Hello, dear readers -- Happy June! The great migratoy rush of birds is over, but there are still plenty of reasons to get outdoors and enjoy the blue skies and cool breezes. The above photo was taken by me at Presqu'ile Provincial Park here in Ontario. What a beautiful and varied shoreline we have.

photo I took of my mom's oriental poppies

Summer has brought my mom's latest crop of oriental poppies. They're big, bold, and bloom every year. One of my favourite flowers. <3

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Hotel interior for The Deadly Bluff

Developer update: The backgrounds for The Deadly Bluff are coming along nicely. This hotel interior isn't finished yet, but I'm pleased with its progress so far. I'm not sure if I'll be able to release this game by the end of the year, but I'll try.

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I'm not sure how this happened and I'm going to assume it's via a series of unlikely occurrences, but The Crimson Diamond is listed on Metacritic as one of the top 20-ish or so PC game releases of 2024!

Thanks to Edmundo of ClickPulp's help, I managed to get the key art updated with Metacritic (they were so quick and helpful) so it now displays better!

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The Crimson Diamond key art

The Crimson Diamond is the cozy mystery adventure game I made, and it's sold on Steam, itchio, 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 positive review), it's incredibly helpful for visibility on the store. But please choose whichever option is best for you.

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MHDante of Ravine Studios (currently working on North Shore) had the opportunity to shout out some fellow Canadian game studios and devs on CTV Your Morning! The Crimson Diamond got a mention, which always warms my heart. Thanks so much, Dante! Check out the clip here.

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decafjedi's longplay of The Crimson Diamond

decafjedi, gaming prof, streamer, and co-host of the Quest Quest podcast, posted his longplay of The Crimson Diamond on his Youtube channel. Thanks, decafjedi!

I was a recent guest on the Quest Quest podcast, give it a listen!

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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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Steven Lake's Youtube channel "The Examined Game" is full of wonderful conversations with game devs. He recently posted this little clip of part of our longer chat, in which I talk about how I started designing The Crimson Diamond.

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It's a Dan Policar! Dan is the composer of The Crimson Diamond's lovely soundtrack. He hasn't been on stream since December 2024, so we had a lot of catching up to do! Dan shared some new tracks he's working on and talked about his current projects. See what Dan's been up to here. Dan's also on TikTok, find him there!

Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin is the next game I'm streaming. I really couldn't help myself.

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

May 19th art stream, May 26th art stream, June 2nd art stream, June 9th Dan Policar stream.

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

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I finally completed Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (MSX version 1986, Enix). I enjoyed it tremendously. Thanks so much to Twitch chat for helping out with the translating when Google Translate couldn't cut it. I'm not sure how much playing this and Portopia have helped me learn Japanese, but I'm having fun so I'll continue to explore Japanese games!

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)

Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (Enix, 1986)

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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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BNN Bloomberg photo, credited to Burgundy Diamond mines

MINERAL TRIVIA SECTION

DID YOU KNOW: The diamond era is ending in the Northwest Territories in Canada, according to BNN Bloomberg. At one point, the diamond industry accounted for 25% of the Northwest Territories' GDP. However, competition from lab-grown diamonds and tariffs have contributed to a decline in demand. Diavik, one of the Northwest Territories mines, closed just this past March; there may be more mine closures in the near future, jeopardizing the jobs of many residents.

On the bright side, the region still has plenty of mineral wealth: gold, lithium, and rare earth minerals, among others. The diamond industry has enabled the territory to expand their powers, giving them more say in how these new industries may be developed.

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Completed cross-stitch of the second ranger

CRAFT CORNER

I have now cross-stitched every character with a speech portrait in The Crimson Diamond! Now they will all need to be assembled into one patchwork-style quilt, along with the cross-stitched logo. We'll see how it goes.

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 June!

-- JM