The Crimson Diamond
In this new world of open source, do it all yourself, indie games have thrived and there are more titles than ever being created with small teams and aging game engines to produce games that look and play a much like the games of yesteryear. What this means for gaming fans is that there are more retro-style games to play than ever before.
In other words, it takes something truly special to stand out, and I think the new adventure game The Crimson Diamond from premier game designer Julia Minamata really stood out from the crowd. It features a super-retro first typing interface that hasn't been seen much commercially since the early 1990s, as well as EGA graphics that don't look like 1989, and its “Find the Missing Diamond” mystery plot. Agatha Christie. will probably make you smile from ear to ear.
Just take a look at trailer which was released a full three years before the game launched, alongside regular Twitch livestream updates, I mean, talk about building anticipation! Just listen to the music, look at the creepy mansion in the woods, the large group of characters, and see if you can feel the old Sierra Online influences directly. In fact, Julia readily admits to being directly inspired by games like Quest of Kings 3 And The Colonel's Legacyboth of which were adventure games with a female protagonist created by the greatest adventure game designer of that era, Roberta Williams. Would you believe she even recently got an endorsement from the legend herself, meeting her at a gaming conference earlier in the summer and adding this line to her Steam page: “If you like old murder mystery games like Laura Bow Mystery Series, you will enjoy this game from Julia Minamata – The Crimson Diamond. -Roberta Williams.
And Julia not only nailed the look, but also the feel of those old games, striking the right balance between disturbing and off-putting and getting the cheeky sense of humor right – try any kind of bad input commands color in the game and you I will see what I mean. To explain to some perhaps confused readers, there was a brief period in adventure games where objects were interacted with by typing instead of using the mouse for “grab” or “use” commands.
However, you can be inspired by something, but you have to do the work, and in that sense the term “labor of love” barely covers it, as it took Julia almost 10 years to solo design this complete game and entirely by itself. with a little help in the playtesting and sound design parts.
It is for all these reasons that fans of adventure games have been impatiently awaiting The Crimson Diamond, especially since the complete demo of the first level has been available for more than 5 years!
In The Crimson Diamond, you play as Nancy Maple, a young detective and mineralogist sent to Ontario to discover if the legend of the crimson diamond found inside a fish is true. Along the way, you'll interact with a unique group of characters, each of whom might just be looking for the diamond for themselves. The gameplay is very close to what it was like in an 80s adventure game since you can move Nancy by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard in the direction you want to move as well as by clicking the screen and landing the shoes icon where you want to walk to. However, there are some subtle and useful differences from a Sierra type game from that period, or as Julia said “she wanted it to play like the old games, but maybe a little smoother” . In this case the game is a bit more intuitive in some areas, like if you stand in front of a closet in a room with two closets and type “open closet”, an 80s game from that era would say something something like “which cupboard do you want to open?” The red cupboard or the one covered in termites? ”, but Crimson Diamond just knows that you want to open the cupboard you are standing in front of. Additionally, these older games were often incredibly difficult and many players of the era were forced to pay for recorded game aid over the phone while Julia provided a Useful tips guide in game chapter by chapter, because after all, games are supposed to be fun.
Find the clues, find the diamond and… survive!
