It Might Just Exist: The Fool & His Money

There are a few games that immediately throw me back into memories of childhood, with accompanying swooshing noises and event-based montages with calendar pages flying through. Games like Dungeon Master, Zak McKracken, and The Fool's Errand. The last of these is possibly the least known, and the most peculiar, but just looking at screenshots of the tarot-based puzzle collection sends my head spinning. Which means I'm unable not to be interested in the long-promised sequel, The Fool & His Money. While many have thrown around words like "vapourware", after six years of development (and many years of selling it on pre-order), a demo has appeared.

Any thinking that Cliff Johnson may have spent the intervening twenty years since The Fool's Errand first appeared brushing up on 3D technology and PhysX water simulation should put their delusions aside. This is really low tech. But what it is is a new collection of extremely tough puzzles, along with text-based clues and story. The demo has six puzzles, a couple reasonably elementary, the rest leaving me scratching my head and wondering how I solved anything of the previous game aged 11.

We owe thanks to Andrew F for alerting this to us. As he says, "I'm just relieved to receive a sign that that my children's children might one day get to play a game that I paid for nearly two years ago." Or perhaps it might even be sooner. You can get the original Fool's Errand for free if you want to find out what it's all about. And Johnson's website says the game is "finally" in final beta.