The Fool and His Money

The Fool and His Money is a forthcoming puzzle game by Cliff Johnson. It is a self-published sequel to the 1987 game The Fool's Errand. The game has experienced numerous delays and in 2006, Johnson said he had "never intended to re-write the game three times from scratch."

Like its predecessor, The Fool and His Money will contain many different types of logic and word puzzles that center around a story with a medieval tarot deck theme. There will also be a meta puzzle that uses hidden clues scattered throughout the other puzzles in the game.

The game has been available to pre-order for several years and customers who pre-order the game are promised to be included in a list of "Compendium of True Believers" within the game. Johnson has honored refund requests from customers who pre-ordered the game.

On February 4, 2009, Johnson released a preview of the game containing the Prologue and five puzzles. When released, the full game will reportedly be available for "Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4".

The game was released on October 25, 2012.

Release Announcement History
The game was officially announced in January 2003, with an expected release date of Halloween 2003. New release dates have been announced regularly on Johnson's official website. They include:


 * April 1, 2004
 * Halloween 2004
 * July 5, 2005
 * Late 2005
 * April 1, 2006
 * August 7, 2006
 * December 4, 2006 (announced July 5, 2006)
 * December 2006 (announced mid-November, 2006)
 * A few months from mid-January 2007 (announced January 15, 2007)
 * April 2007
 * Late 2007, "a few months or so, then a thorough final beta test" (announced August 13, 2007)
 * Summer 2008 (announced April 2008)
 * September 2008 (announced April 28, 2008)
 * "No later than December" (announced in email by author on August 2008)
 * "Soon... in Final Beta-Testing (Finally) stage" (announced December 15, 2008)
 * April 1, 2009 (announced January 1, 2009)
 * "Hoping that this process will be completed in April" (announced January 28, 2009)
 * "Hoping that this process will be completed ... in the early New England summer" (announced February 4, 2009)
 * "Hoping that the game will be completed and beta-tested for all versions ... for the New England summer." (July 14, 2009)
 * "At present, I am hoping that the game will be completed and beta-tested for all versions ... for the New England summer, or thereabouts." (August 4, 2009)
 * "At present, I am forecasting that the game will be completed and beta-tested for all versions ... for the New England Christmas." (September 7, 2009)
 * May 2010 (announced November 2009)
 * "I have to conclude that an October (2010) shipping date is more realistic." (announced May 1, 2010)
 * "The shipping date is holding for October or maybe November." (July 7, 2010)
 * "...the shipping date is leaning toward November..." (September 14, 2010)
 * December 2011 (April 10 2011)