Wednesday, April 23, 2014

-->Moving the Amateur Sleuth Blog<--

Hey all! I didn't get to post yesterday because of the big web site redesign and we wanted to make sure it was all working first.

Anyways that is the big news! We have a newly re-designed site and you know what? The Amateur Sleuth blog is moving locations. *GASP*

Don't worry, all the past posts are moving with it to the new site, so you won't be missing anything.

If you have the blog bookmarked at all, you will need to update the web url links to this:

http://www.herinteractive.com/category/blogs/

Please head over there for all future posts. See ya on the new site! :)

~Little Jackalope~

Monday, April 21, 2014

Secret Projects & Monday News

We have a large project we are working on today and tomorrow. I hope I get to share it with you in the next post! We need to make sure there are no further edits to it first...

Speaking of secret projects, I put a new image up on the merchandise store, but it is for only one specific item and size... for now, at least. I wonder if any of you would be curious enough to find it...?

Anyways, tomorrow we have the Twitter party! Will you be on Twitter then?


I hope you all had a fantastic Easter! I nearly forgot about the game I was to play over the weekend for the Nancy Drew marathon. Did anyone else play Danger by Design? I've got to finish it again soon, because The Captive Curse is next on my list!

As for the weekend puzzle, I obviously missed putting in one last name third from the bottom, which would have given you an "A". Here's the first step to solving the puzzle: The letters are [anagrams for character names. Unscramble the first set and second set (the first and last name)]. The finished list:
  • [Charlie Murphy (from MHM)
  • Guadalupe Comillo (From ICE)
  • Enrico Tazza (from VEN)
  • Mary Yazzi (from SHA)
  • Scott Varnell (from TOT)
  • John Grey (from TRN)
  • Jane Penvellyn (from CUR)
  • Jeff Akers (from DOG
  • Renate Stoller (from CAP)
  • Holt Scotto (from DDI)
  • Izzy Romero (from WAC)]
Once you have figured this out, you then [count how many letters from left to right, according to the number listed next to the name.] Your final answer (with my missing "A") is [Puzzle Palace], a reference to The Shattered Medallion.

Lastly, we have a birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

Friday, April 18, 2014

Weekend Puzzle #234

We have lots of things going on this weekend! Let's see if I can cover all of them...

First of all, don't forget about the Facebook Caption Contest that is still going on until end of day Monday.


Secondly, the official soundtrack for The Shattered Medallion is now available here to purchase and download!

Thirdly, if there are some mysteries you have not yet solved, now is the time to play those missing titles before The Shattered Medallion releases. We are having a big sale on all digital downloads this Easter weekend! (Shop here.)


And last but not least, here's your weekend puzzle!


I hope you get to spend some quality time with your friends and family this weekend! Happy Easter!

~Little Jackalope~

Thursday, April 17, 2014

What Sonny Says...

Today we posted a photo on Facebook for another Caption Contest! Head over to our page and comment on the photo of me and Sonny with your most creative caption. The prize? A Flying Cow mug from our merchandise store:


 Also, the other day we posted this Nancy Drew Moment:


Do you remember when you first stumbled upon Sonny's doodles, notes, and Koko Kringle bar wrappers?

We have a special invite for you, too, if you have a Twitter account:


~Little Jackalope~

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Sonny Joon: Before and After

Now that everyone has seen Sonny Joon in his fully-modeled 3D form in the game, and heard his voice, I have noticed many comments about him.

One of the comments I have seen often is about how fans like the box art art version better and are disappointed withe the 3D Sonny. Here's the comparison shot:


Our Character Designer is the one who illustrates a concept sketch of each character, after reading his directions from our Designer. Once the concept illustration is done and approved, he models the character and adds the textures and colors of his outfit, hair, and other features. He is the same person who works on both the concept illustration and 3D model. His concept illustration of Sonny Joon was used in the design for the box art as well (and many of us agree: we LOVE his work!).

If you are interested in the process of how we create a character, check out this documentary film we made a while ago:


As for Sonny Joon's voice, our writer was careful about choosing the right kind of actor with an appropriate accent. For Sonny's personality, I am thrilled with how our design team has handled him (and I am a HUGE Sonny Joon fan)! In the game, he is just as quirky, easily distracted, energetic, nerdy, and mysterious as I had always expected him to be. If I can give my advice...I'd say DO judge him by his appearance, but also keep in mind that even if you have "met" him via the official trailer or the character bios, there is still the "getting to know him" element found by playing the game.

Please share your thoughts! Do you like Sonny as you see him now? What do you expect Sonny to be like when you really meet him?

Pre-orders for The Shattered Medallion are live! Will you join Team Tui on Pacific Run and find out what Sonny may be up to?

~Little Jackalope~

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Shattered Medallion Pre-Orders!

Today is day #1 of pre-orders for Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion! If you wanted to receive the physical version of the BONUS EDITION, I recommend ordering this week, just to be sure you get your copy before we sell out.


And the moment we have all been waiting for! Check out the official trailer we posted to YouTube this morning, and be sure to leave a comment either on YouTube or here, telling us your thoughts! :D


Also, we have an awesome pre-order promotion happening. Everyone who pre-orders a copy of The Shattered Medallion is automatically entered for a chance to win this Ultimate Travel Pack, which I am a little jealous over because it is SO COOL. You can learn more about it here on the Dare to Play blog.

~Little Jackalope~

Monday, April 14, 2014

Nancy Drew Trailer Marathon

Did you get a chance this past weekend to watch all of the official trailers on our YouTube channel? Some are definitely different and they have evolved quite a bit over the years. Do you have a favorite trailer? This is an easy question for me to answer...I personally like GTH and SPY's the best, but I am biased. XD

Here are the last few trailers, including the teaser for The Shattered Medallion below. After you watch these, come back tomorrow to watch the official trailer for The Shattered Medallion! You can subscribe to our channel to stay updated on our latest uploads, too.




Pre-orders begin tomorrow for Nancy Drew's next mystery! Head's up: we only made so many physical BONUS EDITIONs...so if you have your heart set on getting the boxed version, I suggest ordering early (or sometime this week) to be sure you will get your copy.

We have a birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

Friday, April 11, 2014

The Characters of The Shattered Medallion

We recently released the character profiles on our page! Check them out here!


What are your first thoughts about these characters? Is it still too early to become very suspicious of any single character?

There is no weekend puzzle today. Instead, we continue our Nancy Drew marathon! This weekend's mission: to watch ALL of the game trailers on our YouTube Channel here. (Teasers are totally optional). I'll be watching them from the first titles and end with SPY and the teaser for MED.

We have a few birthdays this weekend!


~Little Jackalope~

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Doubtful Sound

Yesterday we released the screenshots on our page for The Shattered Medallion. These are most of the environments you get to explore on location of Pacific Run. This one here below, Doubtful Sound, feels very much like when we kayaked around Deception Island. (Wow, that was a long time ago!)

The Shattered Medallion: Doubtful Sound

A small part of this environment will be featured in the official trailer, which releases on YouTube on Tuesday. (Yay!)

Speaking of trailers, this weekend for our Nancy Drew marathon we will be watching all of the YouTube trailers for the past Nancy Drew games. Since I, personally, like saving the best things for last, I plan to start with the first game trailers, watching them in order, leading up to The Silent Spy...and finishing with the teaser for The Shattered Medallion. This way we prepare to watch the official trailer on Tuesday.

Come back tomorrow! We *may* share more info with you this weekend!

~Little Jackalope~

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Shattered Medallion Page is LIVE!

Hooray! We launched The Shattered Medallion product page on our web site! Be sure to check out the screenshots, too. ;)


Also, save the date for our official trailer to be launched on Tuesday!



~Little Jackalope~

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Late Night for Tomorrow Surprises

Wow! Where did the day go? A lot of things happened today. Let me briefly share it with you: at first I began to work on the official trailer for The Shattered Medallion, getting a few transitions perfected. But then we were given the "green light" to start working on the official product page. WOOT!

Once we started working on that page, an unexpected bug over on the Message Boards occurred. (Those bugs are annoying...so we got out our bug expert and he started cleaning up those pesky bugs.) Later today, the board was fixed.

I wandered through the forums and noticed every one's requests for new avatars. So I made a few from The Silent Spy and put them up. I'm still working on some more...

The most important random message I have for you: visit our web site tomorrow sometime after lunch. Very interesting things to come!

We have a couple of birthdays!




~Little Jackalope~

Monday, April 7, 2014

The Pacific Run Field

Look what we revealed today! This is the field environment in The Shattered Medallion.

~Click on the image for a larger view~

A portion of this environment was used for inspiration on the cover art. That reminds me....as soon as I am finished working on the official trailer (which is releasing next Wednesday on April 15th), I should get to work on getting the cover art ready for the merchandise store. By the way, have you seen the new store design?

As for the weekend puzzle... it uses the Alt Code. You pretty much hold down the "alt" key on your PC keyboard and type in the number, then release the alt key. each time you enter a number, you get a character of some kind. Here is the complete answer ["Surprise! Your life is dangerous now!"] which is another direct quote from The Shattered Medallion.

~Little Jackalope~

Friday, April 4, 2014

Weekend Puzzle #233

We have randomly selected a winner from all entries to the Kindle Fire contest! Congrats to Jessica!


This weekend we continue our Nancy Drew Marathon by playing Secret of the Scarlet Hand. Join us as we play the first Nancy Drew game that Sonny Joon's doodles appeared in, which was over 11 years ago!

On a random note, we have some fan photos to share with you! This is Ashley, a huge Nancy Drew fan who had her picture taken with Nancy Drew books!




And here's your weekend puzzle, an alternative code:

34.83.117.114.112.114.105.115.101.33.32.89.111.117.
114.32.108.105.102.101.32.105.115.32.100.97.110.103.
101.114.111.117.115.32.110.111.119.33.34.


We also have a birthday!


~Little Jackalope~

Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Best Nancy Drew Game Ever

Our Facebook fans have been voting on the Nancy Drew Madness this past month, narrowing down the best Nancy Drew game of all. Today revealed Treasure in the Royal Tower as the best, according to our Facebook community. The brackets may look different for different groups, and especially for different individuals. My top Nancy Drew game was not TRT, but I agree TRT was an incredible game. you can see the final numbers on this post here.

Just so, the ND Madness was just for fun...but to honor the best game, we have a sale going on for the digital version. You can shop here and purchase this awesome game if you do not have it yet, and according to the voters, they would recommend it!



We have some birthdays!


~Little Jackalope~

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

New Message Boards!

We have updated our message boards! It has been years (like...7 or 8 years) since they have been really updated, and it needed it. Especially in the back end, which none of you see, and it is mostly for technical specifications. That being said, there are some changes that do affect you all in the front end.

We posted a thread in message boards here about the details of the changes. If we missed anything, we will add the info to that post, so check back later if you are confused about something. Also, you can always ask question in the Message Board Questions forum, where other members can help answer your questions.

On to the fun! We posted this Nancy Drew moment today. For those of you played Treasure in the Royal Tower, you may have encountered a dead end where Nancy says "Hello there dead-end! My name's Nancy Drew", which I found hilarious.



Twitter Quote contest is today! Head over for a chance to win a digital guide!

~Little Jackalope~

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

If Sonny met Nancy...

One of our fans, Jamie, posted her fan art to our Facebook page, check it out!

This is a drawing of Sonny and Nancy, where Sonny reacts towards Henrik's comment "If he wasn't losing paperwork, or setting off the fire alarm, he was cornering our visitors with his theory that the Maya were abducted by aliens."


 Nice work, Jamie!

If you haven't played Secret of the Scarlet Hand (game #6), now is the time to get it for this upcoming weekend's marathon. 

Or if you want a really good deal on The Captive Curse, we have a sale going on now because of April Fool's day. (Lucas is the prankster in this game!)


Also, tomorrow is the last day to vote on the best Nancy Drew game ever on our Facebook page. We are already in the semi-finals round. Woot!

Also, later tomorrow the Message Boards will be back up. When they are, don't panic! I will post here and on the boards what changes incurred.

~Little Jackalope~