The Snack Cupboard: It's Locked!

*Site Update*: The Message Boards will be down tonight for regular server maintenance between 12:00AM and 3:00AM PST. Nothing about the message boards will be changing, so no worries. The updates are mostly for in our office, you won't notice anything afterwards.

Today is one of those days of the week where a person runs out of fuel and just needs a pick-me-up. In my case, this means cookies. And my desk drawers were lacking cookies. Which is a BIG deal. So I went snooping for a snack in our kitchen and there wasn't much available within reach. No worries! I know where to find more: in the supply closet in the kitchen. One problem: "It's Locked!" Which is probably a good thing knowing me...but then, I did know where to find the key. (Shh, don't tell anyone that I went snooping in some one's desk for this.) Cookies re-stocked! Mission success!

Today we added the latest "Nancy Drew Moment" #1:

Oh yeah...it's totally locked. (I'm guilty of saying this out loud, especially here in the office).

As for my egg mystery, I have nothing to update you with. Further investigations and tricks up my sleeve will be for tomorrow, or Monday. :-/

~Little Jackalope~

Egg Mystery...kinda solved...

Before I delve into the ongoing egg mystery here in the Her Interactive office, I wanted to shed some light on a pair of other office workers. Our Designer and Lead Tester were interviewed by True PC Gaming! Did I ever mentioned that our Designer and Lead Tester are twin sisters? (I think that is so cool!) Check out what they had to say here!

Also, I wanted to say something little: I had a Nancy Drew moment over the weekend, and I was super excited to share it with you! My family and I went to a diner/burger place and this elderly man came in and sat at the booth behind me. He talked quite a bit despite being alone, but he sounded almost exactly like Jake Hurley's great grandchild, you know, the one who was with Edna in the restaurant of Copper Gorge in the game Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon? I thought that was so cool...

Anyways; Egg Mystery! It is partially solved, and my suspicions were right: there are at least two egg culprits. The pretty glass egg from yesterday came from Megan, our president. I asked a nearby team mate who had caught her walking by by out of the corner of his eye, so then I decided to write a note "I'm onto you! ;)" and stick it on the glass egg, and place it in her office where she could see it upon her return. Today she admitted to having put this glass egg in my drawer, saying that because of this mystery she decided to bring it in as a gift to me. It now sits on top of my Nancy Drew games on my shelf here.

After thanking her, I asked "Does this mean you confess to placing the other eggs?" She laughed and whole-heartily denied they were her doings.

Later I tried questioning my #1 suspect twice, but was interrupted by top secret meetings. These were important meetings discussing game scariness, which we find very important.

I need to corner my suspect tomorrow for further questioning, and maybe think of how to get more evidence if there ever was to be another egg. I kind of ate my last piece of evidence...that chocolate egg was irresistible, but it was really good! (Thanks Egg culprit!) Sheesh, what kind of detective am I turning out to be? Sonny Joon?! *Sigh*Chocolate problems* >.<

~Little Jackalope~

Egg Mystery Part #...something

Well, the egg mystery is still unsolved. But there is a new egg!!! This one showed up after I arrived, when I was but briefly away from my desk. I was excited this time because it is made of glass, and so I tried pulling fingerprints. (There was only one real fingerprint, but it was barely legible and didn't come off very well. It's too indistinct to attempt finding a match.) :(

I did question a nearby team mate if he saw anything suspicious...and he did! He heard the sound of my drawer opening and closing, and then saw the suspect rush past out of the corner of his eye. I am narrowing down the suspect and will confront him/her tomorrow when the culprit returns.

There are a few things that do not make sense, though. If this is in fact the only culprit...well...it couldn't be, because this person did not arrive before me on Friday. Reminder: Friday's chocolate egg appeared in my drawer super early in the morning, and only 6 other workers were here at that time. You know what this means? Culprit "A" is not the only culprit! Time to do some more investigating...this case is not yet finished.

Weekend puzzle! Yay! It looks like a few of you were successfully able to solve it! All you do is fill in the blanks with the correct words from the quotes (some deductive reasoning and backwards thinking could help those who do not know all of the quotes).

Here are the correct words:
[back's

twenty-four

life

prank

keep

math

earn

teased

machines

think

scout

mind]

Once you have the words, find the correct letters (the *'s) and put them in the appropriate order to make this sentence: [It's locked merchandise in the future]. Whoo-hoo!!

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #151 (And Egg Mystery, part #3)

Yay! I received another egg this morning! Although it was different this time...it was not a real egg, nor a plastic egg, but a chocolate candy egg. Hm, since this one was wrapped in wrinkled foil, there was no way I could collect finger prints.

I am glad I arrived early today, because at the time of my arrival, only seven workers were in the office, 3 of whom I can safely rule out. Although after a pair of artists did mention chocolate and peanut butter eggs in a discussion yesterday...this makes them suspicious, but they arrived after me.

 

I did some further questioning of a few other team mates, and have narrowed down my top suspect list to 2 people...

To further investigate and eliminate a possibility, Stuart and I took a walk down to the cafe nearest our office. They sell hard boiled eggs. When we reached the shop, behold! Single, hard-boiled eggs were available to purchase! But alas, they were not stamped with the red stamp of the brand. We can safely check off this place from where the egg culprit got the first two eggs.

If I confront who I think it is today...this could mean the case is coming to a close...



We have a sale going on this Memorial Weekend! Do you have a gap in your Nancy Drew game collection? Because this weekend you can get any physical game (excluding Tomb of the Lost Queen) on sale for 25%, now until the end of Monday, and while supplies last. Hurry! This is a great time to prepare for a summer of game playing! *Note: To honor Memorial Day, we will not be in the office on Monday. See you Tuesday!

Here's your puzzle! If you get stuck, feel free to post your questions, thoughts, and perhaps even the answers (in spoiler code) on the Message Boards here.

(Click for the full image)

~Little Jackalope~

Creative People (and Fans!)

Update: Nothing to report on the Egg Mystery. :( I wish I had more clues to go off of...

Today I wanted to focus on some creative people.

First: Happy sweet 16th birthday Sarah!! I hope you had a great one! Sorry, but I ate your Koko Kringle Kupcake over here...

One of our former artists had started an animal rescue with his wife called "The Motley Zoo" which helps all kinds of animals. They are in the running to win a car that they need, and could use your help by voting for them on June 12th at www.100carsforgood.com. Who can resist helping a dog that looks like Togo?

We have interviewed another Her Interactive employee on the Dare to Play Blog! Check out what Lead Tester Jeanne has to say and learn about one of her favorite "bugs" from testing Tomb of the Lost Queen! (I made sure to include the question about putting eggs in people's drawers...) XD

Check this out! We've received some fan love today, or should I say, Sonny Joon love:

Also, one of my favorite YouTube Channels posted a new video! Check out NDfan0123's Warnings at Waverly Academy trailer remake. I got super excited to see the Her Interactive mug placed in some of the shots. Can you spot the mug? ;)

Puzzle tomorrow! Also, if you haven't subscribed to our Newsletter, we have one coming up soon. You can subscribe by going to our home page or by going to the Newsletter Archive and typing in your email address.

~Little Jackalope~

Nancy Drew Moment #002: Task List Comments

Since the first post today, I have not made very much progress on my Egg mystery. I did some further questioning though of our leads, though. Megan, our CEO, and our Marketing Director all answer that they each purchase brown eggs only. Although that isn't hard evidence, it does make them seem less suspicious. 

Our IT "Network Ninja" suggested going across the street to the cafe to see what brand of eggs they sell for lunches. That is my next plan of action, but unfortunately they are closed at the moment. I wanted to sneak into the office early to catch the culprit in the act of placing a third egg, but no luck, as I never received this third egg. The last two I worried about how long they had been in the drawer, or else I would have eaten them...I'm hoping for a third egg, even if it is a plastic Easter Egg, so that I can work with potentially new clues. Yep, I would love to have a plastic Easter Egg!

Check out this image we uploaded to Pinterest and Facebook! If you've ever experienced quoting Nancy when she checked off something from the task list, then this belongs on your Pinterest board, or Facebook wall, so that all the world will know that this badge is a reflection of how you are such a Nancy Geek, which is a good thing by me (and Nancy)! XD

Oh, and while you are at Facebook, answer the poll question we put up! We'd love to see what answer you choose!
~Little Jackalope~

Mystery Monday: Easter Egg (Part 2)

Oh no! Sorry all! I was not able to write up the post yesterday (Tuesday) because we had a little network problem. All fixed now! So I'm going to give you two posts today. This one's the draft from yesterday:

Guess what? I got another egg in my drawer again Monday! I have not been able to make much more progress on this mystery for these reasons: Eggs don't leave legible fingerprints! I know. I've tried. It's a textured element and is not smooth enough. There are no witnesses to question and I did not have a trip camera to catch the culprit in the act. There was no other evidence or events that could provide me clues. This is one tough mystery, I am sad to say. Or should I say, pleased to say?

Tuesday morning I decided to try coming in to the office earlier than I usually do, hoping to catch the Egg culprit in the act of putting a third egg in the drawer. No luck. There was no third egg, and no extra clues that morning. 


I am able to rule out a few people, though: the designer, lead tester, a 3D animator and our Sales director were not in the office Friday morning...the egg was there before them, which makes a good alibi.


Hmm...what shall I do next?

Oh hey! We have selected our caption contest winner from our Facebook Caption Contest! Congrats to Jennifer H. for her quote: "Um, don't look now, but the people who built these things?...their spaceship is right above us."

Weekend puzzle was cracked like an egg! Congrats! To solve it, take the first part and [unscramble it] to get the words [It's Locked]. Use this as your keyword and apply it to the below string of letters. It is a [Vigenére] cipher. You can look up how this kind of cipher works online. The end answer would be [Spying on Research]. Any thoughts what this could mean? ;)

Twitter Quote Contest is today! Head over to participate for a chance to win a digital strategy guide to Danger by Design!
~Little Jackalope~

Monday Mystery: Easter Egg (Part 1)

First things first: Happy birthday Samantha! (I know your birthday was on Friday, but I hope you had a great birthday weekend!!)

Also, today's the last day to post your creative caption to the Facebook Caption Contest!


Has the weekend puzzle got you stumped? (Insert evil grin). Time for a hint! Once you solve the first part, use [this as your key].

Late last Friday, I discovered something rather odd. Look here:

Umm... what is a real chicken's egg doing in my top desk drawer? I began questioning the team around me, but they were denying ownership. I suspect a culprit must have read my blog post last Thursday about the Easter Egg, and decided to tease me about it. No one is confessing this, though. Hmm, I went into Nancy mode and began narrating myself (in third person) in my head:

"She then regretted having picked up the egg, for now any visible fingerprints were no longer traceable. Looking around her desk, Little Jackalope could not spot any other evidence that would help in the investigation. She did notice a paper had been dropped off concerning the board game the team had played on Friday.

Who had motive to place this egg in the drawer? "Aha!" she thought. "our Lead Tester had some trouble with the weekend puzzle when I had her test it on Thursday, and then there is the person of whom I doodled all over his white board, but I can't rule out the most prank-likely person in our office (that's right CEO, I would give you credit for pulling clever pranks...although when questioned you seem genuine enough. Still, I shall not rule out anyone yet.) And then there is the only person I know who actually eats eggs in the office: Megan."

Jackalope then went to question the production team, knowing that it was the writer who had dropped off the game paper while she was away. "You were at my desk, correct?" she questioned the him. "Yes, to drop off that paper," he replied. "Then you wouldn't happen to have an explanation for this, would you?" Jackalope presented the white egg and focused intently on his reaction. After denying any knowledge, the producer and a programmer peaked their heads around the corner to see what I held.

After gaining no further clues to the mystery, Jackalope then decided to call it a night, as the rest of the suspects had already gone home. Wishing to keep the egg, but knowing that it wasn't worth eating (how long had it been in her drawer?), she fulfilled her wish of having a Koko Kringle Kookie egg...and colored all over it, throwing it away afterward, but not before snapping a couple of photos."

Voila! My Easter egg. Thank goodness it was hard-boiled or else coloring on it could be dangerous...and messy if it cracked.

The mystery has yet to be solved! I don't even know who the real culprit is, but do you have an idea? The chances are that the culprit is reading this blog post right now, laughing a silent evil laugh and feeling proud that I have not figured it out yet...

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #150

This week's news:
If you haven't posted a caption to the picture on our Facebook page featuring Lily and Dylan from Tomb of the Lost Queen, head over and write up what you think they are saying (or thinking) to each other for a chance to win a Dylan water bottle!

Also, while you are at Facebook, check out our sale that we are having in honor of it being International Museum Day today!

On to the weekend puzzle! If you solved this or want to discuss the solution, head over to the "Blogs and Tweets" forum on our Message Board and chat with fellow puzzlers.

Good luck sleuths! (I'm hoping it will stump you long enough for me to give you a hint....it's been so long since I've given extra hints...and I aim to make some harder puzzles in the future). ;-)

~Little Jackalope~

Top secrets...and a contest!

I got to sit in on another top-secret meeting this morning. It was a meeting about our next game, and we were coming up with ideas for what to ask the phone characters before our writer and designer go to record those character voices. In the back of my head I was thinking about how, in the Bonus Edition of the game, players should have the privilege of calling Little Jackalope to get an Easter Egg, and you'd have to answer a trivia question or give the password to get that egg, which might have a Koko Kringle Kookie design on it. But that's just how I would do it...

Speaking of eggs, I was talking with our creative director about the Easter Egg and trick he's working on for the players to earn. But that's more confidential information that I can't share.

Look! We have another Caption Contest happening on Facebook! Head over to our Facebook page and post your most creative caption for Lily and Dylan for a chance to win the below water bottle featuring ...well...Dylan! Contest ends Monday night!

~Little Jackalope~

A Day for Secrets

Of course, I can't really share them with you. Today was a great day. Besides working on...well...work, I went and did some snooping and picture-taking. It's way too early to be talking about the next game, so it's hard to contain my excitement over what I found in my snooping.

Our designer had me try out a prototype of the end-game puzzle using some familiar toys, I spied a navigation map laid out on our lead tester's desk, nabbing a few cookies from production on my way out, and then I got to listen in on one of the character's dialogue sequences (we call them CALs, but that is an explanation for another time) that one of our animators was lip-syncing, the sun was out so the team went outside for a hackysack break, and lastly, I admired the work of someone's doodles on a white board. I wonder who did those? (>_>)

Yep, It was a great day at Her Interactive.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's contest on Facebook! ;)
~Little Jackalope~

Pictures and Moments

This isn't new news, but I get a real kick out of this! Today a Tomb of the Lost Queen cover art pillowcase arrived at our office! This is a prize for one of our Facebook Caption Contest winners. It's sooo cool to hold this in my hands! It feels almost like silk, but it's actually 100% Sateen Polyester, and the image covers the entire space. I'm very tempted to buy my own with the Koko Kringle image on it. Have any of you ordered one?

If you haven't noticed on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter, we posted another Nancy Drew moment image for you to re-post to your page. This one's Nancy Drew Moment #003: Second Chance, featuring a not-so-pleasant way to end your game. XD

It's quiet in the office at the moment...maybe I shall go cause some mischief and doodle pictures all over some one's white board. Shh...don't say anything. ;)

~Little Jackalope~

Alien - I'm in!

For those of you who have played Tomb of the Lost Queen, this last weekend puzzle was for you. After following closely to the directions (and not tripping up over the few stumbling blocks a few of you caught -- my typo!) you should get this: [Are you Alien or Alie-out?]. If you might recall, Jamila said this quote after Nancy asks her about Sonny Joon.

If you haven't figured already, I am a fan of this elusive character, whom we have never seen, but whose doodles and notes can be found throughout a few games.

Here I am wearing the Sonny Joon book design from Tomb of the Lost Queen, you can design your t-shirt with this art in our Merchandise store. I also wanted to take a second to let you know this fact: when designing something in the store, you might encounter a white square border or background on the preview to you right. This is normal, and will not show up on your item. It will if it is any other color, but you do not have to worry if it is only white. :)

Oh, and there is a TMB screensaver now available to download on the downloads page. ;)
~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #149

I'm super excited for today! Perhaps you have already heard, but our Merchandise store has been updated with Tomb of the Lost Queen artwork! Oh wait, I mentioned that a couple of days ago... But wait! There is a newly updated image for those "krazy for Koko" fans (like me) out there:

Koko Kringle images galore! Now you can have a Koko Kringle pillowcase, mouse pad, mugs, iPad folio,  t-shirt, glass art, coasters and more! I really want to get something with Koko Kringle on it, but I can't decide what yet. Until I do, I shall pin it on Pinterest as a wish list item.

Weekend puzzle time! (Click on the image for a larger view). You can chat about this puzzle on our Message Boards here.

Good luck sleuths!
~Little Jackalope~

Spring Wildlife: Woodpecker

Ok, technically the woodpecker is called a Northern Flicker, and it has been pecking out a hole in the building in Production's corner. (They have said the pecking gets pretty loud at times).

Since our building is in a park, the animals and birds are protected, so we can't move or disrupt them. I went outside to snap a few photos, and lucky for me, the woodpecker peeked out to take a look. Pretty cool!

~Little Jackalope~

TMB in Stores!

After the first day's excitement settled down from the official launch of Tomb of the Lost Queen (yay!), today the Sales and Marketing team and I went on a fun field trip to a few of the retail stores that sell our games. We wanted to see TMB on the shelves to see how they are displayed, see below picture on the right. It's really exciting to walk into a store and see our game on the shelf and say to a nearby shopper "Look! We made this!" or "Have you heard of this game? It's really good!" with a big smile on our faces. XD

To complete our outing, we walked over to get lunch at a Greek restaurant. I am also guilty of playing paparazzi as I held back a bit to snap a photo of our team walking there (top left picture). Since I had never ventured out to try Greek food, I had our CEO order something for me, after all, the menu "was all Greek to me". What I got was a plate large enough to feed a large herd of jackalopes...or just four of me. I learned something new though, gyros are pronounced yer-ohs or like Euros, not Guy-rohs or Jie-rohs like I thought. >_<

Check it out! Today is Howard Carter's birthday and in honor of that, Google had a doodle up today! Was today simply a coincidence? Maaaaaaybe. For those who don't know, Howard Carter was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist known for co-discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun. Howard Carter is briefly mentioned in TMB, I shall leave it up to you to discover where... ;)


~Little Jackalope~

Tomb of the Lost Queen is Here!

HOORAY! Today is the official release date for Tomb of the Lost Queen! It is now in stores and of course, available on our site! The strategy guide is only available at herinteractive.com in digital download only. But what is also exciting is the answer to the weekend puzzle (I purposely left the explanation to today so that I could talk about it, since we announced it today).

Weekend puzzle solution: it's a [freemason] cipher. Look up the cipher and compare the symbols to get this [TMB Merchandise]. And here are a few samples below:

How about a T-shirt with the Amateur Sleuth magnifying glass? No worries, if you prefer Master Sleuth, that image is available, too. ;)

Remember the TMB pillowcase featured on a previous Facebook Caption Contest? That is also available for purchase! Check out our store now or share some of the images on Pinterest (we pinned a few to our boards today).

~Little Jackalope~

Spring Wildlife: Geese

I got a hot tip from one of our artists: there was a few geese families outside behind our office. With this new information, I decided to grab my camera and go into stealth mode...which is really hard by the way when the only way to get to the geese was by gravel path and crunchy leaves. It felt just like when Nancy was taking pictures of the different birds in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake. Oh, I love that game!

I was far less scared of getting chased by the parents than I was of the hornet buzzing circles around me.

Lovingly named by our artist, these two geese families are the Applegates and the Canterburys. Don't ask me who's who...

I can tell you that this daddy geese (on the right above) told me how far I could come....he hissed at me. He was a little intimidating. >_<

We are excited for tomorrow! Tomorrow ND#26 Tomb of the Lost Queen is launching!! Yay!! For those of you who waited for it to come out in stores...are you excited as well? ~.^

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #148

First things first, I have a big birthday shout out to one of our awesome fans!

Hope you have a great birthday Abigail!!

Secondly, there are only 4 days left to get your pre-order copy of Tomb of the Lost Queen! After that, the Bonus Editions will go into extinction....never to be seen again, so order your copy now. ;)
 

 Weekend puzzle! The answer is an early tip for those who solve it:

 For your enjoyment, here is the rather laughable picture of me with the weirdest face...caught with squinty eyes and hiding behind a burger. And no, I'm not trying to shove it up my nose. Our producer behind me is making a more appropriate face....but who knows what he's thinking!

~Little Jackalope~

Behind the Scenes: We Knit (part 2)

Today a group of us reassembled our knitting group. For being a beginner, I'd say my hat is coming along quite well...despite the three evident mistakes in it. >.<

Check out what a fellow worker is creating a pair of:

My hat doesn't look nearly as cool as this giant sock. (It's giant by my standards).

I must say, it looks like many of you have received your copy of Tomb of the Lost Queen! Yay! For those of you who finished, you can post your review on our TMB Reviews forum on the message board. If and when you do, please consider that people who haven't played the game will like to know what you think, so be sure to place content in spoiler code where necessary. Also, if there is any part in the game where you got stuck or was confused, we'd love to hear about that in your review! (Yes, we do read these reviews.) ~.^

~Little Jackalope~

Giant Burgers

Today, some team members went out for our monthly burger outing, called "Code H.A.M.B.U.R.G.E.R." This time we went to a little burger place where the burgers were big...according to me.

I think a few of us felt like we ate enough for the next couple of days. Our tech guy, Larry, took a picture of me and producer Rob...but I'm hesitant to show you because the angle of the shot looks like I'm putting the burger up to my nose. >.< Not very flattering.

We have a few more fun events planned for our team this week. I'll be sure to clue you in. ;)

~Little Jackalope~

Lilacs and Faces

Today a fellow team member brought in her lilacs, and shared them with everyone. Now the entire office smells like lilacs (very cool!), and I also understand what Nancy experienced in the book The Mystery at Lilac Inn. See the stowaway below? (Ladybug!) 

Check this out! I was super excited to see the Tomb of the Lost Queen box art because when you put two of them together (retail boxes only) you get both halves of the queen's face! Oh the things I get excited over...

~Little Jackalope~