The Crimson Diamond Gazette #68
Welcome to the latest issue! News and fun facts inside!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Find game bugs? feedback@thecrimsondiamond.com
---------------------------------------------
Donate on PayPal!
---------------------------------------------
MEDIA
Pixel Pizza Podcast: Julia Minamata (The Crimson Diamond)
Indiepocalypse Radio - Episode 0143: Keenardo and Julia Minamata
Final Round -- "The Crimson Diamond: sedici colori, interfaccia testuale, è subito 1989" (Italian language)
8BITdigi -- GDC 2024 The Games We Played
Save Your Game Podcast with PushingUpRoses and Matt Aukamp
YakWaxLips video: Most Anticipated Adventure Games of 2024!
Adventure Game Hotspot's PIXEL ART Adventure Games you MUST PLAY in 2024
Adventure Game Geek's Upcoming Adventure Games 2024...And Beyond!
vicek83's "Plans for Adventure Game Developers for 2024" (guest spot)
Rock Paper Shotgun Screenshot Saturday Monday
Adventure Game Hotspot interview
FireFlower Games interview article
Hello Playdate Podcast interview
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
---------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
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!
To view this issue in browser, click here
Click here for the entire DevBlog
Editor: Julia Minamata - julia@thecrimsondiamond.com
May 2024
Hello, dear readers -- Happy May. Spring is underway, with a gorgeously blooming azalea in my mom's garden. The weather is warming up, the leafs are sprouting on the trees. It's a lovely time of year in Ontario.
Apparently the copious use of exclamation marks can sometimes flag my e-newsletters as spam, so this edition will sound much less enthusiastic. We'll see if it helps. You are now reading the Crimson Gazette: No Exclamation Point Edition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Developer update: All of the art is complete and in the game. The bonus track that Dan composed (in this stream) is in the game, as well as some new sound effects I made. A new trailer with the launch date announcement is also complete. I'm currently working on fixing the bugs my amazing testers have found -- And then it's another round of testing with the beta. And THEN it'll be launch, before the holiday season. Exciting and a bit scary.
(Please wishlist The Crimson Diamond on Steam, it really helps me out.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a Patreon, both tiers will put your name in The Crimson Diamond credits if you're an active patron at time of launch (these end up being about $3 USD and $5 USD). The $5 USD tier members also get a holiday card this winter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Adventure Game Hotspot Fan Fair is almost here. July 26-28 in Tacoma, Washington. I'll be on the Pixel Art Panel, along with Meredith Gran (Perfect Tides) and Tom Hardwidge (Lucy Dreaming). The panel will be hosted by Paul Korman, co-host of the Classic Gamers Guild Podcast.
Find out more about the event here.
See some gorgeous art by Meredith and Tom below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was a guest on the Pixel Pizza Podcast. Host Jared and I had a lovely conversation about The Crimson Diamond, minerals, pixel art, and more. Check it out here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Belated Mother's Day. Here's the card I painted for my mom. I included some of the birds, mushrooms, and other things we saw during our recent trip to Point Pelee National Park here in Ontario. Point Pelee is a sharp triangle of land sticking out into Lake Erie, and the southernmost area of mainland Canada. Because of this unique geography, it is a prime resting point for migrating birds during spring and autumn.
Warblers are the main draw in May, and we saw our fair share (from left to right in the painting: Chestnut-sided warbler, Blackburnian warbler, Prothonotary warbler). The Prothonotary warbler was a life bird for my mom, meaning this was the first time in her life she'd seen one.
Just below the Prothonotary Warbler is an American Woodcock, a timid bird that she hadn't seen in about eleven years. The bird at the bottom left is an American Pipit, another life bird for my mom. The Five-lined skink at the bottom right was basking on a boardwalk as depicted. We saw three of them relaxing like that. Above is a Green Heron, a spectacular bird with vibrant orange legs during mating season.
Above the Green Heron is a shorebird called a Dunlin, with its characteristic dark patch on its belly. The black bear isn't real, it was a very cute carved wooden sculpture (see the photos below). And beside the bear is Dido-cat, who lives forever in these paintings.
Card process:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some of my photos of our Point Pelee trip. This is the actual point, which is actually a place where waves converge from the east and west. It's an extraordinary sight.
Another reason Point Pelee is such a haven for birds is that it features a number of distinct habitats in a small area. There is savannah, marsh, swamp forest, dry forest, and beach.
Here are some splendid pheasant back mushrooms.
A question mark butterfly.
This wonderful wooden bear sculpture. We liked his smile very much.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of Dido-cat, here's the new patchwork quilt my mom made. I designed it. 1092 little squares, the smallest of the pixel art patchworks. Even still, it's so much work. My mom is amazing <3.
Marnanel Thurman helped me play through her lovely game, Denarius Avaricius Sextus, and we were able to get to the ending together. She was a wonderful guest. We're planning to reunite for Lord Avalot d'Argent, the sequel! You can follow Marnanel on Mastodon and Blue Sky. Here's Marnanel's website.
Livestream VOD round-up! All the streams since last gazette are here!
April 16th Marnanel Thurman / art stream, Apr 23rd Marnanel Thurman / art stream, Apr 30th art stream, May 7th art stream, May 14 art stream.
Crimson C'Tuesday happens every Tuesday at 8pm Eastern on Twitch. Come and hang out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am loving Earthrise (Interstel, 1990). More exploration, more inventory items, and more amazing death animations. I'm about 350/800 points in. I'll be sad when it's over.
This game isn't commercially available, but you can request that GOG add it to their catalog.
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)
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)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CRAFT CORNER
No ambitious projects are on the go right now, but I did quickly put together this necklace with some materials I had on hand. I think it creates the idea of Nancy Maple pretty effectively. The top bead is carnelian, the middle bead is simulated (fake) lapis lazui, and the bottom bead is simulated turquoise. I'd love to recreate this necklace with real lapis and turquoise some day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION
DID YOU KNOW: Lake Erie is full of treasures, and new ones wash up every day. These are some fossils I picked up during the Point Pelee trip. They're all intriguing and amazing, especially the large one that looks like a giant insect with hairy legs. The rocks are wet in these photos, to increase the contrast and show the fossils better. Here's an informative article on fossils in the Great Lakes.
Here's the back view of them.
Here's me holding the giant bug(?) one, for scale. Astounding.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading. Happy May. 2024 is the year of The Crimson Diamond.
-- JM