| The Fool and His Money | |
| Developer: | Cliff Johnson |
| Released: | October 25, 2012 |
| Genre: | puzzle game |
| Platforms: | Mac OS X, Windows |
The Fool and His Money is a puzzle game by Cliff Johnson. It is a self-published sequel to the 1987 game The Fool's Errand. Like its predecessor, The Fool and His Money contains many different types of logic and word puzzles which, although centered on a story with a medieval tarot deck theme, have added elements of the Prince, Egyptian gods, and Pirates.[1]
Originally expected in late 2003, the game experienced dozens of postponements. On February 4, 2009, Johnson released a functioning preview of the game, containing the Prologue and five puzzles.[2]
The game was released on October 25, 2012, one day earlier than finally promised, having taken ten years to produce. It is written using Adobe Director with embedded Flash.[1]
“I'm happy to award, for the first time in my reviewing career, The Fool and His Money a long-overdue but well-deserved A plus. We, God forbid, may never see another game of its genius and quality in our lifetimes.” —Greg Collins, Just Adventure Review[3]
Andrew Plotkin considered The Fool and His Money an improvement on The Fool's Errand, with better puzzle sequencing, a more harmonious variety of puzzle forms, and a smooth increase in complexity as the game progresses. Plotkin recommended the game "if you like puzzles, if you like challenges, if you like working all-out on crazy-hard puzzles where they barely even tell you the rules."[4]
Jay Is Games rated it best indie puzzle game of 2012.[5]