Julia Minamata

@juliaminamata

Toronto-based solo-ish game dev of The Crimson Diamond: store.steampowered.com/app/1098770/The_Crimson_Diamond/ Also Strange Scaffold artist www.juliaminamata.com / Latest game: Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator (pixel art)

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Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· 27d

July's Crimson Gazette is out now! Progress on my upcoming mystery adventure game, cross-stitches from The Crimson Diamond, Nintendon't 9, and raising monarch butterflies! Read all about it! 📰 thecrimsondiamond.com/CrimsonGazette94.html

Screenshot of a work-in-progress background, a hotel lobby interior, for Julia Minamata's upcoming mystery adventure game The Deadly Bluff (working title).

Screenshot of my segment of "Best of Nintendon't 9", featuring the DOS game Earthrise (1990) by Matt Gruson and Van Collins. Shows a shuttle orbiting a planet.

Photo of a monarch butterfly caterpillar on a milkweed leaf that my mom raised from an egg.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· 28d

Done for the night! Got some good work done, gave away a copy of Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator, & pursued more leads in Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin! Thanks @robotspacer.online for the raid, I raided @misterradon.bsky.social who's playing Dragon Slayer: Romancia (MSX2)! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday!

Screencap of my livestream, with "Happy Crimson C'Tuesday" handwritten across the bottom. A screenshot my Mini-Maple Mystery game is in the background. There's a speech bubble with a work-in-progress pixel art background for my Mini-Maple Mystery. It's the interior of a hotel showing an upper mezzanine area.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· 28d

8pm Eastern, Crimson C'Tuesday on www.twitch.tv/a_maplemystery! Giveaway! 🎉 Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator by @strangescaffold.bsky.social came out on Switch 1 & 2 -- To celebrate I'm giving away the game on ANY platform! Plus pixel art & retro gaming! Hope to see you there!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jul 8

Done for the night! Thanks for joining me! I lost at DOS Double Dragon for the first time on-stream! 🥲 But at least I added some lovely sconces to my hotel lobby and found more crime in Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin! I raided twitch.tv/kopert playing Tengai Makyō: Ziria! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday! 🎉

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jul 6

The Crimson Diamond is 25% off for the Steam Summer sale, only a few days left! 🌞 store.steampowered.com/app/1098770/The_Crimson_Diamond/ Game + soundtrack bundle is also on sale! Get yourself 40+ minutes of music composed on a real Roland MT-32! 🎶🎹

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jul 1

Done for the night! Chalked up another DOS Double Dragon victory, furnished a hotel lobby, and chased new leads in Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin! Thanks for hanging out, everyone!! I raided @robotspacer.online, currently streaming The Last Express. Happy Crimson C'Tuesday and Happy Canada Day! 🎉

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 24

Done for the night! I finished @johnromero.bsky.social's wonderful Dangerous Dave 1, extended my hotel interior, & continued my investigation in Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin! twitch.tv/mackmackmack & twitch.tv/maddzhatter_ for the raids! I raided @ghoulbabe.bsky.social! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 17

Aw, look at that little face! And quite accurate, I may add!

screenshot of the old-fashioned telephone in the hotel lobby of my upcoming game, The Deadly Bluff. It looks very much like it has a friendly cartoon face.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 17

Done for the night! Figuring out the hotel interior, a good start on Dangerous Dave 1, and already loving Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin! Thanks @thedeivore.bsky.social & @martydotzone.bsky.social for the raids. I brought the party to @robotspacer.online, playing The Last Express by @jmechner.bsky.social!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 16

The latest from Crimson! Slow progress on The Deadly Bluff, TCD scores 88 on @metacritic.com, "Doll House Theory" video by @theexaminedgame.bsky.social, the conclusion of my Karuizawa Yūkai Annai Let's Play, & more! Read all about it! 📰 thecrimsondiamond.com/CrimsonGazette93.html

The Crimson Diamond key art screenshot taken from Metacritic's site. The game is listed as #19 in the screenshot, when the filters "2024" and "PC" are applied. Release date August 15, 2024, and a Metascore of 88.

Screenshot of The Examined Game with Steven Lake. A Bluesky post that reads "A short piece with Julia Minamata on her approach to game design in The Crimson Diamond treating the game like a living doll house." The video thumbnail has a title: The Hidden Psychology of Adventure Games.

Screenshot of a work in progress background for Julia Minamata's upcoming small game "The Deadly Bluff". The background is a hotel interior, showing the main and upper floor. On the ground floor there is a front desk and a clerk, with a peg board of hotel keys, cubby holes for documents and letters, a bell, and an old-fashioned telephone. The pixel arts are double-wide, 2 pixels wide and 1 pixel high. Nancy Maple is also on the ground floor, turned to the side, facing the clerk.

Screenshot of my VOD for my Let's Play of Karuizawa Yūkai Annai. In handwritten type it says "Let's Play Karuizawa Yūkai Annai: FIN". Indicating that this is the final episode of the series. There's a game image of two women. I'm in the bottom right, head and shoulders.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 11

Latest VOD is out now! With special guest Dan Policar, composer for The Crimson Diamond! He shares some of his latest tracks, too: youtu.be/J_o39a31Dvk Follow Dan on TikTok! He shares his knowledge & thoughts on the music biz + backstage/onstage clips touring w/ Sean Paul: tiktok.com/@danthebandnyc

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 7

Got mine (and This Place is a Prison) yesterday! It was nice to meet you! Toronto folks, check out TCAF if you can. It’s free and so inspiring to see so many artists making amazing things and putting it all out there. 🤩

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 5

The Crimson Diamond, via a series of inexplicable, unlikely twists of circumstance and math, is listed on @metacritic.com as one of the top 20 PC releases of 2024?! metacritic.com/browse/game/pc/all/2024/metascore/ 😃 It's 25% off on Steam now! store.steampowered.com/app/1098770/The_Crimson_Diamond/

A stitched together screenshot of Metacritic's website, showing The Crimson Diamond sitting at #19 on top PC releases of 2024. In the left margin is a Surprised Nancy Head, with a dialogue balloon calling out the placing, accented by an exclamation mark.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 4

I even got to meet her, at @aghotspot.bsky.social's Fan Fair in 2024! Roberta Williams, Ken Williams, SCI0 engine co-developer Robert Heitman, composer Ken Allen, and artist @douglasherring.bsky.social (my pixel art hero) were there and they ALL signed my The Colonel's Bequest big box. ☺️✨💾

Me and Roberta Williams, co-founder of Sierra On-Line! At Adventure Game Hotspot's Fan Fair in 2024.

My The Colonel's Bequest big box, signed by Roberta Williams, Ken Williams, SCI0 engine co-developer Robert Heitman, composer Ken Allen, and artist Doug Herring.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Jun 3

Done for the night! Got a lot of good work done on this hotel interior, defeated Double Dragon DOS, and FINALLY completed Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (1986), a gem of a game from Yuji Horii! Thanks to www.twitch.tv/samuelstokes... for the raid, I raided www.twitch.tv/kopert, playing Castle of the Winds!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 30

Are you ready for a cozy mystery adventure? The Crimson Diamond is NOW 25% off! 🎉🔎 It’s been Overwhelmingly Positively reviewed with 600+ Steam reviews — Maybe you’ll like it, too! It’s set in Canada 🇨🇦, it’s got rock facts! 🪨 store.steampowered.com/app/1098770/The_Crimson_Diamond/

Key art for The Crimson Diamond. The logotype is in the upper left corner. The image shows Nancy Maple kneeling at a riverbank with a bucket snd trowel, holding up a big diamond crystal to the full moon. Two shadowy figures look on in the middle distance. In the background there’s a lodge overlooking a waterfall. Handwritten type says “25% off!”

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 27

Done for the night! Got a lot of work done on the hotel interior: Put up some wallpaper, installed a new bannister! Chalked up another DOS Double Dragon victory and levelled up in Karuizawa Yūkai Annai! Thanks to @artebirklaus.bsky.social for the raid, I raided @robotspacer.online playing Type Help!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 20

Done for the night! Thanks @jesshaskins.bsky.social and @tacoadventure.net for the raids! I raided @robotspacer.online who's continuing to play Type Help, being remastered for Steam as The Incident at Galley House by @eviltrout.com! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 17

Crimson Gazette! Canadian games article by @bradshankar.bsky.social via @mobilesyrup.com, @clickpulp.com logo, Chance's Lucky Escape in @play.date community stuff by @xanialasagna.bsky.social, podcast w/ @decafjedi.com & @bvigeant.bsky.social, & more! www.thecrimsondiamond.com/CrimsonGazette92.html

Screencap of MobileSyrup's webpage, featuring Canadian games article titled "Canada rarely gets to play itself -- these games are changing that". The article includes The Crimson Diamond!

Xania Lasagna's Playdate calendar, open to the month featuring "Chance's Lucky Escape". On the left side is an illustration I created of Chance in full colour, on the right side is graphics from the game.

Screencap of Quest Quest: The Adventure Game Podcast, featuring EGA versions of Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette. At the bottom it reads "EGA games w/ Julia Minamata". The run time is shown as one hour, thirty-six minutes, and thirty-six seconds.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 13

Done for the night! Thanks so much www.twitch.tv/samuelstokesmusic, @artebirklaus.bsky.social, @dawgnet.tv, @getselious.bsky.social, @martydotzone.bsky.social & @tacoadventure.net for the raids, what a night! Pixel art hotel completed, too! Thanks so much, everyone! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday! 😊

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 11

Happy Belated Mother's Day! Here's this year's card I painted, featuring some of the birds me and my mom saw during our Point Pelee trip. From left to right: Hermit Thrush, Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Yellow Warbler, Field Sparrow, Sanderling, Dunlin, & Indigo Bunting!

Watercolour card with inked lines that I painted for my mom for Mother's Day this year. From left to right: Hermit Thrush, Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Yellow Warbler, Field Sparrow, Sanderling, Dunlin, & Indigo Bunting. Also features white trilliums (Ontario's provincial flower), prickly pear cacti (which can only be found in this southernmost area of Ontario), a pheasant's back mushroom (on the tree stump on the left of the picture), a ladybug of an invasive species that I saw a bunch of at Point Pelee's tip, and a Viking cruise ship that was in Lake Erie! Also in the middle of the card, to the left of the field sparrow and under the yellow warber is the little observation area at Hillman Marsh, where the Lesser Yellowlegs was seen. Hand-drawn text reads "Happy Mothers Day" followed by a red heart shape.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 6

Done for the night! Refined some pixelly trees, showed some birds (including this prothonotary warbler I photographed!), conquered CGA DOS Double Dragon (again), and got unstuck in Karuizawa Yūkai Annai! Thanks www.twitch.tv/xandiles for the raid, I raided @robotspacer.online, playing Type Help!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· May 3

Sometimes my Google Alert for The Crimson Diamond will bring me a result that REALLY doesn’t seem like it’s a hit… And sometimes, it totally actually is. 😆 Many thanks to David Flynn at @gamingtrend.com!!

Screenshot of a Google Alert for Crimson Diamond, with a Razer Altas Pro review by GamingTrend.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 29

Done for the night! Thanks so much www.twitch.tv/eiagra for the raid, I raided www.twitch.tv/therealcanadianrage who is playing The Crimson Diamond! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday to one and all, see you next week!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 25

These came in the mail recently! 📬Thank you so much @xanialasagna.bsky.social, for producing these amazing projects that celebrate the @play.date & its community! I’m so happy and proud to see Chance’s Lucky Escape (by @golosogames.bsky.social & me) included. 😊💛🎉 #supportplaydatedevs #playdate

Cover of the magazine “Uncrank’d: Digital Threads, Artsy Bites - A Playdate community art book”, produced by Xania Lasagna. The cover shows a cartoon Playdate holding a globe in a white-gloved hand.

Inside of the magazine “Uncrank’d: Digital Threads, Artsy Bites - A Playdate community art book”, produced by Xania Lasagna. Shows a page of game art from the Playdate Season 2 game “Chance’s Lucky Escape” by Goloso Games and Julia Minamata.

Photograph of “Playdate calendar 2026”, showing a very thick Playdate (maybe using the Playdate dock that isn’t available yet?)

Inside of “Playdate calendar 2026”, opened to the page for “Chance’s Lucky Escape” by Goloso Games and Julia Minamata. The artwork features a colour version of Chance that was originally commissioned for an indie game magazine, as well as in-game art for “Chance’s Luckt Escape.”

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 22

Done for the night! I had a blast, thanks for coming out! Pixel art progress and Karuizawa Yūkai Annai discoveries! I raided @ashsaidhi.bsky.social, playing Scriptorium! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday!

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 16

The latest gazette! Guested on @rexiconjesse.bsky.social's RPG Help Desk on @secondwindgroup.com's channel, chatted with @folkloregames.bsky.social for DevTalk, hit 600 reviews on Steam (Overwhelmingly Positive!🎉) & lovely @patrickmchale.bsky.social art. thecrimsondiamond.com/CrimsonGazette91.html

Screencap of RPG Help Desk on Second Wind's Twitch channel, hosted by Jesse Galena. I was a guest and talking about Game Design Influences. Shows me and Jesse as talking heads in boxes, with some cool purple tentacle art and some links!

Screencap of part of The Crimson Diamond's Stream store page, showing "600! Thank you!" in big, handwritten letters, indicating 600 reviews reached on Steam, with a rating of Overwhelmingly Positive. The key art has been modified to give Nancy Maple a conical party hat with some fireworks in the background.

Photo I took of the inside of my Over the Garden Wall DVD case, showing a sketch Patrick McHale made in permanent market on the inside, featuring Wirt and Greg standing together, framed by trees.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 15

Done for the night! Thanks @artebirklaus.bsky.social & @specialkarl.bsky.social for the raids! I raided @misterradon.bsky.social! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday, thanks for hanging out!

Screencap of my livestream, with "Happy Crimson C'Tuesday" handwritten across the bottom. A screenshot of The Crimson Diamond is in the background. There's a speech bubble with a work-in-progress pixel art background for my Mini-Maple Mystery. It's two-storey hotel.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 8

No problem! Here are the photos! If Bluesky is downsampling, I can email them.

Julia Minamata@juliaminamata· Apr 8

Done for the night! Another Double Dragon victory, lots of progress on this pixelly hotel, and incredible discoveries in Karuizawa Yūkai Annai! What a great night! Thanks @toad22484.bsky.social for the raid, I raided @cybertruckeralpha.bsky.social, who's streaming Dream Web! Happy Crimson C'Tuesday!