Packages and Scares

Monday, Monday, Monday! I'm glad to come to HI on Mondays. It means a new adventurous week in the office (well, as adventurous as an office could be). Today I mailed out some games to anxious fans. See the tower of fun the mailman gets to take with him? It's practically toppled over. What should I call it? The leaning tower of mystery? Santa's bundle? Suspicious packages? Nah, nix that last one, we wouldn't want to send the wrong message. I've been testing the latest game build (still, it's taking me a while and I have distractions), but for the first time ever I came to a part where I really did fly back in my chair and yell out loud. Kind of an embarrassing thing to do in a quiet office. I am proud of this team for successfully scarring me. Three cheers for them, they got me!

Playing games kind take up a lot of time, note to self: sometime this week I should work on some missing wallpapers and bookmarks. Speaking of which, there is a new bookmark up from The Phantom of Venice! Check it out!

Congrats to the super sleuth who cracked the weekend puzzle in less than two hours! Here's the solution:
[Draw up an analogue clock. Beginning with 1 o’clock, label each number with letters. Continue lettering the numbers around the clock, stacking up doubles and some triples. Place the lined circle over this clock and connect the dots to the accompanying letter. The numbers from the puzzle reference which stacked letter to include. The starting point is at 8 o’clock and the clue refers to the second letter (T) and then the 1st (H). It then goes to 5 o’clock referring to the first letter (E) and so on. The “1st and 1st” means to double that same letter (LL).]

Spoiler Answer: [The Haunting of Castle Malloy]

Take care!

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle

Hellos!

The excitement has been quite high, what with the launch of Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch. We released a whole slew of great entertainment to go with it; trailers, contests, radio shows, and more! You can check out a lot of the coverage in this month's newsletter. Have you had a chance to play Shadow Ranch yet?

We're getting you set up for the weekend with a brand new puzzle - check it out!

- Weekend Puzzle -

Directions: 2nd and 1st. 1st. 1st. 1st. 2nd. 2nd. 2nd. 1st. 2nd. 1st. 2nd. 1st. 1st. 1st. 2nd. 2nd. 1st. 1st. 2nd and 1st. 1st and 1st. 2nd. 3rd.

Hint: The alpha is at 1:00AM but the end isn't till 2:00AM comes around again.

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Good luck, puzzlers!

- Novel -

Winter Celebration

Yesterday was up-beat and exciting in the office with the release of Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch. We celebrated with amazingly cute cupcakes (and yes, I did get my red velvet with butter cream frosting, it was wonderful). Today is much quieter and here's why: It is a winter wonderland over here! I suppose some office workers made a safe decision to stay at home. It's too bad, because many of us went out to lunch for a well-deserved meal after a hard week's worth of scurrying.

My to-do list includes testing the latest game and documenting a few things, and to think about weekend puzzles. By the way, you sleuths have been doing great on cracking them. What are your favorite type of weekend puzzles? Is there a type of puzzle you wish for more of? Any new styles come to mind? I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on this!

~Little Jackalope~

iSHA Released! Yee-haw!

Hiyo! Today is a very exciting day for us! Our new series Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries has finally released Shadow Ranch for the iPadTM, iPhone®, and iPod Touch®! The office is buzzing to keep everything in proper order and double-checking it all to see if everything works for this new game. We will have a little celebration today in honor of this (I heard rumors of cupcakes; I hope they will get red velvet with butter cream frosting).

Also, today we will be announcing some lucky contest winners, so keep your eyes pealed for further tidbits!

As for me, I'll be playing the latest game build (my first testing round) and I'm excited to see a complete environment (it's so unique)!! I might find the time to maybe possibly squeeze in some video uploading and art creating for a few websites...but I like the idea of spending a whole day testing a new game. We'll see.

Office update: it was supposed to snow here, but the snow decided to bypass the office and is down pouring in nearby towns. It may or may not impact our work this week, we'll just have to wait and see.
Office image: Our finished castle puzzle #2:
Props to you sleuths for solving last weekend's puzzle (and shame on me for overlooking that the other day)!
Solution: [You need to count the words in the Shadow Ranch PC game's page summary. The first number refers to the word, the second letter refers to the letter in that word.] Answer: [Dave or Ned].

~Little Jackalope~

iSHA Suspense Build-up!

Hey howdy hey! Have a good weekend? I was a bit bored (don't tell anyone, but I like working when it's working here at Her Interactive). Since we were gone yesterday, everyone has been thinking today's Monday and we are scrambling to get two days' worth of work accomplished in one day. Exciting but busy!

While working on a new daily task list I found a sketch in my notepad from many months prior. It was a doodle I did while in an important meeting. Yeah, our creative minds never cease the creativity output.Hey! New wallpaper is up for download featuring an image from Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch, which is releasing tomorrow!! (I'm excited.)

Nobody started the weekend puzzle from last week? Well here's a push in the right direction: "Our site is an important tool."

Gotta get back to iSHA projects!

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle

Hello all,

I hope this Friday finds you fine. We're all excited for the release of Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch. The launch is happening next week on February 23rd! Can you believe it? Plus we'll be announcing the winners and answer to the "Case of the Missing iPad" contest on the same day. Next week is going to be busy. And as Jackalope said, we're out on Monday. Ahh well, that's just one extra day to crack this week's puzzle. Check it out:

- Weekend Puzzle -

(33.1)(52.2)(64.3)(4.7)(14.3)(2.1)(58.6)(8.4)(23.1)

Hint: Discovering The Secret of Shadow Ranch, is all in how you summarize it.

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Good luck detectives! We'll see you on Tuesday.

- Novel -

Fussy Machines

I started my day off with spilling tea on my shirt and sweater. Oops. Next I uploaded a few trailers to our other channels and documented the ones already up. After that I was informed that a brand new video went up! Yay! The second episode of the Nancy Drew Radio Mystery series with detective Private iPadTM continues its suspenseful saga. Be sure to check it out.

Next on my task list was to print some labels, but the silly printer was giving me attitude. With the help of a savvy few people we were able to make it cooperate.

On the topic of machines and labels, here's our disc replicator: this super machine copies and shoots out games from a master disc. After awaking from a sixth-month hibernation it didn't want to work, as if it was still rusty and trying to stretch its muscles. After our tech team gave it stern talking-to, it grudgingly submitted, and is making an abundance of early game builds, ready for testing!

Here's a sneak peak at what a few of us do in our spare time: yet again, another teasing image of an awesome castle puzzle! This time it's an image of the front (last image was of the backside). Until Tuesday (oh, just a note: we won't be here for President's Day Monday, so enjoy the puzzle releasing tomorrow and all the cool trailers we have until then.)

Ta-ta for now!
~Little Jackalope~

On the matter of Castles.

So I suppose we've been teasing some readers with all the super awesome stuff we do here at HI, including the things we do on our break times. Building castles out of foam puzzle pieces is such a relaxing yet brain-teasing pasttime, and we love them. They make for nice trophy displays and conversation pieces here, especially for the season of castle creating in our games.

While the castle in Treasure in the Royal Tower was lovely and the ruined castle in The Haunting of Castle Malloy was creepy and ominous, the castle in our latest game will be different. It will be it's own unique environment with its own unique secrets and its own unique beauty (can I stress the beauty more? It's gorgeous!) If you have some spare time, I recommend doing a little research on German castles, it will be even more exciting when you get to play the game.

We've been working on a new, smaller castle puzzle during our lunch breaks. Here's a peak at it, albeit still unfinished:

New Twitter quote contest today! Tweet your answer for a chance to win a digital download game!

~Little Jackalope~

The World of Nancy Drew + Feathers

Isn't it amazing how many different things Nancy has done in the games? I find it so much fun trying things in the games that I would never get to do in real life, and other things I've never even thought of doing. How often have you climbed caves to look for bats, or disarm a bomb, or explore hidden rooms? Not to mention all the second chances (and still get to live through them). My personal favorite is getting to explore the different environments and cultures of different countries. These games offer a world (fictional and some non-fictional) of opportunities that we can enjoy in the comfort of our homes. It's fun to say to someone "the first time I drove a car was in The Secret of the Old Clock" or "I know what an ohm is and what a soldering gun does" or "of course I discovered a small fortune, it's just on the screen and not in my hands". How cool is that? What experiences were new to you when you played the games?

On a side note, I got to experience a new outdoor game with the HI team when I started here and just the other day earned the "Feathers of Shame". Here's my temporary trophy:I hope to pass these feathers on to someone else, but it's raining outside, so I will wallow in humiliation. (This is actually quite a funny situation among office folk).

Today's the last day to submit your entry into the Nancy Drew Missing iPad contest. Check out the video and send your solution to solved@herinteractive.com.

~Little Jackalope~

Valentine's Day Update.

It's a sure busy Monday! People brought in some cookies and cupcakes to share (how nice!). There is a lot of things I want to mention, oh where to start...?

There is new carpeting in the entrance to our offices (and we can still smell the new carpet adhesive), I saved a ladybug's life, had a coffee meeting with Novel, there was an office shout-out email to an artist working on a very important puzzle (which I heard is quite intricate and it has been a battle with making it work without any problems) and he has done such a wonderful job! I had to snoop through the art files to find this mini game, it's looking great!

We have been busy with getting these games ready, especially with the Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch (iSHA), have you seen any of the new trailers and fun old time radio show for the iPad and Nancy? Don't miss out on that new series! Also, check out the new iSHA wallpaper to download from our homepage. Who-hoo!

Congrats to the sleuth(s) that solved last week's puzzle without hints! For those who have not seen the solve, here it is: [Each set is a letter found on the buttons of a phone; (3.2) refers to button 3, 2nd letter which is "E".] Here's what it says: [Eye Shadow].

February's only going to get better!
~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle

Hiyo!

I hope everyone is doing well. We've been busy, as I'm sure you've seen. There's been a whole bunch of new content in the past couple of weeks, and we've got a bit more to go! Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch is on its way, and we're giving it the "red carpet" treatment. Expect to hear more soon!

But it's Friday, so on to the brain-teasing:

- Weekend Puzzle -

(3.2)(9.3)(3.2)(7.4)(4.2)(2.1)(3.1)(6.3)(9.1)

--

Good luck detectives! See you next week. ^.^

- Novel -

Partner Contest Winners!!

Congrats to Kate and Jolee for winning the Nancy Drew Partner Contest!!
(Out of a list of the judges' favorites, these two were picked randomly).

Here's Kate's entry:

"Nancy Drew. You can just tell by her name that she is a determined, smart, and courageous girl detective. She is famous for solving hundreds of mind-baffling mysteries. Hardly anybody can match wits with Nancy Drew. So who has enough true grit to team up with this sleuth? Why, Samantha Quick, of course!

Samantha Quick was introduced in the Nancy Drew PC Adventure Game series in the Phantom of Venice. Nancy has to impersonate Samantha so she can meet Enrico Tazza at the Casa dei Giochi Club in Campo Santa Margherita. She wears a red dress, blonde wig, white gloves, and dark sunglasses to complete the impersonation. Samantha is from the states, but is being educated at the Doppeler Institute for Independent Industrial Arts in Switzerland learning who-knows-what (and is at the top of her class). Apparently, though, she’s a thief, and a pretty good one at that. Stealing the Sadal Melik sapphire (for which Enrico hired her) would probably be a picnic for her, even though Nancy Drew, sleuth extraordinaire, was caught a couple of times. Samantha even phones the detective at the Ca’ Nascosta, where Nancy is staying, right before she is about to steal the sapphire. Samantha knows all about River Heights, and even Ned Nickerson. Although Nancy hardly knows anything about Samantha, Miss Quick certainly seems to know quite a bit about Nancy.

It seems as though Samantha can dig up information about anybody, break into high-Tec security places, and deal with fellow criminals without batting an eye, and all without being caught. If she and Nancy Drew teamed up, they would be just about invincible. You’ve got the sleuth who deducts, snoops, and solves impossible puzzles, and the thief who is living incognito, one foot in the criminal world.

Of course, teaming up with Samantha could have a couple of downfalls, too. Nancy and Samantha would probably have several discussions about obeying the law and breaking it. We all know Nancy stays in the lines as much as possible, while Samantha might jump at the opportunity to bend, if not break, the law. And hanging around a thief could be strange for Nancy, especially if Samantha wore her weird costume all the time. But I’m pretty sure that Samantha and Nancy would resolve all arguments fairly quickly, and that Nancy would gain good experience from being teammates with Samantha-for when she needed to face a real honest-to-goodness criminal.

Even though Nancy and Samantha wouldn’t be the best of pals, they would get used to each other, and work together almost perfectly. Combine an amazing detective who has solved impossible mysteries, and a sly, unknown enigma, and you get a team that could stand up to practically anything and solve the toughest, hardest, most inconceivable cases ever."
_____________________

...And here's Jolee's entry:

"I think if there was any character from the Nancy Drew PC game series that Nancy could team up with best, it would have to be Hilda Swenson from Danger on Deception Island. First of all, Hilda is extremely brilliant- she created all of those puzzles in hope that someone clever enough would come across them someday. Hilda is also nosy (in a good, detective way), which allowed her and her husband to discover all of those secret passageways that they did. Hilda is a master at creating puzzles and passageways, Nancy is a master at solving puzzles and navigating passageways- and they are both very keen. Together, they would be the perfect dynamic duo in solving mysteries! Besides, I personally thought Hilda was a very interesting character that I would love to hear again from in future games and would love to see her in person, rather than over a phone. It would be good to bring back some aspects from older games before they are forgotten."
_____________________


We love reading your thoughts and creative ideas, so keep entering these contests and sweepstakes!
Happy Sleuthing!
~Little Jackalope~

Box Art and Old Radio Shows

We took a look at a proof of a box layout plus the embossing design, it's is pretty cool to see our boxes from its early stages to the finished product. Also, another cover design for a new game is in the process of being fully illustrated (now that the layout design was decided upon). I'm excited to see the finished result! Note to self: find (snoop for) images that will go on the back of the box without getting distracted by the Koko Kringle candy bar wrapper in every folder I look through. How do I always manage to find that when I'm going through files? Or maybe the candy is calling to me...

Contest winners are being selected, so keep an eye out!
Oh! We posted a new video up, it's an old radio-style program mini-series (and it reminds me a little of "Creepy Corner" from The Secret of the Old Clock, but modern 2011 updated).

Congrats for solving last weekend's puzzle! New weekend puzzle on the morrow, heading your way.
~Little Jackalope~

Smelly fridges and clues under our noses. *Sniff*

I'm having quite a different day today. Office updates include the following: There's a new office puzzle we are working on during our lunch breaks in the kitchen, (maybe I'll post a picture when it starts to take formation), something smells in one of our refrigerators and we have yet to find the cause, testing on a few major in-game puzzles have begun, and I get to do some extensive snooping for images of our newest working-in-progress game. Any excuse to peek at the latest work is fun, I can tell you this (and I may have said this before); there are some beautiful environments and puzzles in this game! I'm super excited for the overall look!

By the way, the winners for the "Partner" contest will be posted soon, the judge(s) are spending a lot of time reading the entries. Keep a weather eye out!
Twitter quote contest is up today! Check it out!

New hint for last week's puzzle: "Keys under your nose". (No grammatical error here.) Have at it!
~Little Jackalope~

Office Cases, art, and Cursed Puzzles!

Our production department is scurrying to get a beta build done for some serious testing. This is the fast and busy part for them and I'm excited to test out this early version of the game. (I occasionally sneak a peek at some environment art, which is so beautiful and rich!)

As for me, today I have solved the case of the missing wallet (in the car glove box) and am now on the case of the "Cursed Puzzle #83". Something weird about this puzzle is making it unsolvable and I am determined to find out what the trick is (starting with tracking down its origin).

I have also been busy editing some art from past games and creating a layout design with what we already have. It is really fun to present the games in a nice design that really catches the eye. Studying the game cover art is also real inspiring, which I got to take a peek at (talk about thriller art!) It will be nothing like what you have seen currently on the Internet (although those artists are quite talented) so no worries folks!

Anybody working on last week's puzzle? As soon as you know what to look at, the rest is easy.
Hopping back to work,
~Little Jackalope~

Fans have great minds.

Not much on office news today. It's a Monday and therefore it is the wake-up day of the week. I've been catching up on some art surrounding the game covers, and I've also been reading the message boards. We are very interested in reading about what our fans are talking about, it's so much fun hearing what you predict and expect of the upcoming games, and you always have great ideas for future situations to put Nancy in. Just letting you know that we do take to heart and mind what our fans want!

Oh! Lookie: our office puzzle is complete! Hooray! Now the sad part is going to taking it down...maybe I'll wait until someone mentions it. Can you identify this famous German Castle?

Ooh..the weekend puzzle isn't solved yet? Perhaps my being vague paid off! (I've been trying to best you sleuths for a while now, but you keep cracking these puzzles so quickly!) Here's a hint: "Key" as in verb or noun, not code word or unlocking something.

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle

It's Friday!

Yup, that means two wonderful things. One - I get to stop by and spread some end of the week cheer. :) And Two - Weekend Puzzle!

Jackalope's been keeping things running well around here. It has been quite a busy Winter for us. Usually we get a little time to relax at the start of the year, but with the Mobile Mysteries coming at the end of the month we're in launch mode already! Plus I hear that The Captive Curse is starting to go in to some major testing rounds. We're making some good mystery here folks!

On to business - Puzzles. Check it out!

- Weekend Puzzle -

5.10.25.26.23.8.16.16.5.9.3.22.3.11.9.14.25.3.

Hint: Key first, 3x6 next.

--

Good luck to everyone, we'll see you next week.

- Novel -

P.S. Don't forget to enter the "Partner Contest" the deadline is on Monday!

Castles and Cover Art

A little excitement is stirring in the kitchen today; our 3D castle is becoming more vertical! Although there are a few confusing stone pieces left to put together, most of it has yet to be assembled. Here's an image of the courtyard:Besides that I've been working with the cover designs of all our past games, and touching up a few box shots that look so awesome without text. I love looking at them without text! Speaking of images, there are a few wallpaper requests coming in. I may have a talk with Novel about getting those (no guarantees when they will be available, though). I wonder if a Sonny Joon wallpaper would be popular...

Hopping back to work,

~Little Jackalope~

Excitement in the slow times.

This is a really exciting time for some of us in the office (and the perhaps the most infuriating for our fans). Ok, maybe it's exciting only to me, because it's a bit mind-boggling and slow at times. It's the halfway point in creating a game when most of the art is done, the puzzling process of piecing the game together happens, first round of testings have begun, and preparations of presenting the whole game is on our minds.

Earlier we were looking at our old cover designs and went over a few ideas in a discussion about the future cover designs. It's a lot of fun to be in this process to see how the final images are brought together. For an example of this, check out the Secrets Can Kill Remastered game's blog on the cover design process. I'm also excited that I get to work on some new (small) designs that go into the future games. So cool! I hope it works out well.

Twitter quote contest is today, check it out along with the new Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch (iSHA) feature tidbit mentioned earlier.
~Little Jackalope~

The mysterious sounds are not my imagination!

As I may have mentioned before, every once and a while I would hear a horse whinny. It would come from any direction in this office, meaning not only is it coming from different locations, it also moves mid-whinny!

After two months, I finally discovered the source: the new Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries®: Shadow Ranch game, of course. (That explains the moving sounds, it's on a mobile device). More specifically I learned from what part of the game it is coming from. Our executive producer has been testing and timing a few of us office volunteers on a small area where the horse whinnies repeatedly. It was such fun! I sure hope many of you sleuths out there will enjoy it as much as I did.

By the way, more info has been released on iSHA! Yay! Check out the product page and Dare to Play blog. Many tidbits of iSHA info will aslo be released daily via Twitter, so keep a close watch for that.

Happy gaming!
~Little Jackalope~