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~

Adventure Games

Every once in a while, to mix things up, we make an "adventure" game. Some of our "adventure games" would include Ransom of the Seven Ships, Danger on Deception Island, and Trail of the Twister. Of course, we also create scary games, and historical or international games, but many games can fit into numerous categories. I wanted to look at what makes one of our "adventure games" an adventure.

Nancy is often sent on vacation to spend time in the area she's visiting, enjoying her time away from a case. Of course, knowing Nancy, vacations don't always go uneventful. Mysteries tend to follow her everywhere! At some point early on, something happens and she is back to work.

In Ransom of the Seven Ships, a vacation in the Caribbean turns into a case when her friend Bess goes missing. In Danger on Deception Island, someone ransacks the boat Nancy is staying on. Nancy can't set these issues aside, she must get to the bottom of what's really going on.

The Shattered Medallion will certainly be an "adventure game". Are you eager for a "vacation"?

~Little Jackalope~

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~

Tales of Whales

Today was are monthly burger outing, but I forgot to take a snapshot of the burger truck we visited...or that one tasty thing I ate of which I don't remember what it was. So I found something else fun to talk about: WHALES! 'Cause they rule. (~.^)

To take a detour away from teasing you about GTH, I recently discovered these sketches to share. I found them in the Danger on Deception Island art archives in our office and loved them instantly. So I snatched them. Honestly, I don't know the real story behind who drew these...but I can imagine that the artist was getting in the right mood for the game. To me, they look like baby Orcas, instead of adult ones. :) I love this game, I find it really fun. (And yes, it was based in the San Juan islands here in Washington up Puget Sound. There is no real Deception Island, but there is Deception Pass. The weather here is most often grey, just like the game.)

Oh hey! Twitter tweeters! Head over to our Twitter page to participate in today's contest!
And we have a couple of birthdays to celebrate as well:

~Little Jackalope~

Nancy Drew Castle Adventure (part 1)

Last weekend Phoenix and I went on a Nancy Drew adventure (check out Monday's post for the Danger on Deception Island adventure post). Look where else we went!

This is Manresa Castle! It's the very castle that the Her Interactive team visited and stayed the night at as part of research for Message in a Haunted Mansion and Treasure in the Royal Tower. We took pictures:

Look! They had a garden on the grounds! I couldn't help but think we were in Ezra Wickford's secret garden...

And these are just a few pictures from the outside, we had dinner reservations and went inside to explore a little...I will have to share these with you in another post. (~.^)

Head's up! Twitter Quote Contest is going on today!
~Little Jackalope~

Puzzle Contest + ND Adventure

Hey all! Hope you had a great weekend! Let's get right to business:

There were a few typos in the puzzle, but had been fixed. We still will accept all entries since the end answer is still the same.

The puzzle is an [ottendorf or "book" cipher]. The word "pledge" linked directly to our Kickstarter page and was nudging you to look through all of the pledge levels. Each number set I provided means the following:

First number: [pledge level].
Second number: [Line number].
Third number: [word in that line].
Fourth number: [letter in that word].

After gathering all of the correct letters, you should end up with [Mystery in History] as your final answer. To be fair to every one, I had Phoenix randomly select a number from all of the correct contest entries. Our winner was randomly chosen to be *insert drum roll here*.

[Kelly L.]!

Phoenix and I had a Nancy Drew adventure over the weekend, and it will take a few posts to cover it all. Today I start with this: We went up Puget Sound here in Washington up to Port Townsend. The trip felt a little like Danger on Deception Island, but it was a nice summer day instead of the grey overcast skies we usually have, which are reflected in the game. After a ferry ride (it was not exactly a whale-watching tour, but fun none-the-less) we walked a beach, heading towards the lighthouse at the end. No, we didn't explore the lighthouse because someone might've been staying in it, but we did take pictures! (Ok, Phoenix took these pictures. Thanks Phoenix!)

And look! When we walked along the beach, we passed by some cairns!
I'll be talking about the castle (ahh!!) later. (~.^)
~Little Jackalope~