississauga Comic Expo. It had been a looong time since I've brought out the ol' retractable banner. I got to debut my mom's Nancy Maple patchwork, too!

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It's the most wonderful time of the year: KRULLCEMBER. Check out this art by Matt, of each of us as a Krull character. So good. Here's the full Krullcember/Krulltember playlist.

Our latest Krullcember episode was the greatest Krullmas gift of all: Luke, Matt, and Alex reconsidered and redesigned the hideous cyclops Rell so that he'd be easier for me to look at. I feel so loved. :)

It was a rare on-camera episode of the Level 0 NPCs, which we spontaneously decided to do. We're still planning a Police Navidad livestream and then it's back to The Crimson Diamond in the new year.

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Shadow Knights end screen

I'm very proud to report that, at long last, I've finished Shadow Knights (id software, 1990). It's a game I remembered fondly as a kid, which made this accomplishment especially significant for me.

Shadow Knight dying gif Shadow Knight poof gif Shadow Knight ball gif

I made these Shadow Knight animated GIFs while I was working up to completing the game. They're also subscriber emotes on my Twitch channel.

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Another DOSember miracle: I finished episode 3 of Bio Menace. Such a good game. And all 3 episodes are free on GOG.

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

November 19th Marnanel Thurman guest stream, November 26th art stream, December 3rd DOSember stream, December 10th DOSember stream.

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

I hope to have Marnanel back on in the new year for more chatting and finishing Lord Avalot d'Argent!

You can follow her on Mastodon and Blue Sky. Here's Marnanel's website.

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)

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Image from the Globe and Mail article. Read here.

MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION

DID YOU KNOW: Timmins, Ontario contains the world's second largest reserve of nickel in the world. A mine (the Crawford cobalt nickel project) is being developed in the area, and significantly an Ontario First Nation will be very involved in the process:

"Taykwa Tagamou Nation, a Cree First Nation in the Cochrane district of Northern Ontario, is paying $20-million to buy convertible notes in Canada Nickel... The First Nation will also earn a seat on Canada Nickel’s board. That will give the community an important voice around the development of the project over the next few years with the environmental footprint of Crawford top-of-mind."

Click here to read the full article.

One thing I learned during my research into The Crimson Diamond was how rich in natural resources, particularly minerals, Canada is compared to many other countries. My hope is that these businesses can be conducted ethically and sustainably -- And knowing that Taykwa Tagamou Nation, in this case, will have the opportunity to not only profit more than other First Nations have in the past from venture like these, but more importantly will have a seat at the decision-making table, gives me some optimism about the future.

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December cross-stitching progress

CRAFT CORNER

Albert Respa has now been captured in cross-stitches! Next is Nathan Cardinal. Already a good amount of progress on this one.

Here are the DMC embroidery floss colours I use for the EGA palette:

EGA DMC embroidery floss colours

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2023 holiday card design

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 itchio and FireFlower Games.

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Thanks for reading. Happy December, and Happy Holidays!

-- JM