The Freak Circus

Update history

Every entry here corresponds to an official devlog post on itch.io. Dates are publication dates, not estimates.

Official sources last checked

Harlequin: "That's a secret."
Harlequin in the café. On what the next update contains, this is roughly as specific as the official word gets. Official screenshot.

Current status

Day 1Released

Playable. Café shift, the street encounter with Pierrot, your first night at the circus.

Open
Day 2Released

Playable. Added the Jester, the Doctor and the Ticket Taker, plus the purple, cyan and blue tents.

Open
Day 3In development

In development. No release date has been announced by the developer.

Open
Full gameIn development

The character routes and their endings are still being written. The build is labelled a prototype.

Status taken from the official itch.io page and devlog, last checked

Timeline

  1. Merch

    Official merch and a plush partnership

    Garula announced the first official The Freak Circus merchandise. A limited-run Pierrot plush was sold through GimmeSwag with orders closing July 30 (EST), and a new partnership with the studio 春醴记工作室 now carries official goods, with updates posted on their Rednote, Weibo and Douyin accounts.

    Official source
  2. Localisation

    Revised Chinese translation

    copiklaGrogu delivered a revised Simplified Chinese translation. The pass also fixed a truncated Columbina line that failed to display in full when the player typed the name "Columbina", plus two sprite corrections. Garula noted that Russian, Spanish and Japanese translations have volunteers but no timeline.

    Official source
  3. Patch

    Bugs fixed

    A patch addressing animation stutter in the browser build and a freezing issue in the tents.

    Official source
  4. Devlog

    Known bugs acknowledged

    Garula acknowledged the bugs reported after the Day 2 release while dealing with personal health issues, and confirmed fixes were in progress.

    Official source
  5. Release

    Day 2 released — prototype v0.2

    The Day 2 content drop introduced the Jester, the Doctor and the Ticket Taker as playable-scene characters, along with the purple, cyan and blue tents and the mirror sequence.

    Official source
  6. Devlog

    "Last devlog before the update (I hope!)"

    Garula reported the Day 2 build was finished bar final checks and scheduled the release within that month.

    Official source
  7. Release

    Pronoun options added

    Players can choose how the cast refers to the protagonist. This is why the game has three default protagonist names rather than one.

    Official source
  8. Release

    The Freak Circus launches on itch.io

    The first public build went up on Garula's itch.io page containing Day 1.

    Official source

The official facts, in one table

DeveloperNeko Bueno, publishing as GarulaCreator confirmed
Release statusPrototype v0.2Creator confirmed
PriceName your own price — free to play, paying is optionalCreator confirmed
EngineRen'PyCreator confirmed
PlatformsHTML5 in the browser, Windows, macOS, Linux, AndroidCreator confirmed
LanguagesEnglish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified ChineseCreator confirmed
Characters in the build5 circus membersCreator confirmed
Endings in the build1 bad endingCreator confirmed
Age rating18+. Blood, death, gore, kidnapping, drugging and allusions to cannibalism.Creator confirmed

Credits, as listed officially

Created by

Neko Bueno

Voice acting

Darthsuki

Final review

Yuçuna

Chinese translation

copiklaGrogu

Kinetic text tags

Wattson

SFX and music

Pixabay, YouTube Audio Library

Official channels

itch.ioDevlogTumblr

How this site labels information

In gameCreator confirmedPlannedCommunity theoryUnconfirmed

We do not invent endings, stats or plot. Anything that cannot be traced back to the game itself or to something the developer said is labelled as a theory or as unconfirmed. Editorial policy