Playing for Second Chances

One of the fun things about playing a Nancy Drew game are "second chances". While they are very appreciated at the times where you fail at something or do something wrong, these second chance sequences can also be entertaining.

Have you ever purposefully made a mistake or purposefully done something wrong in the game just to see what would happen? A few examples would be these:

1. Curse of Blackmoor Manor: Down in the conservatory where the plants are, if you click on the giant carnivorous plant more than once.
2. Message in a Haunted Mansion: in the front hall, up on the staircase, you choose to unravel the chandelier rope for no particular reason.
3. The Final Scene: up on the balcony, when you look over the ledge to try to get something that is slightly out of reach.
4. Danger on Deception Island: Making a bad sandwich and giving it to Katie when she says she is hungry.

I love this moment:

The reaction I receive when I did something awful... is priceless. What is your favorite second chance sequence?

Instead of a weekend puzzle this weekend, I have another "tease" for you to ponder over and discuss among yourselves. It has to do with our next game, and will also be going into the merchandise store once I am finished formatting it:

We have a birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

"An' They're All Robin Hood!"

Today we posted this Nancy Drew moment from Curse of Blackmoor Manor:

It's one of my favorite Nancy Drew moments of all time; being able to fully quote Tommy at the Boar's Head Pub with a cockney accent. All those funny food names! I love it.

In real life, though, I believe I have tried all the foods he mentioned, which aren't as crazy as their names.

Have you played Curse of Blackmoor Manor? If not, it's a classic! I'd recommend it!

Birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

Monday Alerts: Halloween

Halloween is only a few days away, so I must alert you to a few things before then. (Many of you are already aware of these.)

The last day we accept entries for the Pumpkin Carving Contest is Wednesday. If you still want to carve one, hurry before time runs out! Learn more about the contest here or submit to Twitter with the description and #NancyDrewPumpkin hashtag.

Also, if you are dressing up as a Nancy Drew character, we want to see it! (Because we are Nancy Drew nerds like that and love seeing all our other ND nerds, too.) XD

And for the weekend puzzle, it looks like some of you have solved the weekend puzzle. Props to you for researching these Celtic/Ancient Runes (as seen in Curse of Blackmoor Manor and also posted to the blog here for reference).

The answer is [Nekst Fridae] which pretty much means [Next Friday] since the runes don't have an X or Y available. This Friday coming up is when we will officially mention... something. For you fans who are hard-core, it will be nothing new. :-/ I just thought I'd tease you a bit. XD

We have some birthdays!

~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~

Playing Games with Friends

For my "scary games" marathon, I played Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake and then this weekend played Curse of Blackmoor Manor with my Uncle Dan (ok, he was playing and I was working on the puzzles with him, watching.)

It had been such a long time since I've played CUR and I was surprised that I had forgotten some little details! It sort of felt like I was playing it for the first time, which was awesome! Sheesh, those moving rooms in the dark is so mind-boggling...I love it.

And we spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to "charm" the gargoyles but forgot about the shortcut we were supposed to use, and then forgot there was one more wand step after those gargoyles. We must have spent an hour trying to figure out that one puzzle! Anyways, after consulting the Message Board, we were able to work out our stuck points together and solve the mystery. I must say, normally I like playing the game by myself in the dark the first time, but replay value is totally worth it enjoying the mystery with another person. You get to look back and say..."Wow, were we clueless or what?" and laugh at the parts we were totally not understanding. XD

Looks like many of you solved the weekend puzzle! Good for you! As seen these were Maritime Flags. Decode them first to get your letters, then use the clue "Reversed" to understand which direction to read them. If you looked very closely at the entire blog post, and highlighted the blank spaces, you may have seen the cipher solution. It's a [rail fence cipher]. So if you read the letters correctly, you'd get [Hidden Passages]. And they are just that. Perhaps they will be in an upcoming game? Perhaps I am pointing you to something you will need to look for? I can't say...

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #194

If you are following along with the "scary games" marathon, we are finishing up Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake tonight and playing through Curse of Blackmoor Manor this weekend, woot! Has anyone finished DOG already for this week? I'm still working on it tonight. XD

rail fence

We have a bit of urgent news, we are already running low on the physical Ghost of Thornton Hall BONUS EDITION! (If you have already pre-ordered yours, or if you plan on pre-ordering the digital version, no worries!) Best act quick if you had your heart set on having the box to put on your shelf.

Time for your weekend enjoyment, besides the game marathon, I challenge you to solve this puzzle related to GTH. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend, sleuths!
~Little Jackalope~

Rated E for Everyone

If you have looked carefully at the box art for Ghost of Thornton Hall, you may have noticed that the game has been rated "E for Everyone" (and with "Mild Violence"). I have noticed that a few message board members brought up the question "Why is it rated E and not E10+ since we (Her Interactive) claim this is going to be the scariest game to date in the Nancy Drew game collection?" Well, I can answer this for you! :)

We have already submitted our game and have received this rating, which is official. The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) judges games based on several criteria, (and you can learn more about these here on their site) including Violence, Language, Humor, Blood/Gore, Suggestive themes, Drugs/Alcohol and Gambling. The only category that really affects our games rating is the Violence found in them.

One example why Shadow at the Water's Edge received an E10+ (for Everyone ages 10 and up) is that at one point towards the end of the game, you the player (as Nancy Drew) are physically grabbed and forced into water to be drowned. This is considered more violent than say, if Nancy was going to suffocate from smoke in the burning town hall of Alibi in Ashes.

Ghost of Thornton Hall will not have such specific violence as SAW. After all, can a ghost really grab you? Maybe in some way she will in the game, I won't say...but if she does, it will not be like that "ghost" in SAW.

Scariness is not a factor in the ESRB Rating. Since being scared is more a state of mind, it could mean different scare levels for different players. Think of Curse of Blackmoor Manor: it's one of the scariest games we have released, yet it, too, is rated E for Everyone.

As for the scare level in GTH...you will just have to wait and experience it for yourself! Mwahahaha! XD

As for the weekend puzzle...to solve it, first highlight the entire poem with your cursor. Find the extra letters [GIZROVIZKIRO]. Then write our the alphabet forwards, then underneath that write it backwards. The letters written above are found when you reflect them against the real alphabet. Example: A=Z, B=Y, C=X and so on. Your end answer is [Trailer April]. Now how exciting is that?

~Little Jackalope~

Enjoying Yellow Chicks

Today was off to a rocky start, but our little experiment yesterday with the duck lamp inspired us to see what would happen to a yellow marshmallow chick, which cheered us up a little. Unfortunately, the duck lamp favors chicks over bunnies, and decided to let the chick live. The chick toasted, but didn't melt. We then placed it into the microwave. See the before and after images:
Yep. We finally got the little guy to melt. This is now an Easter weekend tradition: figure out what we can do with marshmallow chicks.

Congrats to the super sleuths who worked hard all weekend to crack the tough weekend puzzle #100! Here's how it is done:

First identify the three different codes used. They are:

~The [nautical flags] in Danger on Deception Island
~[Morse code], also found in Danger on Deception Island
~[Ancient Runes] found in Curse of Blackmoor Manor, see below for proper reference:

Second, decipher them and you will get the following clues (including additional notes):
Left Page says:
[~Begin with the sixth (first letter)
~Second should be eleventh
~A vowel is fifth
~Try first
~This one is sixth
~The end is third]

Right Page says:
[~Start over at six
~Hop to first (Now hop back two)
~Right to first
~Find the second
~Now to eighth
~Number six is final]

Third, these clues hint at numbers. So [count the letter in that sentence.]
Example: ["Begin with the sixth" means letter "w". The hint meant it is the first letter in the overall answer.]

Once you have done this, you should get the following letters:
Left Page = [W L E T N E]
Right Page = [O P R I G R]
The methodical way to combine these was to start with the W and insert the second page letters between the first page letters.
Here's your final answer: [Wolpertinger]
It is a rather scarry thing for a small creature like me.

Cake Design contest ends today! These are your last hours to send in entries, so be quick!
Hip-hop!
~Little Jackalope~