The Crimson Diamond

[jmjm]

At long last! The Crimson Diamond has launched on Steam and itch.io! It's a cozy mystery adventure game with EGA graphics, Roland MT-32 music, and a text parser interface!

Link to The Crimson Diamond Steam store page

Link to The Crimson Diamond on itch.io

The Crimson Diamond official website

[Hobo]

Congratulations on the release! Got the itch version, hoping to make some time to play it soon as well

[agentbauer]

Great, congrats to the release, was on my wishlist all the time.
The demo was already great.

[eri0o]

Awesome release! Followed it for some time and can't wait to play it.

Please add it to the AGS games db too!

[CaptainD]

Congrats!!!   

[shaun9991]

It's so good, I'm 3 hours in and loving it. Congratulations Julia!!

[jmjm]

Thanks, everyone!

@eri0o I just added The Crimson Diamond to the database! Also, I used your plugin for the hyperlink in my game -- So you are in the credits . If you'd like to be credited as something besides "eric0o", please let me know! 

[heltenjon]

Like the others, I've been following this for a while. Great to see the game released! Congratulations!

[eri0o]

@jmjm awesome to see it in the DB!! I just got the game too so I can play it 

Also thanks for the credits! That's fine, I usually go by either"eri0o" or "Érico Porto" and either are alright. 

[DBoyWheeler]

WOOT!  Congrats on getting the game done!

[Frodo]

Congrats on the release.
It looks fantastic   

 

[AndreasBlack]

Wohooo! How exciting, congrats! I have been looking sometimes on your Youtube channel, think i left a comment once or twice too. Definately gonna play this later. 

[Djaian]

Hello everyone,

So I created an account on Adventure Game Studio forum just to tell you this : Thank you Julia, fantastic work !

I played 12 hours of the game so far and managed to get to the conclusion. I will play it more and more, since I want to 100% this game, by myself, without looking at a walkthrough or solution.

Here is why I like this game:

I played Mortville Manor when I was a teenager and playing The Crimson Diamond really hit the nostalgia. I knew I always like this kind of games.

However, when The Colonel's Bequest was published, I was still a teenager and I since I am not a native english speaker I didn't know english at all. It was impossible for me to play it. Later, as an adult, I thought I could enjoy The colonel's Bequest by watching Youtube videos of people playing it. But it is certainly not the same as playing the game by yourself. I regret that.

Now, thanks to you Julia, I am able to play a parser detective game as an english speaking teenager would have been able to play The Colonel's Bequest in 1989. And since the game is brand new, and not an old game, I was not spoiled about the story or the solution just by watching a random Youtube video on adventure games or reading a generic forum topics about adventure games.

I really enjoy this experience.

The game is not perfect, but it is really fun to play.

By the way, the art is fantastic! (if you like old school pixel art)

Again, thank you Julia for your passion and your dedication.

I now have a few years to 100% The Crimson Diamond, before you release the sequel 

[ukz530]

Awesome. I've been waiting for this game to be released! Congrats on the release! 

[MIGGO]

Congratulation on the release! Been looking out for this.

This project really inspired me to look into EGA graphics. 

[StillInThe90s]

A bit late to the party, but congratulations on the release nevertheless!

[Danvzare]

I'm also late to the party, but I'm congratulating you all the same.
It's about time the text parser got a bit of love. 

[heltenjon]

I'm trying out the games from the FYC thread, and I've played about the first day of this one. I will get back to it, but will need to move to other games in order to test them a bit before the nomination for AGS awards ends.

So - is it any good? Yes, it clearly is. But, there is a but, and you already know this: You have to be a fan of parser games. You need to type in what our heroine wants to do. I must admit that I quite often found myself thinking that this or that would have been easier to do just by pointing and clicking, so I may not be in the main target group here, despite having played and loved text adventures back in the day. That being said, the parser is good, and it is not difficult to understand where to use abbreviations.

I'd say there is one part where the parser is better, and that is when talking to other characters. This largely consists of asking them about some subject, and in this regard I feel my input requires a bit more brain activity than if I simply could click on everything to interrogate the npc. (Though the latter method worked well in Discworld Noir, as I recall it.) But all right, you have to accept that this is a parser game.

The graphics are in EGA style, and provided that one likes that style, they are beautiful. Retro, but that is kind of the point. There is a long intro, setting the scene, and then we are left to explore the hotel and interview the other characters in the game. The ability to open every drawer in every room, and sit on something in almost every room, is retained from the demo version. On the one hand, this shows attention to detail, and it's cool that it's possible, but on the other side, it gets in the way of advancing the story. I think I would have preferred to have some rooms initially locked. It also struck me as odd that the player character objects to opening someone's luggage, but is perfectly fine with looking through all their cupboards, chests and drawers.

I like the story, and the eavesdropping scenes and conversations are fun. And I found an Easter egg

Spoiler

in the shower

[close]

which was fun, but as these things do, also somewhat may break the immersion. I also liked the automatic notes that keep the player informed about what remains to do and clues found.

So far, the game looks like it's very well done in the genre of choice. It's recommended if you like crime investigation games like Colonel's Bequest (which I haven't played, but I played Laura Bow II), old style EGA art and typing your actions. I'm not in the exact target group, but even so, it's easy to see that the game is very polished and that there is quality here. I plan to come back to the game and finish it later on.

[RobertR11]

It's great to see so many people enjoying this game! The atmosphere seems to really capture the spirit of classic text adventures. I'm especially pleased that the developer took care of such little things as interactivity with the environment and retro graphics.