Contest Winners and Prizes!

We finished up a bunch of contests (really only two) and have declared our winners!

Our Facebook Caption Contest for Phoenix's Ghost Hallway picture received a record-breaking response of captions, so Phoenix set some time to read through all of them, narrow down her top favorites, and then the team decided on the final winning caption sent by Gussie J. with her caption:

"Monster sighted in the hall! This is NOT a drill! Monster sighted in the hall!”

Congrats Gussie! (If you see this, please email us at solved@herinteractive so we can get you your prize.) I read through several captions, and they were all so funny! I was laughing really hard at some of them. XD

As for the Video Testimonials, we watched every single one, and after selecting a short list of the best, we let the entire office vote. Here are the results of the office's choices:

3rd place winner: Hannah B., who will receive an Alibi in Ashes cover art Magic Mug.

2nd place winners: Jacqueline and Meredith V., who will receive a T-shirt of their choice in our merchandise store.

1st place winner: Our Grand prize winner is Mallory H. for her video testimonial featuring an original song that told her story and why she loves Nancy Drew! Congrats! She will receive an iPod Touch® with our Shadow Ranch game book app on it.

There were so many great videos, and several I really enjoyed watching and hearing everything you all said. Perhaps I shall share some of my favorites with you later, but you can see them all for yourself in our Video Testimonial play list on our YouTube Channel here. Thanks everyone for participating! It was such great fun! :)

Head's up! There will be no Twitter Quote Contest tomorrow, as many of us will be busy with our new Kickstarter Campaign we are currently working on. Speaking of that, Megan and Stuart have a new video up on our YouTube Channel, and if you would like more information about what mischievousness we are up to, check out our new page site that helps explain why we are going to run this campaign. Stay tuned for more videos on Kickstarter in the future!

~Little Jackalope~

"Call Me Nancy, Second Chance Me!"

For those of you who subscribed to our YouTube Channel or noticed our post on our Facebook page or via Twitter...Phoenix uploaded an amazing new video called "Call Me Nancy, Second Chance Me!"

This time it's a music video featuring her and I sporting *cough* super-incredible-skilled dance moves to an un-original song, but with original Nancy Drew-themed lyrics. (You can read these lyrics in the video description). Phoenix wrote these herself (not bad, I say!!) This was what she and I were doing last week, and yes, you may now finally see me... XD

Hope you enjoy this music video, brought to you by Phoenix! Click here to watch it!

Looks like a few of you have solved the puzzle. Congrats! To solve this, you need to look at the [buttons on a phone]. For example 3.2 means [number 3 button, 2nd letter]. Look for each of these to get this answer: [First Tuesday] which refers to [August 7th]. As for the puzzle numbers...

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #149 + Favicons!

Oops, looks like last week's puzzle had a typo in the title. No worries, today should add up. What's really cool about the puzzles is that they are always continuing on Fridays!

If you have refreshed your Internet browser lately, you might have noticed a very tiny update to this blog, and also to our main site www.herinteractive.com. That little change is addition of the Favicons! Take a look at the top of your window, and where it says what site you are on. Right next to it is the little picture icon seen here:

~Hey look! It's a little-er version of me!~

I'm using Firefox to show you, but if you are using Internet Explorer, you might not see it right away.

Reminder: Today is the last day to submit your video testimonial! For more information, click here.
Reminder #2: Facebook caption contest! Post your caption to the image we posted!

On to the weekend puzzle!

Your hint if you need it [press].

3.3 - 4.3 - 7.3 - 7.4 - 8.1 - 8.1 - 8.2 - 3.2 - 7.4 - 3.1 - 2.1 - 9.3

~Little Jackalope~

Videos, Snooping, and Interviews, Oh My!

We have several announcements today, and if you subscribed to our Newsletter, you might have already learned about all that is going on. (To view our latest newsletter, Click Here). I'm just going to catch you all up to speed on everything below:

1. Tomorrow (Friday July 27) is the last day to submit your Video Testimonial! For more information and to view the amazing prizes, check out our Video Testimonial Contest page. I have watched almost all of them, and I absolutely love hearing what you all have to say! Some of you even got creative with how you presented yourselves. So you know, you are allowed to play Nancy Drew music during in your video if you would like. :) I can tell that our office is going to have a tough time picking a winner, if I had the final say, I'd pick everyone! XD

2. We have another Facebook Caption Contest going on this week, starting today! (This contest is Facebook exclusive). What is Phoenix thinking or saying in the picture we posted? Post your caption to the photo on our page for a chance to win an Ultimate Nancy Drew Journal (which we also have on sale in our merchandise store for $9.99 right now). Contest ends Monday night!

3. We interviewed our fantastic Lead 2D Artist, Kris! What kind of stories do you think she could tell? Find out what she has to say and learn what projects she has worked on that you have seen in the games in her interview on the Dare to Play Blog!

4. We also interviewed one of our amazing moderators on the message board! Check out what ~Jinkies Nancy!~ has to say here!

5. On Tuesday, if you haven't already seen it, Phoenix uploaded a video to our YouTube Channel of her snooping through the office to find important information! What will she find? Will she get caught? Oh the suspense!! Watch it now!

Whew! I don't know about you, but that's a lot to announce!

Weekend puzzle tomorrow! And I've learned something interesting about the egg culprit....will mention it tomorrow. (o.O)
~Little Jackalope~

More Eggs = Fan Art!

One of our fans, Isabel sent in some great pictures of her work over the course of this year. She's been hollowing out eggs and decorating them, one just like the egg in Alibi in Ashes, the other from my silly Sonny Joon drawing a while back. And her egg looks far better than mine, I think. :P

Thanks for sharing Isabel, and nice work!! One of my eggs has really come to life! I'm so happy! :')

Today Phoenix and I will be recording footage for her next blog video. If you haven't checked out all of her uploads, watch them now on our YouTube Channel!

Head's up! Tomorrow we are having a caption contest on Facebook!
~Little Jackalope~

Egg Mystery = Accusations Part 1

First off, it's one of our awesome fans' birthday today! Happy Birthday Zara!

 

Secondly, Phoenix posted a new video today! She is snooping through the CEO and President's offices. (o.O) What will she find? Will she get caught? And if she does, what will she say? You'll just have to watch now!!


As for the Egg Mystery, the following day I went around and asked all of my usual suspects, and they all had similar reactions to my odd questioning: some had never heard of "egg blowing" and the rest were surprised that I had received a new egg. All except for one.

Although I have no hard evidence, I used the Nancy skill of interrogating suspects to listen carefully for their answers and study their faces. So far only two people have given me enough of a face to where I believe they are the culprit. Our Creative Director, Tim, was correct: there are multiple egg culprits!

Before I explain my thinking, here is what the papers lead to: The song lyrics at the 55 second mark says [I am the eggman]. Take a look at the solved puzzle here:

I therefore accuse the following people for their genius and standing-ovation-worthy skills:

The Chocolate Egg  = I had left late the previous night, therefore there weren't very many (if any) workers left in the office. The following morning I arrived super early, and I checked my drawer right away, finding the chocolate egg (which didn't exist very long, yum). I quickly went around the office to find 6 other people besides me. Three artists, two from production, one IT, and CJ at the front desk. [Tim, our Creative Director] has often suggested multiple culprits, and he had the best opportunity and the most guilty face. But since he has super mad sneaking skills, he could still be innocent yet try to gain the attention as the clever one. (Giving you the credit! Thanks for the most edible egg, and most tastiest one at that!)

The Glass Egg = Ok, this one was already solved, but let's include it to keep track. This appeared mid-day when I was away from my desk. Asking someone nearby proved helpful, as he eye-witnessed [Megan, our President and CCSO] around my desk who then quickly rushed past. When questioned, she confessed that she simply wanted to give it to me because of this egg mystery, and since I was away, what perfect opportunity to place it in the famous drawer!

The Hollowed Egg = Like Nancy Drew, I asked out-right questions to see the suspects' reactions. All but one person seemed surprised. My last suspect to question was in production, and when asked if she knew how to blow eggs, she answered yes. (Check off one point!) She knew very well of the song to which I was referring, in fact, she had the song at her desk (Check off two points). I asked out-right if it was her, and she smiled and said something like "Maybe. It may or may not have been me, I cannot account for my actions yesterday. I will not say." Yep, that doesn't strike me as a puzzled or surprised response. (Her sister verified that white eggs were in their home, that they both knew how to hollow eggs, and were both familiar with the song.) Keeping close attention to her face, I decided that [Cathy, our designer who is good at creating puzzles] is for sure the Hollowed Egg Puzzle culprit. (Bonus points to you for your carefully thought-out work, and sending me in circles!)

Sadly, I do not have answers to all of the other eggs, including the Dozen Eggs. So no one gets credit yet for those.

Hm...I wonder if the Dozen-Egg culprit will strike again, hopefully not with twelve, but maybe one. Yeah, I wasn't really sure what to do with 12 eggs. XD

*Edited* I nearly forgot the weekend puzzle! Actually, I'm not very good at explaining this kind of cipher. The answer is [Right is Higher]. 

~Little Jackalope~

Egg Mystery: Hollow Egg!

Happy 15th birthday Katie!!

As I promised last week, I shall delve into the additions to the Egg Mystery that has been going on for the past couple months.

 

Last Thursday, it was late in the afternoon when I finally checked my desk drawer again. Behold! A new white chicken egg! There was no stamp visible, but when I picked it up I noticed how light it was. It was empty! Taking a closer look revealed two tiny holes at either end. Someone had very carefully blown the yolk out of the shell. I smiled and set it down, but as I was about to put it back into the dark drawer, I decided to pick it up again and try to look inside the holes.

There was something inside!! I shook the egg and several tiny items were rattling inside, so I got out my scissors and carefully clipped away at the larger hole. What fell out were several pieces of tiny papers that must have been rolled up so tiny and tight as to fit inside the small opening. Here are the coded numbers:

 Since it was late, I taped up the picture (which was the Sonny Joon alien) and took all of these home. Together with my family we turned the numbers into letters and got a mix of words. We re-arranged them to read this: [The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Song #6 0:55-1:00]. I shall let you find out what is at that mark....it made me laugh.

Looks like several of you are a bit stumped on the puzzle, while the rest of you have solved it. Here is the correct cipher you need, I shall reveal the answer on Tuesday: [Bifid cipher].

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #157

We have a new development in the egg mystery that has been going on. I will catch you up on it next week.

Today in the office we are having a kick-off meeting for our next game ND#28. After our designer presents her fabulous PowerPoint, getting everyone  on the same page as we are about to begin this new project (no worries, we are still working very hard on The Deadly Device) we will celebrate with watching a movie in the kitchen. Here's a sketch of me watching the movie from the Tomb of the Lost Queen kickoff meeting:

Once the artists have finished the majority of their art projects, they continue fixing bugs, and then begin the early stages of the next game's environments. Our Character Designer has already been working on the character concepts, and I love what I've seen so far!

I have a new puzzle for you to crack. It contains an insider look at The Deadly Device. ;)

RGRRGFRROSOHW

Good luck sleuths! And have a great weekend! (Oh, and be sure to submit your Video Testimonials!)

~Little Jackalope~

The Message Board

First things first: Happy 12th Birthday Joshua!! Hope you have a great one! (This is a lightning bolt, Tesla-themed cupcake).

 I haven't really spoken much about the message board lately, and I figured now is a grand time to do so!

For our third summer week in a row, we have posted a new interview with Clueless in SA, one of our wonderful moderators. For those who don't know what moderator is, here is a very brief, incomplete description:

The Moderators are all volunteers who patrol the boards and help to keep them clean and safe, making sure the rules are followed. The rules may be tough...(I know, I once got a notice that I had spammed XD), but they help to keep everything in Nancy Drew appropriateness...if that's even a word. :P Well, it is now...hehe.

The moderators aren't mean. They are in fact really nice, kind of like your favorite teacher or favorite uncle. If they weren't around, feelings might be hurt, you wouldn't be able to ask for game hints and get appropriate answers, and you might have to spend hours sifting through post after post of chatter that doesn't exactly offer the help you were looking for.

It's a very tough and important job, but to maintain the quality we strive for in all areas of our games, we must have boundaries to continue going forward with excellence, and to allow everyone to have a lot of fun. You don't hear Nancy swearing awful words or calling people names. It's true that she talks a lot though...especially to herself, but that's where her journal comes in handy, I suppose. Haha.

On to the fun stuff! If you are not a member of the message board, I recommend you browse them for a bit. Here are some great places for you to check out if you are new:

Notes From Her Interactive:
Where the company posts news updates and important information for you.

Blogs and Tweets:
Where you go to discuss the Amateur Sleuth Blog and Dare to Play Blog and Facebook/Twitter posts that we have mentioned. This includes puzzles and contests that were posted in the mentioned places.

Hints and Tips:
For each game, there is a Hints and Tips forum for you to seek out help from fellow players.

Game Reviews:
For each game, there is a Review forum for players who have finished the game and want to tell others about it, often critiquing and scoring it to their preference. Most all of these are spoiler-free, meaning they will tell you about the game without giving away the culprit or any exciting story elements.

I've been a member of the message board for about ten years, and was around before the big Message Board shift that many veterans remember, so I know my way around, and I will still say that besides the strategy guides, the forums are the best places to get game help and hints, and all around the best place to go to discuss Nancy Drew Games! Thanks everyone (moderators especially) for keeping the Message Board a great place to visit and participate in!!

~Little Jackalope~

Brainstorming Names (ND#28)

We had a hurricane in the office yesterday. In the main conference room, several team members (mostly the design team and leads) and I got to sit in on a brainstorm session for the title of our next game that we are just starting to work on: ND#28. We need to begin the process of selecting a game title so that the artist(s) can begin work on the preview at the end of The Deadly Device.

Since our discussion is still top secret, I can share with you a little of the name game process from our last title: Tomb of the Lost Queen.

In the middle of making a game (oh perhaps 3/4 of the way in the game building process), we get the leads and design team together in the main conference room. Our designer briefs on the next story synopsis and together with the writer points out what the mystery emphasis is. (For TMB it was the curse and trying to find the lost queen.

We begin with significant key words (not all are shown):

• Tomb 
• Forgotten 
• Queen 
• Desert 
• Wrath 
• Amulet 
• Search 
• Desert

And then play with different titles using those words (not all are shown):

• Hunt for the Lost Tomb
• Wrath of the Ancient Amulet
• Tomb of the Lost Queen
• The Search for the Lost Tomb

And then for a week or so, we think a little longer and offer any new ideas, next we send out an office-wide email with our top ten titles, and everyone votes. The marketing team then looks at the most popular choices and makes the final call. Once the title is selected, our production team decides the three-letter acronym (TMB). Voila! Team collaboration! So far for ND#28, all we have is the brainstorm notes from the meeting. 

There aren't any photos to help the topic of this post out, but I will include one for good measure:

(Me in color).

Ahh! Twitter Quote contest today! And it's easy! Head over and participate for a chance to win a digital download of Message in a Haunted Mansion!
~Little Jackalope~

Hacktastic Busy Days!

Where did the day go yesterday? And the post? Yikes, you know what that means? We've been busy! Here's what we've been focusing on:

- Secret meetings about the next game
- Focus groups on puzzles
- The news we launched on Facebook about us doing a Kickstarter campaign!!
- Hacky sack

Oh hacky sack! Remember in last week's post how I mentioned "Fun in the Sun"? Well this is what I was hinting at: Phoenix uploaded a new video to YouTube featuring...what else? Members of the Her Interactive team having fun out in the sun playing hacky sack! Watch it now on our YouTube Channel! (And yes, I am out there too. XD).

As for the weekend puzzle, I suppose I was being a little mean, but I made it tough because there is a little reward to the answer: secret knowledge! The keys are from several games, so if you hadn't played the game, chances are you wouldn't recognize it. But I am proud of you all for helping each other out on the Message Boards here! :D

To solve this, first identify all of the keys by the game they were in.
Answers:
1. [The Creature of Kapu Cave]
2. [Secret of the Old Clock]
3. [Shadow at the Water's Edge]
4. [Ransom of the Seven Ships]
5. [The Captive Curse]
6. [The Haunting of Castle Malloy]
7. [Warnings at Waverly Academy]
8. [Secrets Can Kill Remastered]
9. [Trail of the Twister]
10. [Tomb of the Lost Queen]
11. [Message in a Haunted Mansion]
12. [Treasure in the Royal Tower]
13. [The White Wolf of Icicle Creek]
14. [Alibi in Ashes]
15. [Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake]
16. [Tomb of the Lost Queen]
17. [Danger by Design]
Then count (using the number provided) the letters in that game title to get a letter. Your end answer is this: [Creepy animal in DED].

Interviews, Puzzles, and Winners

I'm so excited!! Phoenix's video interview with Nik part #2 is now live on our YouTube Channel! Whoo-hoo!! If you watch it all the way through you should leave a comment in reply to Phoenix's future video thoughts (interviews with other employees, other things you'd like to see in upcoming videos etc...) I'm sure she'd love to hear from you!

 

As for the TXT CHALLENGE, we have selected a winner, but we can't announce it just yet. (Stay tuned for the official winner announcement on Monday). So check your phone messages, and if you are the winner, you will know what to do next.

In the meantime, we still have another contest going on right now! We want to hear from you in a one minute or less video telling us why you like the Nancy Drew Games. we will not be accepting videos from the email. To enter the contest, upload your video to YouTube and then send us the link in the email with your name and age to solved@herinteractive.com. This weekend would be the perfect time to put this together....even I was thinking about doing a video testimonial, but since I work here, I wouldn't be eligible for the prize. Which is fine, because I'd rather go snooping through the updated art files as a reward for a long day's work. Mwahaha...

Weekend puzzle time! This one involves a secret about our next game. Well, kind of a secret. It's a dead giveaway of something small. (Click on the image for a larger view).

You can discuss the puzzle on the message boards here.

Have a great weekend!
~Little Jackalope~

Little Things + Little Secrets

When I showed up to my cubicle this morning I found this:

 

Bunny-shaped marshmallows from Phoenix! I was so happy... :') As much as I wanted to keep them alive, they couldn't survive me. Yeah, I ate them.

I have a few secrets that I cannot really elaborate on and share with you yet...but here are some hints:
- Future Phoenix video: Some fun in the sun
- Next game cover art
- Next game hidden merchandise
- And a hint to the next game in tomorrow's weekend puzzle

For now, I can only share with you these tidbits:
- We have our second Moderator Interview live on our Message Boards! Please welcome our superstar catsandbooks and check out what she has to say here!
- Also, we have another employee interview with our fantastic Administrative Assistant, CJ! If you have ever called our main number, it's likely Cj that you have talked to. What gadget do you suppose she would invent for Nancy Drew if she could? Check out her interview on the Dare to Play blog here!

Today is the last day to play and finish the Nancy Drew TXT CHALLENGE #3! Get your phones out and prove to us that you really know our game characters. ;) The grand prize is amazing, in my opinion.
~Little Jackalope~

Secret Meetings -- Bunnies!!

Several team members here held a top-secret meeting again concerning ND#27, and since it was nice outside, we went out back. There is a slough (a still swamp-like river) surrounding the back end of the building and we are also located on a kind of nature park. Perhaps I have mentioned this before, but we do get a lot of wildlife here, including baby bunnies!!! I didn't have my camera with me, but I did manage to draw a little sketch of the little bunny by the bushes...I promise I was paying attention to the meeting though. >.<

Bunnies are cute. I'm rooting for more bunny (specifically jackalope) appearances in future Nancy Drew games. Speaking of images in future games....

Have you played the Nancy Drew TXT CHALLENGE #3, yet? You only have two more days to complete the challenge and be entered for a chance to win the grand prize! A part of the winner's prize is the ability to get your picture in our next game! Now how cool would it be to see yourself in a Nancy Drew game? You could tell your friends and then show them, and you would be a super star! I don't know about you, but this is my favorite kind of prize!

Oh! I almost forgot this exciting news! Our writer, Nik, was interviewed by our intern Phoenix! Check out the video on our YouTube Channel!

Twitter quote contest is today! This time the quote is a little easier, I recommend you head over and participate for a chance to win a Digital Strategy Guide to The Haunted Carousel! Woot!
~Little Jackalope~

Historical Characters (Spoilers!)

So the TXT CHALLENGE #3 description mentioned that the trivia was about characters and historical figures. To be more accurate, we said this to properly give credit to one of the answers: Nikola Tesla, who is not just a character. He was a real historical person, not someone who was made up.

~And it's his birthday today!!! Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla!!~

I'm looking forward to sharing with you more about our next Nancy Drew mystery that includes him in the story. (If you want to jump ahead of the rest of the detectives, I recommend doing a little research, since he is in fact a real person, and the Internet is full of fun information!) You could possible learn more about the actual deadly device, which is what we call it in the game.

I'm so excited! It's been a while since we've had another historical figure to center on. Edgar Allen Poe, Harry Houdini, Marie Antoinette were all great people to learn about, and honestly....I had personally never heard of Nikola until our design team decided on ND#27! (Learn something new every day!)

Until then, you can watch the preview to ND#27 on our YouTube Channel.
~Little Jackalope~

Old Save Files: Floppy Disks

I was looking through some old art files and found this:

Name that game!

And then it got me thinking about how old this is. Does anyone still use floppy diskettes? Perhaps some of you are too young to remember this memory storage, but you may recognize it as the Save Game icon we used for many of our games.

Now, with our new User Interface (UI), the old-fashioned diskette is gone, replaced by an ornate classy Nancy Drew menu seen in Tomb of the Lost Queen. As a long-term fan, I much prefer the vintage/modern mixed look that I would describe the new UI as. Diskettes are cute and all, but they are rather...square. And fun to draw:

Grr, I confronted my top two egg culprits today. Practically attacked them, but not really. And while both of them continue to deny being a part of it, one of them still thinks there are two egg culprits involved. This person, who I highly think is responsible for at least the chocolate egg, was rather diverting in his answers when I questioned him. Still, this really could mean multiple egg culprits... And I dare them to try placing another egg! My skills are weakening! I would like to request to drop down to the Amateur/Junior level in this mystery....if that could happen. Another clue to re-gain his or her fame on this blog, and throughout the office would put this mystery back on track, because sadly, this case is going cold.

As for the weekend puzzle, bravo to the sleuths who cracked it! The solution is a [rail fence cipher], and after discovering the letters, re-arrange the words to form this riddle: [Why did Nancy chase the chicken across the road? To get the hidden Easter Egg!]. Voila!

~Little Jackalope~

A Weekend of Big Fun!

Ok, so perhaps that title isn't very creative, but it hits my point on the bull's eye! This weekend we have a lot of exciting things going on, it's a wonder that I didn't burst and tell you earlier. But now I can! Let me list them off like a checklist so I don't forget anything...

• First off, 

~Happy Birthday GJ fan!!~

(Hope you have a great one!)

• On the message boards, we are interviewing our fantastic moderators! Beginning with callas, we will interview a moderator each week until the end of summer. We wanted to give our hard workers a little spotlight time for all of the hard work they do, they keep our forums running smooth, clean, safe and enjoyable for everyone. Check out her interview here!

• Are you like me, in that you have several sheets of paper scattered all over with your Nancy Drew game notes? We have a solution for this issue: an official Nancy Drew game journal (the one from the collector's tin set) is now available in our merchandise store! The original price for this item is $14.99, but we are currently offer it at $9.99. Head over and order your own!

• What do you like about Nancy Drew games? We wanted to hear from you, and now's your chance to share with us why you like them in a Video Testimonial Contest! Upload a video (1 minute or less) to YouTube and email us the web link to solved@herinteractive.com with the subject line "Video Testimonial" for a chance to win some prizes! Head over to our web page for more details and complete rules.

• And I'm super excited to present my favorite contest: the Nancy Drew TXT CHALLENGE #3! This time it's trivia! How well do you know our characters and historical figures? Text "Nancy" to 82257 to start playing, the first 200 players to get halfway will get a code for 50% a game. Everyone who gets 60 or more points overall will be entered into the grand prize drawing. Click here for more details!

Last but not least, since today was a busy week for me, our intern, Phoenix, has provided you with a fun weekend puzzle. (Thanks Phoenix!) Enjoy!

23.25.15.4.3.9.11.14.8.1.18.19.4.4.1.3.20.5.8.19.

8.18.1.?.8.3.5.20.5.3.15.19.9.14.14.25.8.3.1.5.

20.5.15.1.20.18.5.8.4.5.5.7.

8.20.5.19.5.7.20.9.4.14.7.!.

Have a great weekend!
~Little Jackalope~

Nancy's Second Chances

Hope you all had a great 4th of July! One comment in response to the previous blog post said:

And I thought "This is so true. Nancy is always destroying things or blowing stuff up...on accident that is." I totally didn't mean for you to go and blow up a bunkhouse or photo lab, set fire to the kitchen or go setting off alarms. That would be bad, since there is no "Second Chance" button to go back before the incident. Ouch. But if you are playing a Nancy Drew game, I would encourage you to push it to the limits and try out what would happen if you attempted to reach the gear over the balcony without help in The Final Scene or didn't switch the correct wires at the roller coaster in The Haunted Carousel, or even press all the incorrect buttons up high above the tomb ground in Tomb of the Lost Queen.

Some of those Second Chances are rather fun to experience, and sometimes they are funny. Someone here in the office enjoys the second chance in Secret of the Scarlet Hand where you can drop the monolith dials. "It's too heavy!" Ah, good times, and some of them: good scares. My current favorite is at the end of The Final Scene if you do not rescue Maya in time. The first time I saw that happen I gasped really hard, and might have jumped a bit. XD

We have some big things planned to come soon, and some clever detectives discovered a little bit of one of the projects, of which we will reveal later....unless you find it, too. ;)
~Little Jackalope~

Happy 4th 2012!!

Head's up! We will be out of the office tomorrow to celebrate Independence Day, whoo-hoo! We hope you all have an awesome 4th of July, but don't do anything Nancy won't do, be safe and stay smart. ;) Now I sound like Hannah Gruen... >.<

There will be no blog post, or Twitter Quote Contest, but we do have a big sale going on right now and lasts until the end of tomorrow: Get 25% off any Digital Game Download using promo code 4JULY2012 at checkout. Are you missing any Nancy Drew Games? Now is your chance to fill the gaps in your collection, so hurry over to our store.

 Have you subscribed to our YouTube Channel? If so, then you might have noticed that intern Phoenix uploaded a new video to her Vlog! Check out the things that Nancy Drew players say (I found this rather funny, since I have said these or at least, thought these before.) XD

Last but not least, Happy Birthday Sydney! Hope you have a great one!

~Little Jackalope~

Creative Project: Phone (keychain) Charms

Birthday shout out!

Check this out! This is a rather old picture, but I thought it would be fun to re-post since it hasn't been viewed lately.

These are made out of that kid's baking clay, you know, the kind that is like putty, and once you bake it, it maintains it shape? And then it was painted. Based on the phone charms in Shadow at the Water's Edge, these are actually bigger than what they would be in real life. More like the size of key chains instead of tiny charms. No matter, this is a fun project for you artists out there! I'm going to post to Pinterest.

Aw nuts! The weekend puzzle was cracked without my needing to provide a hint today! :( Too easy? Perhaps... But here's how you do it. Once you identify all of the bolded/italicized letters in the sentence, which are [WLMLGGLFXSGSVNZIPVIH], treat it like an [Atbash] cipher. This is the cypher where "A" becomes [Z] and "B" becomes [Y] and so on. The end result should be [Do not touch the markers]. Hm, could this be nonsense? Or is it a hint at what Phoenix is up to? Or perhaps it could be a hint at the future...? I'll leave you to detect the answer.

To be fair, since I have created another secret in this puzzle, I shall reveal a previous secret I mentioned a long time ago. Remember this puzzle, and this answer? Answer: [The weight is key to unlocking]. It was referring to Tomb of the Lost Queen, and specifically I meant the [mice scales puzzle]. Ta-da! Secret revealed! ;)

~Little Jackalope~