Monday, March 12, 2012

Thoughts on TMB Beta

Wow, we are still "running" here and working on a lot of things. Luckily I was able to check off a few from last week's list. Whoo-hoo!

I would love to tell you all about my Beta pass (where several of us in the office play through the rough game build all the way, testing it and making notes, and sending feedback to our lead tester and our designer). But I really can't tell you all about it, and that's just awful, because that's very teasing of me. ;) I will say that after considering how many people fear cliches in Tomb of the Lost Queen, I will conclude with these thoughts:

Sometimes to grab a great story in a well-known environment or situation, it's good to grab the essence of the area or theme by using those cliches, or the things it is well-known for. For example: We are going to Egypt. Can we make a game that our fans (you) anticipate without using absolutely no pyramids, tombs, mummies, hieroglyphs, sand, curses, history, or Pharaohs? Perhaps. But it might not feel like Egypt. So we did add a few of those elements, and made it into, (what I think) is it's own unique story and mystery.

I really liked this game, it has -- nope, sorry. I will not spill the secrets. >_< Ok, maybe if I keep quiet, but post an image, that will suffice? ~.^

How about some puzzle answers, aye?
A. The Number of games that features a hand holding a necklace on the box art minus one. [2 - 1 = 1]
B. The game # Legend of the Crystal Skull is minus # of Nancy’s best friends (all of them) [17 - 3 = 14]
C. The Number of paw prints on the Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake’s page plus three. [2 +3 = 5]
D. The number of letters of the name of the first character listed on the Characters page for Trail of the Twister multiplied by 2, minus one. [12 x 2 = 24 and 24 - 1 = 23]
E. The number of fish you see on the White Wolf of Icicle Creek page, multiplied by 6. [2 x 6 = 12]
F. The # of games with the Nancy Drew name in cursive writing on the cover, multiplied by 3. [5 x 3 = 15]
G. Game number for The Haunting of Castle Malloy minus the game number for Treasure in the Royal Tower. [19 - 4 = 15]
H. The number on the clock that the long hand is pointing to on the Secret of the Old Clock page plus one. [10 +1 = 11]

Now take those numbers you got at the end of each problem, and find the corresponding letter in the alphabet. A = 1, B = 2. You should get [A New Look]. Perhaps if you subscribe to our Newsletter email tonight, you will learn what this means tomorrow. ~.^

~Little Jackalope~

3 comments:

Future Animator said...

You made my night by posting that sneak peak! :D Can't tell you how excited I am. I even bought some cool nail polish just for TMB. A gold glitter called Cleopatra. :D Can't wait for more sneak peaks.
I have an idea what the answer to the weekend puzzle is, I've been hearing lots of rumors about a new interface in TMB. :D can't wait until tomorrow to find out! I know, In like very sentence I've said "Can't wait" I can't hold it in any longer! I CAN"T WAIT FOR TMB! GONNA BE AWESOME!!!! :D :D :D i'm done ;D

Anonymous said...

The picture looks like things I've seen in movies and stuff.Does that mean ancient booby traps??

From me,
Silvertongue.

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!! So awsome!!! Can not wait for TMB!!!! Is this a tomb??? Or the tomb of the queen??? Any way it looks super awsome. It looks so real!!! (: It was funny my dad saw my wallpaper that was Nancy's living room in ASH, and he thout it was real!!!(:
~ from NANCYGEEK