I'm really excited for this game! Your plans for the way you're going to handle relationship and character-building sound really intriguing and quite ambitious! So far, Elodie is my favorite character, and I have a galaxy-brained theory that Mr. Worthington is going to be the villain. He's a bit scary.
No pressure to answer -- especially if I touch on spoiler territory -- but I have a few questions and pieces of feedback about your plans for the game:
Firstly, are you planning on including any LGBT+, racial, body-type, etc diversity? So far, the game seems very focused on straight white people, and, while I'm not demanding a female love interest or anything, I think that using a historical setting doesn't mean you can't implement more modern values of inclusivity and diversity in your writing and character design. I'm excited for the game either way, but I would love to see some that. A wonderful example of a period piece that includes phenomenal diversity without impacting the story negatively is Northanger Abbey: The Game by spiralatlas here on itch.io. It includes body type, race, dis/ability, gender vs. presentation, and LGBT+ diversity. If you're skeptical at how those ideas can fit into this type of setting, I highly recommend giving it a look! :)
Second, echoing the feedback of others, I found the font very difficult to read and understand, so I wasn't able to read a lot of the content to the demo. The font here on the itch.io page is quite straining as well, but to a lesser extent, thankfully. The art, however, looks lovely-- especially the backgrounds! I am getting some minor uncanny-valley vibes from the characters' faces, but overall, your attention to detail and your setting really comes across in the visuals! They're beautiful. My only criticism goes back to my question above about diversity in the appearances of your characters.
Thirdly, I just wanted to give a bit of friendly feedback on your use of French/one bit of French culture.
- This is a minor thing, but when you use terms of endearment, you don't need to capitalize them -- the French language is kind of allergic to capitalization. For instance, Miss Fernside's mother could say, "Give them time, ma petite," and "Bien, allez! Make yourself ready."
- Also a minor thing -- in French, the name "Elodie" has un accent aigu over the first 'E,' like this: Élodie.
- French has some terms of endearment that sound a bit insane when directly translated, but that convey much more familiarity and just...warm soft love than ma/mon petit(e) does, if you want to consider them (if that's your goal). Some examples off the top of my head are ma bichette (my little dove), mon bijou (my jewel), ma puce (my flea), mon ciel étoilé (my starry sky), mon chou (my cabbage/my pastry)/chou chou, and the classics, like ma chère/chèrie, mon ange, etc. Just not mon amour -- it's super clichéd and only for romantic partners, which a lot of people don't seem to realize.
- In France, it is incredibly common and considered perfectly polite to greet others (less so between two men greeting each other) with a kiss or two on the cheek/s, as opposed to a bow, as portrayed here between Mme. Fernside and Mr. Worthington. I don't know how assimilated to English (I assume) culture you want Mme. Fernside to be, as she's using French phrases, but I figured that was worth pointing out just in case!
I hope none of that came across as pushy or know-it-all-ish! Feel free to ignore me if any of this makes me sound obnoxious; it is not my intention. Again, I'm super excited to follow development and am looking forward to the next build! I'm sorry for my super long comment (I'm just excited, I swear), and best of luck with this ambitious project!! I will be following along with bated breath. :))