A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

Buy Now$14.99 USD or more

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The Crimson Diamond is an EGA text parser mystery adventure game where you play as amateur geologist and reluctant detective Nancy Maple. Follow Nancy as she travels north to the fictional ghost town of Crimson, Ontario to investigate the discovery of a massive diamond in the area. Eavesdrop on conversations to learn more about the eccentric cast of characters who find themselves gathered at Crimson Lodge. Explore the lodge and its environs to evaluate the diamond claim, and maybe solve a mystery or two along the way! The Crimson Diamond is a cozy mystery that encourages reading and engaging in the story over devious arcade challenges.

  • Explore Crimson Lodge and the surrounding wilderness.
  • Listen and talk to a cast of characters with different personalities and motivations.
  • Uncover secrets, discover hidden areas, solve mysteries!

Mac port by Chad Armstrong

Updated 18 days ago
StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS
Rating
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
(12 total ratings)
AuthorJuliaMinamata
GenreAdventure
TagsCozy, Female Protagonist, Indie, Mystery, Narrative, Pixel Art, Point & Click, Retro, Text based
Average sessionAbout an hour
LanguagesEnglish
AccessibilitySubtitles, Interactive tutorial
LinksSteam

Purchase

Buy Now$14.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $14.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

The Crimson Diamond v1.10l (PC VERSION) 71 MB
The Crimson Diamond v1.10l (MAC VERSION) 75 MB

Development log

Comments

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Hi Julia,

Great game! Sends me back to the early 90s.

Just downloaded 1.10k (MAC VERSION) and I'm unable to unzip the archive. I've tried both the built in Archive Utility and a 3rd party utility called The Unarchiver on Mac OS 15.1 and Mac OS 10.14.6.

The same goes here.  Wont unzip.  What do I do?

Hello! Thanks for reporting this! I deleted and reuploaded the build, I think it should work now. Please let me know!

(+1)

Dear Julia,

Glad to find that your game is available here on itch. Just purchased it to both play and to show my support. The EGA graphics take me back to the good old early 90s where I played Sierra's King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, and David P. Gray's Hugo's House of HorrorsHugo II: Whodunit? and Hugo III: Jungle of Doom. So nice that you went with that look and feel. I look forward to playing it!

(+1)

Thanks so much for your support! I hope you enjoy it!

(2 edits) (+1)

My pleasure! Just finished it. Not an easy one, but I'm glad that I managed without any hint or walkthrough. I did found a few bugs here and there (let me know where you'd like me to elaborate about them. Perhaps in a PM on Discord?), but I managed to complete it nevertheless just a few minutes ago. It's a very good game with fantastic EGA graphics, great music and a deep story. I really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work and I look forward for your next game. :)

I‘d use the email address found under „menu“.

Thanks for the bug hunting!

Thanks. I didn't hunt for bugs - they just occurred as bugs usually do. :)

Thanks for playing, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it! And yes as Danbun says, there's the feedback@thecrimsondiamond.com email address! 

(+1)

I'd love to buy your game, but I use GNU/Linux on my computer.
Would you be interested in making a GNU/Linux version of The Crimson Diamond? I'm a programmer. I'd love to do it, for free.

My understanding is that your game is based on the free software AGS engine, which runs on GNU/Linux as well. I've got previous experiences with AGS. Your game should be very easy and fast to port to. Please, it would be a dream to work on such a charming game like this.

I've been informed that the game runs well with a wrapper for Linux -- I'm not sure about what's involved, but that may be an option!

It probably runs with ScummVM, since it supports AGS games. However a native downloadable version would be super rad. I know this might not be your top priority right now. Please, think about it. I'd love to help.

(+4)

No need for any wrappers, the game runs natively on Linux. Take a look at this and let me know if you need any help: https://itch.io/t/4016389/play-ags-games-on-linux-natively

And congrats on the release!

(+2)

Thanks for the info and thanks so much!!

(+1)

Awesome. I just compiled the latest AGS on Ubuntu and it worked! Looking forward to playing! It's been so long since I've played something like this.

I have been looking forward to this for a long time! A couple of quick questions: does buying here also give a Steam key? Does the Steam version have DRM (i.e. requires Steam be active)? Will this be released on GOG (my platform of choice given the choice)? Is there anything "missing" from any releases (Itch, Steam) that are only available on a certain platform?

Again, this game looks *amazing* (I'm a huge fan of Colonel's Bequest  and Sierra in general) and I am looking forward to buying it soon whichever platform I decide on! :)

Hello! Buying here on itchio doesn't give a Steam key, unfortunately. I'm hoping to release it on GOG in the near future, but nothing definite yet! The Steam version has the standard amount of DRM, maybe? I actually don't know how it works with them, whatever the default is -- I didn't add any special DRM to the Steam version.

The Steam version has 26 Steam achievements that will only work in that version, I think that's the only difference!

Thanks so much for the reply! I really want to support (and play!) this amazing looking game, but would rather avoid buying  it twice. I will hang out a bit for a GOG release, otherwise will get it here. Steam is always my last choice if it has the  usual "always need Steam running" DRM. :(

(+1)

The Steam version has no DRM. The executable will run without Steam.

Steam doesn't have any default DRM, but a lot of games don't have a fallback if the Steam integration doesn't find Steam at startup and often just crash silently. (Often this can be fixed by adding a steam_appid.txt file in the same folder.)

The Crimson Diamond doesn't have that problem, though. It will run fine as-is.

Thanks for the clarification! I'm not super knowledgeable about Steam, I wasn't sure how to answer!

(1 edit)

Thanks Rainwarrior. That was my main concern (and why I don't like to buy on Steam as a rule; I definitely consider "must always be running Steam" as DRM!). I would still prefer GOG so will wait a bit for a release there hopefully, but it is good  to know that Steam copies a) aren't DRM'ed and b) will survive after download even if Steam ever shuts down. :)

(+1)

just finished the game, it was very hard but soooo good!!

like everything is so clever, and the art and music is very nice!

i missed so many thing i'm going to replay it  so i find everything

thank you for this wonderful experience

(+1)

Thanks so much for playing my game, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it! :D

(+1)

Hi Julia,

I just bought Crimson Diamond. I have not dived into the full game yet but played the demo and have been watching your streams on and off. I know it will be good. Congratulations on the release. It must feel great. :)

Thank you, Berathaben! :D

(+3)

The nostalgia is strong with this one. Am I sensing a bit of Nancy Drew's influence? The art is gorgeous.

(+2)

Yes, a touch of Nancy Drew and a touch of Canada (maple leaf)!

(1 edit) (+3)

Loving this so far!

thanks for doing this, brings me back to the late 80’s playing KQ, SQ etc on the family PCXT. Got it running in SCUMMVM on Raspberry Pi so can play on our living room tv.  Is the study moosehead a nod to Leisure Suit Larry/KQ3? So many Easter eggs! Just found another one,referencing a game dev sdk. Do more of this !!

(+1)

What was involved with getting it running on SCUMMVM? I'd love to play this but I only have Raspberry Pi and iOS (both have ScummVM)

(+1)

I think if you buy the game here on itchio and load the files into ScummVM as  you would with other games, it should work. There might be an error message to do with the game not being catalogued in their system, but run it anyway -- I hear it runs well, though I've never tested it!

(+7)

Refunded on Steam (sorry) so I could buy here instead. I just prefer the vibes here :-)

(+1)

Same

(+2)

Thanks! I hope you enjoy!

(+2)

All good! Thanks so much for your support!

(+1)

Crud wish I thought to do that.

(+2)

Hi there! Just leaving a post here because you replied to me on the old demo page, but since that's no longer accessible, I also can't see what you wrote, and I wouldn't want to appear rude in case there was a question or something like that.

Anyway, congratulations on the release! ^_^

(+1)

Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, I didn't realize. All I did was direct you over here I think? --And you found your own way! :D Sorry again for the confusion.

(+3)

Ha-ha, no problem. I found my way here eventually, as you said. Already bought the game, in fact. Anyway, congratulations again on the release.
P.S.
Are there plans to include the manual and the quick guide with the itch.io release? It's probably not a big deal, since you can download them from Steam even without buying the game, but it might be easy to miss out on them if they don't know about the Steam page.

(1 edit) (+3)

Nice one. We need more EGA graphics style games!

(+2)

Simply amazing! What awesome work keeping adventure games like this alive! Definitely will be supporting this project.

(+3)

Congratz on the release, Julia!

(+5)

Wonderful! Congratulations for the release!