A Jane Austen videogame has been something I've wanted to pursue too - but finding an investor to support the idea has proved impossible! :)

I believe there is a market as well. I personally think a line of story games similar to Phoenix Wright based on authors popular with women could do well. I think the market would have to be jump started though by endorsement and promotion by someone like Oprah because otherwise the target market will never find out about the product let alone actually play it

zomg Gregg that is brilliant! i'll tap into Oprah's Angel Network to get money to fund this game.

Anyone play Hotel Dusk? Flawed, sure, but I thought that could be a good model for a story-based Jane Austen-style game, with simplified and stylized art assets and branching storylines.

A friend (and mother) writes:

"Helena is very interested in the Jane Austen game. She has asked to see the link to the book as well as the discussion about the game. So if 13 year old girls are the target market, just a mention of the game had her asking for more."

Sounds like you got a market :)