Hello, dear readers -- Happy February! Winter is truly here, and it's packing a wallop. Toronto has been blanketed with many centimetres of snow, so it looks like it'll be a cozy weekend in.

Speaking of which -- There's an unbelievably good Steam megabundle on right now, hosted by Fellow Traveller. It includes: The Crimson Diamond, 1000xResist, Harold Halibut, Manor Lords, Dread Delusion, Minishoot' Adventures, Cryptmaster, Solium Infernum, Shogun Showdown, Mouthwashing, and Duck Detective. All for $92.02 Canadian dollars, HST included. I know this because I bought it myself -- Too good a deal to pass up!

The Crimson Diamond won't be going on such an incredible sale again for the foreseeable future. This is the perfect time to buy it if you're on the fence. The megabundle sale is over on February 17.

Buy The Crimson Diamond on Steam (For PC and Mac). It's currently 20% off on its own.

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. There are approximately 430 reviews so far. Inching ever closer to the very retro-appropriate number of 486.

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2024 holiday card art

At long last, here is 2024's holiday card. While designing it, I realized it kinda looked like the box art for The Colonel's Bequest, so I added the lightning and kept Nancy looking a bit mysterious :).

My mom's recipe for thumbprint cookies is on the back of this year's card. Here it is:

Thumbprint cookie recipe

Photo of my mom's thumbprint cookies

If you make them, I'd love to see photos and if you enjoyed them.

If you would like to receive a holiday card in 2025, you can join my Patreon by clicking this link. $5+ tier patrons will get a full colour greeting card with original The Crimson Diamond art on it, mailed to them anywhere in the world.

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I was on Retro Repair Roundup #73, streaming live on Youtube! It was a lovely chat with some very cool people. Check it out here.

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Pam (cannotbetamed on Twitch) was streaming The Crimson Diamond this past month, and so was TheTacoAdventure! I always get a kick out of watching streamers whom I've watched and enjoyed for years play my game. Thanks so much, both of you.

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The Adventure Game Studio Awards are now open for voting! The Crimson Diamond has been nominated in 5 categories: Best Game of the Year, Best Visuals, Best Writing, Best Programming, and Best Gameplay. Here's a link where you can vote. Good luck to all the nominees! Voting closes March 9.

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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:

January 21st stream with developer Marnanel Thurman, January 28th art stream, February 4th art stream.

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

Marnanel Thurman is the developer of Lord Avalot d'Argent, we've been playing it together on stream when we get the chance. She's amazing and full of the greatest stories and poetry.

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)

My Let's Play of Omnicron Conspiracy continues! Here's the playlist of all the bits so far. I'm having a great time with it.

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Maybe this is citrine!

MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION

DID YOU KNOW: The above pictured stone is NOT a citrine! I attended the Royal Ontario Museum's Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Identification Clinic. It was a free event. I brought this stone, as well as a couple fossils, to show some experts.

I'm excited to report that this lovely gem is a TOPAZ (likely a Brazilian topaz). Topaz is even harder than citrine. It has a Mohs hardness of 8 and is the signifier mineral on the scale for that hardness. Harder minerals include corundum (aka rubies and sapphires) at 9 Mohs hardness, and diamonds, which are a Mohs hardness of 10.

Topaz is a truly beautiful gem that comes in a rainbow of colours and is hardy enough to wear in jewelry, though it's prone to chipping as it has perfect cleavage (meaning that it tends to break along along straight planes). This is due to weaknesses in its crystal structure. I will probably wrap this one in wire and make a necklace for it. Maybe a kumihimo necklace, out of embroidery floss. Maybe I can share the result in an upcoming craft corner.

Citrine pendant colour and cut

Speaking of citrine, I DID find a spectacular citrine pendant during a recent trip to the US. It's a pleasingly chunky stone with a lovely cut, set in sterling silver. And it only cost $150 USD. There are so many gems that are suitable for jewelry that look just a nice as more expensive options like rubies, sapphires, and of course diamonds.

Citrine pendant

Citrine pendant again again

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Jack cross-stitch progress

CRAFT CORNER

Jack is coming along nicely. Only a few more characters to go :).

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

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 February. Best wishes for your 2025 :)

-- JM