Howdy-ho, finally clearing space and making the game's page live, so here's a little bit of babble for you all new to the game.

My name's Casper! or Snowish. Whichever. I like jesters, death games like Danganronpa/Zero Escape/Your Turn to Die, and fantasy worlds that touch upon mortals' relationships with gods and other supernatural beings.

So, when you put that together and let it stew for a couple years, you get this! Court of Fools! 

This game will be a story-based visual novel with emphasis on character exploration, worldbuilding, and also contain light suspense and horror elements. Make no mistake, people WILL die in this story. Several times over, even...

It's technically been in development seriously for maybe about a year and a half now? I cut off some months due to a period where I did not have my computer, and thus my files, but I have been able to get them no problem now, so it's all fine and good! 

But rather than go on a super long tangent about the ins and outs of what would eventually become this project, let's save those for another time (they're pretty simple anyway honestly) and just get into the details of my work and progress so far.

Please note that all of this work is towards the ALPHA DEMO of the game, and is a much smaller size than the full scope is planned to be.

--- Assets ---

First, pretty much all the assets save for music and sounds are being made by me. All the art you'll be seeing, like the CGs (some of which are seen as screenshots for the game's page) and character dialogue portraits, have been drawn entirely by me. It definitely took quite a bit of time, and uh... hoh boy, that layer count for just the first file...

Currently I have about 90% of the CGs done, and I've just finished the second set of portraits for the cast--I'm tackling them character by character. However, arthritis has been a pretty big obstacle for this, so I can only work for so long in the day before my hand starts to give out, even with proper breaks.

The game will be made in Ren'py, so I've also done some tests to get the basic hang of the syntax and see how the assets match up.

Earlier, I would have said that I had ALL the CGs done, but while passing my script onto my beta readers, some of them provided feedback and made me realize it was probably best I add some more to the demo to help with pacing and also provide more space for the characters to breathe and interact with each other rather than the one-on-one segments I had so far.

This is one of the characters I've completed portraits for, though if I feel the need, I may have to do more based on what the script calls for.

-- Scripting --

Google Docs has been a great help in this regard, as it's where I type out the entirety of my script (currently spanning roughly 130 pages spread out over 3 documents), and using the Comment feature, I can make notes about certain things to myself, and my beta readers can give their feedback.

(This specific beta reader had no context to Court of Fools at all, while others were more privy to my worldbuilding, this is providing a sort of 'clean slate' context-based feedback)

Edit: had no idea it would be so shrunkled, so you can see the full-res here

-- Plans --

Current roadmap is... A little uncertain, at the moment? I'm not the best at judging timeframe and my work ethic, what with ADHD, but I'm tentatively hoping to maybe get everything in the demo done in time for an April 1st release, a little over a month from now. It'd be thematically fitting, but I still need to write the script for the part I need to insert, which itself will probably be a bit long as a whole. But, it will also be a more clear demonstration of Ren'py's functions rather than just a straight visual novel, since I'm planning to enact the first major instance of a choice that affects the rest of the gameplay.

I don't know exactly how long it'll be until I stick it all in ren'py and get some people to run through it, but I'm hoping it will be at least an hour! But maybe it'll be more! Who knows!

I will also state, I currently don't have any screenshots of the game /in the actual engine/ as I have a bit of a strict process when working through bigger things like this. I like to break it into chunks and go at them one by one, so plugging everything into Ren'py has been slated for far in the future, when I have everything ready U~U" It's just how my brain processes things, I'm afraid.

However, I do have support from people in the official discord server, who have been giving feedback and words of encouragement as I do my best to bluster on through all this. If you'd like to follow progress more directly/instantly and not wait for updates, I have a ko-fi where you can become a member, and then get access to the server itself. The discord server has the bulk of my work and where I babble my thought process/ideas for things, and I basically throw something up there at least once every few days, so you can get a better view of what work I'm doing.

But a large portion of what I toss up there will eventually be added here in big update chunks, so there's no harm in waiting, either! Plus, it's just a demo, so I honestly only recommend it if you REALLY are interested by what you've seen so far. 

-- Closing Remarks --

I think that's all I want to share at the moment? Just kind of saying 'hey I'm here, I'm working on this thing, here's some screenshots as proof', yeah. Presentations have never been my strong suit, oopsies...

I'll probably be making a couple more posts about general updates to progress before leading up to when I'm ready to actually put the game forward. Like I said, at this point I can't 100% confirm an early April release, but it is my genuine hope for the demo.

But thanks for taking the time to read, and I hope to see you later!