Hello there! It's been a while, huh? Well, I've been a bit busy with some other work, but I finally have some breathing room and have been steadily working on prepping for the next major update to the demo, which will start to get into the genuine meat of the story and show you what the world and characters have to offer.

This update's got quite a bit going for it, so let's break it down into sections, yeah? Today we'll be covering the following:

• Volunteer Dev Team Assembled
• General Roadmap
  
• Official Discord Server
• Supporting The Project

So, without further ado !

Volunteer Dev Team

Yep, there's now a fully-established team behind this. The demo was about 90% of my own input, but I did receive help from some people to get certain parts of it ready in time and give it more polish. I asked for assistance, and these people stepped forward to volunteer their skills in order to help shift some of the weight off of me and make production of the next installment all the more easier.

So let's meet them, shall we?

First there's Cow-Legs, an itch.io native compared to me. With his input, I was able to actually get everything set up here on the site, and he linked me to a good variety of resources for Ren'Py, as well as did some quick sound work to help with some of the background ambience. 

He also did the original concepts and designs for Jacques, Inky, and Pragma!

He'll be lending a hand with more sound and programming work, but also volunteered his services with art, namely background assets, since those aren't particularly my strong point. I think his charming style would definitely be a plus to the game's overall feel, so look forward to that!!

He's working on his own projects too, so go check 'em out maybe!

Next we have Zyhod, one of my partners. They've been a strong supporter of this project from day one, and has put out a few silly doodles to help promote the demo launch! They'll be helping with character design, where they'll help come up with designs for NPCs and even concepts for races that will inhabit Torja. 

They're also joining the writing crew, where we'll be brainstorming more of the overall plot, ironing out the stuff I spit into google docs, making sure there's no plot holes--the works!

There's also my other partner, Mari! They're also a long-time supporter, and are even working on their own little Ren'Py project that you may eventually see, who knows! 

Mari is also joining the character design and writing teams, but is also part of the worldbuilding department--Helping me make sense of bits of lore I come up with, making sure things have cohesion, and even contributing their own suggestions to the lot.

Joining the worldbuilding and character design teams is Theo! He's the original designer of Vega and Francois, as well as a certain god you'll be seeing in one of the next routes, heh-heh! 

Theo came up with the original base concepts for Stellaxi, Vega's race, which I was able to take and adapt to the story as a whole--You'll actually be seeing them be relevant in the Magic route!

Next is Cinna, who is part of worldbuilding, character design, and writing! She's a little new to the project compared to some of the others in this group, but her passion is strong all the same, and I admire her energy!

And last but not least, we have Masquerade! She was a very big help with critique and support when I was working my way through the demo, which is why she's part of the writing and worldbuilding teams! She runs tabletop campaigns as well, so I'm absolutely certain her experience in managing a story like this will be a great asset.

And that's the whole team as it stands right now! I'm very happy to be working with these people, and hope that together, we can make a game that plenty of people will enjoy!!

So with these folks in mind, let's cover the matter of the Roadmap.

Before, I couldn't give a very confident estimate as it was just a single-person team, and as I had explained, I'm bad at judging timeframe and struggle with some pretty severe ADHD. I managed to squeak by and get my work done within my projected timeframe, though it was admittedly crunch on my part, and pushing through a chronic condition I probably should have given breathing room.

Well, this time around I still can't accurately give any estimate as to when the next update will happen. For starters, it will be roughly three times the size of the initial demo, since we'll be diverging into the different routes, and I want each route to be represented with a single chapter to start with.

Secondly, this team is as I've mentioned it--volunteers. I'm not paying them, I am not giving them any deadlines for their work, and I am not requiring them to work any set timeframe or the like. They're doing this because of their interest in the project and desire to see it shape up.

Thus far, only Cow-Legs has received any sort of 'assignment,' and that's more him providing some examples of styles for one of the BGs since he can do a few different things, and I want to see what each shapes out to be like.

Those in the other teams are a bit dependent on my actually putting forth stuff for them to look over or make things in tandem with, and not only did I take a break after the alpha dropped, I got weighed with quite a bit of art-based work and didn't have much time to dedicate to all that.

I got hit with some frustration and writer's block when I attempted to do some stuff, but after stepping away from it a bit, I think I can finally tackle it again and get some stuff ready for the others to mess around with.

So, TL;DR, the roadmap isn't very clear. All I can say is that the next major update will be big, and as such, it may take some time.

There will, however, be regular monthly updates to show those outside the discord server how work is coming along!

Which brings us to the next topic:

The Official Discord Server

Up until recently, I had it as a sort of supporters-only perk, but after doing some thinking, I've decided to restructure some things. 

Thus, as of now, I'm pleased to announce the discord server for Court of Fools is now open to the public!

^ Click that link there to be taken to it!

The discord server is where all my work for the game is posted first, so people can see how the project is going and learn more about the details going into it. This is where you can receive updates the fastest, rather than waiting for these monthly devlogs where I blab for a page and a half. 

That doesn't mean that the optional support will stop, however. I've just decided to restructure things a little bit. Now, all general development content will be visible to all members of the server, but content that is regarded as more spoiler territory (details plans regarding characters, information about the godly pantheon as a whole), as well as the monthly doodle requests, will be limited to those who provide the support.

I'll be keeping it at $5 a month, and you can find more information over on my Ko-fi

Just to restate, however: Providing support is completely optional, and you can still join the discord server regardless. 

Also, that's just how you can provide support to me, specifically. I highly recommend you look at the rest of the team's pages to see what their options are for providing support as well. Many of them do commissions via ko-fi and the like, and their stuff is very good!

I think that's the majority of things, really... So yeah! Thanks for sticking with me! If you decide to join the server, I'll see you there!!