Weekend Puzzle #210

It's the last weekend before many of you start school! For us in the office, this means we will be out on Monday to observe Labor Day. This is a great weekend to replay the school-themed games...or any Nancy Drew game before your summer break ends! I think I'm going to play Warnings at Waverly Academy again. I like to make the snacks a gazillion times.

Check out this new sale going on! Shop today to get an awesome discount!

Also, we have an exciting (yet small) announcement! The cover art from The Silent Spy has already been added to the merchandise store! I'm really excited for it, 'cause I think it would look amazing on a mug or pillowcase, or Kindle Case! Add some new items to your ultimate Nancy Drew collection!

And now, your three-day weekend puzzle! (Click on the image for a larger view).

If you need a clue, take a look at the past puzzle here.

~Little Jackalope~

Hidden Spies and Nancy Facts

Looks like some of you took to your research, and great detective work, by the way, too! The few facts we know about Nancy's mom for certain in the books are these:

• Nancy's heritage is Scottish on her mom's side (Read The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes)
• Nancy's mom's maiden name was Austin
• She died when Nancy was 10 (in the original blue books)
• She died when Nancy was 3 (in revised books)
• She died of an illness
• She died in a car crash

Since there are contradicting facts simply because of book revisions, I suppose you could say any of these above notes are true. This gave us freedom to choose one age, and one cause of death, as well as fill in all of the blank about her. I can't wait for you to see what we did in The Silent Spy! It's so cool!

Speaking of spies, we shared this Nancy Drew moment today. Getting a creepy phone call from a spy? Yeah. Totally normal!

We have a few small things to announce tomorrow, so come back and see what little news bits we have to share!

~Little Jackalope~

Nancy and SPY

I'm excited to hear that everyone is loving the newly-released cover art for The Silent Spy! I'm also aware that many of you are hesitant with how we are handling the story about Nancy's mom. This is understandable, since it's on a more personal level to all of us.

I will leave it up to you to decide if you think we handled Nancy's world correctly. After all, you know our games as well as we do! And be sure to give the game a try when it becomes available so that you may judge for yourself and post your review to our Message Boards. :)

For now, I can offer my behind-the-scenes, long-time-Nancy-Drew-Super-Fan opinion, which may differ from yours once you have played the game, which is ok.

My early review: This is a REALLY fun game, like Warnings at Waverly Academy or Shadow at the Water's Edge or Curse of Blackmoor Manor, even if it has a different "flavor" than those mysteries. The story is outstanding, and yes, personal. The story is beautifully written and presented, honoring the Nancy Drew canon, and respecting the Nancy Drew universe. There are parts that will make you cry, as it did for me, and there are parts where you may feel like you are in danger (YES! Cannot have a game without danger!). Ultimately, it's a grand adventure well worth playing. And I've played it 6 times already.

Tomorrow I may talk about the Nancy Drew universe or "canon". Until then, may I offer you a challenge? Start reading as many different Nancy Drew books (in different printing, old and new) as you can, do a little research and comment back on this blog post with what you find about Nancy's mom. you may be surprised at what you will (or will not) find...!

On another note, take a look at what's on my computer right now: Cover art for the merchandise store!

This art isn't complete, yet, but it will be soon enough!

~Little Jackalope~

The Silent Spy Box Art Revealed!

Today's the day! I've been hinting at this for a while, and words cannot express how excited I am to reveal The Silent Spy official box art!

~ Check out Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy page now! ~

What'dya think? It's definitely my new favorite!

There is another bit of news today: Megan is moving on. You can read the official press release here. This doesn't mean anything else, and the company will continue making games as often as we do, so no worries! I am sad to see her leave, but I'm glad it's to pursue new adventures. :)

~Little Jackalope~

The Silent Spy is Coming...

Do you have a favorite Nancy Drew box art? There have been some classics in the past, and some striking new ones these past few years. I particularly like Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, Shadow at the Water's Edge, Ghost of Thornton Hall, but my #1 new favorite hasn't even been shown yet! Soon, and all in good time it will be revealed.

Looks like several of you correctly solved the puzzle! Here's the solution:
Covert the keyboard characters ^, !), !#, @, !, !, !), $ into [their respective numbers on the keyboard]. Which is [6, 10, 13, 2, 1, 1, 10, 4]. Then go back to the blog posts on the given dates, and find the hidden [messages]. Next, count [that many letters in the secret m3essage to get your final letters].

The final word from searching the blog is this [REVENANT]. Some of you on the Message Boards hit the nail on the head with it's definition, but it's meaning is further away than you think. However, it's voice is creepy... were "you paying attention?"

Birthday!

~Little Jackalope~
Tomorrow is important... I'm going to be having crazy fun...

Weekend Puzzle #209

Ok, secretly, we've been working on some things here in our office. Let's just say we will be having a bit of a busy week after this weekend, so stay tuned for some updates later!

Here's your weekend puzzle!
Hint: Hiding in plain sight.

6 August = ^
9 August = !)
5 August = !#
13 August = @
13 August = !
7 August = !
19 August = !)
19 August = $

Extra note: Have you subscriber to our Newsletter? If not, may I suggest it here. After all, there will be many news-worthy notes to share with you with the upcoming release of The Silent Spy!

We have a birthday-filled weekend!

~Little Jackalope~

Music for Mysteries: Volume 5

I bet you weren't expected this, but here's what I've been hinting at this past week:

Now the music collection is complete! You can now order this music on our site! I'm looking forward to The Silent Spy's soundtrack in the future, now.

Check it out! We interviewed our very own Producer, Rob! I think he's tried some pretty crazy foods in his time!

Also, I'm afraid I'm going to have to tone down the amount of shout-outs I post. There have been a lot of requests lately, so I'm only taking birthday shout-outs in the future. Good luck to everyone going into school soon!
~Little Jackalope~

Sonny and Nancy Drew Nerds

I don't know about you, but I like to call myself a Nancy Drew Nerd. My personal definition of "nerd" is this: someone who knows a lot about a particular subject, and of course is a fan (or student) of that subject.

Many of us Nancy Drew nerds, and those of us who call ourselves this, are sure proud of it! A small part of that "nerdom" includes being a crazed fan. I'm sure many of us could admit we are big fans...

Of course, every once in a while I have to chat (again) about the merchandise. To add to the fan craze are a whole bunch of items with different images to choose and design from in our merchandise store. It's only about a year-old store, and there are sooo many games...it can take a while to add new and old images to the collection.

I wanted to point out one of our newer image sets: Sonny Joon art! These are found in the "Nancy Drew Misc." section. Unless you want the Sonny Joon Field Research Journal notebook art from Ransom of the Seven Ships, which is in it's own folder, and the Sonny Joon "Visitors from the Skies" book art which is found in the Tomb of the Lost Queen folder.

Are you a Nancy Drew nerd? A Sonny Joon fan? Or simply a crazed Nancy Drew fan?

Special message for Emily!

Also, there is a Twitter Quote Contest happening today!
~Little Jackalope~

Nancy, a Superhero

We shared a bit of a science joke yesterday with a favorite movie icon and the periodic table of elements:

Haha, we knew Nancy was a hero already to many of us fans, but according to science, she is a superhero. Well... we had fun with that. Don't you love science jokes? I should think up some more to share...

Anyways, today and tomorrow we are working on something very important, and I'm hoping we will get to share it with you soon! Be sure to follow us on our social media sites to get the news fastest, and stop by our web site this week to see if there is any news showing up on the slides, just a tip from me. ;)

Birthdays!

~Little Jackalope~

SPY Merch and Secrets

Happy Monday all! I'm glad you enjoyed our latest video...even if we were really cruel about not showingJanything.

Head's up! NewUSPY art is up in the merchandise store!SCheck them out when youTget a chance!

AsKfor the weekend puzzle,Ithe flags are SemaphoreDcode. Once you knew this, youDcould translate it toIread [next week]. Which is this week. SomethingNis this week. What could it be.....oh I remember! The office is going out for a BBQ lunch on Wednesday.GYum. I liked that puzzle. It was a good reminder for myself.

We have some important shout-outs today!

~Little Jackalope~

Spying on SPY

New video posted on our YouTube Channel! (Note: in this blog post here I hid a message that said "Two more Fridays" which referred to this very day. It was the day we post this video.)  ;) I spy around the office to show you The Silent Spy design, artwork and cover art:

Well, I certainly tried showing you all the spoilers... oh well.

Weekend puzzle! (And the answer could mean anything...even something small).

We have a birthday this weekend!

~Little Jackalope~

Going Through the Trash

Can any of you identify with this Nancy Drew Moment?

How excited we get when playing a Nancy Drew game when the opportunity arises to rifle through a character's trash! There is often something of interest in there, and it is an excellent skill to be observant in every area of an environment. Thankfully most of the trash Nancy goes through is paper, and nothing gross, like leftover frog legs from Danger by Design or something.

Still working on the cover art. The date we release the art will be a surprise date, so stay tuned to our web site or social media sites (web links are to the right of this blog) for when we roll out the red carpet (so to speak) for it's grand view!

Behind the scenes notes: I'm listening to static, literally, for the best sound effect to use.
The Silent Spy quote is going into the merchandise store today...

Oh! And if you want to enter a contest for a chance to win a black mug of The Silent Spy, head over to our Facebook page to post your most creative caption to our Caption Contest! You have until Monday to participate. Come up with something creative!

~Little Jackalope~

Early Fan Art for SPY

Oh look! A blue heron (I think) landed on a tree just outside our window!

Distractions aside, we have seen several excited fans' artwork for The Silent Spy, and I thought it would be great to share these with you. Here are a few I found:

Excitement is building for more info about our next game. My response to this: soon. Soon you will see more! The cover art will be revealed next...

By the way, for those who follow us on Twitter, there is a quote contest going on today!
~Little Jackalope~

Old Secrets Lead to Scotland

With all the excitement we had over our last game, Ghost of Thornton Hall, it was quite easy to forget the old secrets hinted at for this year. Remember the old post 13 Hints for 2013 in January? There was one hint that I forgot to answer for GTH...

Next

Hint #7: Talent. This vague hint given at the beginning of the year was referring to Harper in Ghost of Thornton Hall. The actress who voiced Harper was the same person who brought life to Professor Hotchkiss in Treasure in the Royal Tower, Legend of the Crystal Skull, and more recently, Tomb of the Lost Queen. She's been a favorite to many since the early days, and we were excited for her performance as crazy Harper.

is

Now, there are at least two more hints from January that point toward the next mystery: The Silent Spy. One I can reveal at the moment:

#

Hint #6: Whistling. While our Design team comes up with a brand new story and mystery for Nancy each game, they do their research ahead of time and take a look at inspiring Nancy Drew books. One inspiring book for the design of The Silent Spy was, of course, "The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes". This book has Nancy traveling back to her own country where she plays bagpipes at a few points to communicate across a distance.

13.

Here is where we stand with our 13 hints/clues checklist:

More spy stuff to come!
~Little Jackalope~

Schrödinger's Birthday

Wow, late posting today could mean only one thing at this time: I am working on something very important today.

Did you know that today was Erwin Schrödinger's birthday? I bet some of you have blank or curious looks on your face right now. Schrödinger was a physicist best known for his interpretation of quantum mechanics. Anyways, his cat and box theory was sketched on the whiteboard in The Deadly Device in the security booth.

In honor of this, we have a great sale going on today only. Visit our Facebook page to find the secret code to get The Deadly Device for 50% off (digital or physical). That's a $10 game.

Be free, Schrödinger's cat, be free! Live your life!

Oh! The weekend puzzle was displayed as maritime flags. Decode the flags correctly and you get ["Not who they seem"] referring to something about The Silent Spy.

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #207

A few things to announce today: We are having a Book Lover's Day sale (today only) for one of our all-time favorite titles, The Secret of Shadow Ranch! It's a super good deal (like $5 or $7.50 for the game) and if head over to our Facebook Page, you can get the secret code for this sale. It's a great game to play while waiting for The Silent Spy.

Writing the

Here is your weekend puzzle (concerning SPY)!

script for

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone! I will be working on finishing my play-through of SPY...yay!

the trailer.

~Little Jackalope~

// The Silent Spy Awaits.

// Are you ready for The Silent Spy? He or she is ready for you:

// However, we need to get ready for Nancy Drew to take her trip...then you may travel to Scotland to find out about Kate Drew and what secrets The Silent Spy is holding. I'm going to start working on this image as a T-shirt design. Stay tuned for that!
//
// Who do you suppose The Silent Spy is? Kate Drew? Samantha Quick? The mysterious caller? A returning villain? Someone...unexpected?
//
// Spread the word.
//
//
// The silent spy awaits.
//
// ~Little Jackalope~

Thinking Secrets Aloud...

Well, my oh my, sounds like I missed the excitement of the message board discussion concerning the secret messages! Something is supposed to happen those days, too, but I forget. Perhaps I should re-check our top-secret calendar...eh, maybe I'll remind myself later. Oh! I should pry get to work on some more snooping stuff..maybe you'd like that, eh?

So is this blog post today making any sense to you, yet? Or am I simply thinking aloud?

Let's get to the point. And two more Mondays.
There it is.

Today we have a Facebook sale going on for Danger on Deception Island! It's a super great deal, too. $5 or $7.50 for a great game if you go to our Facebook page to get the secret code to use at checkout.

I love this game!

Birthdays!

~Little Jackalope~

The SPY Release

Hm, looks as if no one found the secret message in yesterday's post. ;) Just trying to keep your minds alert and detective-level observant. Since we are starting to talk about the latest game, now, Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy, we may be dropping vague hints here and there for you to piece together and ponder over.

Two

We have a an announcement to make! The very first (or should I say second, since the Teaser trailer was really the first) clue to the 29th game is the revealing of the release dates:

Mark your calendars! The Silent Spy awaits! Ooo...merchandise quote idea...! Brilliant!

Today I continue my play-through of the game, and my notebook has several pages of scribbles and scratches, notes, and clues. Trust me, you may want to get a new, small notebook for this upcoming mystery!

more

Testing on this game will continue for several more weeks, and many people here in the office are part of that testing. We have our Lead Tester and two guest testers continuously working on finding and reporting bugs, and there are other members like me who are playing through with fresh eyes and more perplexed minds. If the game gets buggy, we can cheat around it until the bugs are fixed, since we have a secret in-the-office-only reference for each puzzle and a walk through to help us along the right path.

Fridays.

Cathedral. At the moment I cannot tell you what this means, but I CAN tell you what it is not. Someone guessed a board game or a mini-game. Nope. It's not like Raid! in The Captive Curse. Not a game at all. Guess again.

~Little Jackalope~

SPY Bugs

The bugs are jumping around The Silent Spy this week as we further test and work on the game. For those who aren't familiar with the jargon word "bugs" in our production cycle, here's what we mean: Bugs are errors and hang-ups in the game. They can be anything from the game crashing, to characters saying something different than the text is written as, to puzzles not working, or things happening before they should. Those are just a few examples of bugs.

Psst!

We have a great team of testers, and anyone in the office may stumble upon a bug. When a bug is found, we make a detailed note of what it is, where it can be found and then report it to the person working on that area of the game so they can fix it.

We will have a

Today I was playing through the game for the first time, and besides running into a few bugs that I could easily maneuver around, there was one bug in particular that was giving me a tough time. An event was supposed to happen (and I could not avoid it), so when I approached the sequence, the game would crash and I could not continue playing.

small announcement
After several different tries to get around it, (many noises of frustration could be heard coming from my general direction, including "Gah!" and "Arrrg" and, well... some growling) I decided to get up and seek assistance from our Designer, who quickly gave me the work-around solution. The bug had already been reported and will be implemented in tomorrow's game build.

SPY

And onward we test, report, and fix each bug as the game production further progresses!

tomorrow (Tuesday).

As for the weekend puzzle, it looks like it was solved, and now there is an interesting discussion happening on the Message Boards about the answer. I like to see your reactions to what this could possibly mean....*evil laugh*, and so far, no one has nailed what exactly what it means, yet.

Here's the solution to the puzzle:

What is Cathedral? We will learn soon enough!

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #206

As I mentioned earlier, there are several great photos that were submitted to our Where's Sonny? Contest! and I know I get to share with you a few of them!

A couple of the winners that were randomly selected had entered other pictures with Sonny, check them out! When Sonny's in the picture, who can't help but smile? Too cute!

More favorite photos to come, but in the meantime, try solving this weekend puzzle for a hint from The Silent Spy!

For a random thought...have you experienced this Nancy Drew moment? I know I sure have! Several times!

We've got some birthdays this weekend! Yay!

~Little Jackalope~