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~

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~

Searching for Medallions

Did anyone play Treasure in the Royal Tower this weekend? I sure did for our first marathon in preparation for The Shattered Medallion! Somethings that I noticed for the first time: Professor Hotchkiss never tipped Nancy for all the work she did! Also, even though I know where everything is in Wickford Castle, it would have sure been nice to have a map someplace to refer to...but then, that would defeat the purpose of exploring and running into (and introducing ourselves to) dead ends.

Next week's marathon: Secret of the Scarlet Hand, for Sonny Joon reasons.

Check out this fan art that Faylene emailed to us! It's Sonny Joon!

For those of you who were anxious about the Nancy Drew madness on Facebook, I did not update the brackets chart these past few days because I was not in the office over the weekend. No worries, I was still counting the votes at 1:00pm each day! The chart is currently up-to-date now.

Looks like a few of you solved the weekend puzzle! Good thing it was an easy one, because the message boards are still down and you can't communicate with each other about it just yet. It is a [rail fence] cipher, but the moon walk clue meant for you to count backwards. The answer is [Fate moves in odd ways...like a spider!] which is a direct quote from The Shattered Medallion.

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #232

It's the weekend! Most importantly we begin a game marathon building up to the release of The Shattered Medallion. In this blog post here I list out the schedule of the games I will be playing.

This weekend we begin with Treasure in the Royal Tower, for the fun of searching for missing medallions!

A few reminders: This is the last weekend to participate in the Kindle Contest. Check it out on our home site...it's the hovering side-bar on the left of the page.
Also, the message boards are still down for maintenance, and will likely be back up next week.

Here's your weekend puzzle! Hint: moonwalk this track.

EPEL.ADIVEF

RIAI.YDNEMA

!DSK.SWOSOT

We have a birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

News & Medallions

There is a lot going on this week at Her Interactive! We just finished the Caption Contest on Facebook (congrats to our winner, Avery!), and we are getting the product page ready for The Shattered Medallion. There is a lot to do!

Also, just a head's up: we will be working on the Message Boards between Wednesday, March 26th and Tuesday, April 1st. It will be back up on April 2nd. (It needed to get pushed back a day). So don't try to log in or post during this time...because it might not work for you.

Work has been slow on the trailer because we have been busy, and as soon as I'm finished with this blog post I will be getting right back to it!

Here's something else to keep in mind: this Friday through Sunday I will begin the Nancy Drew marathon by playing Treasure in the Royal Tower. If you do not have this game, you can order it in our store here. If you do have it, now is the time to install it and get it ready with your notebook and pencil (unless you have the game memorized and don't even need to take notes).

If you are a fan of TRT, I'd like to point out one of my favortist things in our Merchandise Store: The medallion images featured on the round ceramic ornaments! (I also added the purple one to represent Marie's favorite color. This way, you can purchase two ornaments and have a color on each side, getting all four for your collection.)

~Little Jackalope~

Medallions of the Past

Medallions occasionally make appearances in various types of Nancy Drew mysteries, as well as in the books. They are highly valued pieces of ornately decorated stones or jewelry that are a treasure to its owner.

Three medallions were the center piece of the story in Treasure in the Royal Tower, where Nancy had to locate all three medallions that had belonged to Marie Antoinette, and I personally think are  most beautiful. Not only are they pretty, but they served several more purposes in the game. I won't spoil it for you in case you haven't played it yet.

In a more recent game, The Captive Curse, there is a medallion fastened as a necklace. The original medallion necklace was worn by girls who were reportedly attacked by the monster. Because of this story, there are replicas in the Castle souvenir shop. So if you wanted to lure a creepy monster to yourself, just wear a necklace!

Our next Nancy Drew game, The Shattered Medallion, has the medallion right in the title. This is another very important medallion, as you will soon learn. Obviously it is broken into five parts and has a beautiful carving on its face. What do you suppose this medallion's story is? Will it serve a purpose? Will it lure you to your death? Is it symbolic of something?

Only this will I tell you: there is more here than meets the eye.

~Little Jackalope~

Weekend Puzzle #227

It's a beautiful day here at Her Interactive. The sky is blue, the sun is out, it's freezing cold, and the geese are ice skating on the slough.

During lunch today we played board games, as we often do on Fridays. When we get back to our desks, we are busy working on art and logic bugs to get ready for Beta week next week. (Beta is a decent, playable game build, but still has a lot of missing art or details to it.) Once we hit a Beta build it will get busy for me.

Random Picture of the Day: I have the feathered boa and feathers of shame from playing hackysack.

At the moment, I'm snooping through the latest game build files, and working on some merchandise things. What has been on my mind all day, though, is the music from Message in a Haunted Mansion, and wanting to play Treasure in the Royal Tower because it is winter-themed. Will you be replaying a Nancy Drew game this weekend?

Here's your weekend puzzle, good luck!

Ca B H Al Ca Sa F

We also have a birthday!

Also, if you are in college, love Nancy Drew, and know how to edit videos...check this out.

~Little Jackalope~

The January Cold

The temperature is dropping here in Bellevue WA, but I can't complain about 28 degrees when other parts of our country is much MUCH colder. All the same, it's totally the season to play snowy games like Warnings at Waverly Academy and Treasure in the Royal Tower and The White Wolf of Icicle Creek. Or perhaps you are a player who enjoys the opposite?

Perhaps if it's really cold outside, you'd prefer to play the warm location-based games like Ransom of the Seven Ships or The Secret of Shadow Ranch?

I think I'd like to replay TRT.

Anyways, it looks like many of you were quick to solve the weekend puzzle, congrats! Of course, all you do is translate the flags to letters. The cipher is [Maritime Flags]. The answer you get is [Solar System Shirt]. Here's what I meant by it:

I'm going to ask our artist for the original art file so that (someday) I can make a similar design available in our merchandise store...

Birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

Cookies and Ornaments

I was out sick yesterday, and now I have returned to the office to open a newly arrived package containing a few of the prizes for the Cookie Contest winner. Take a look at how they turned out in real life!

I kind of want to get my own little Christmas Tree just so I can start a collection of the ornaments from the merchandise store. It would be a Nancy Drew-themed tree! Speaking of Christmas, it's only a week away! It sure is sneaking up fast! Are you ready for it? Perhaps we can get in the mood with playing snowy games like Treasure in the Royal Tower, The White Wolf of Icicle Creek or Warnings at Waverly Academy, and of course, baking holiday cookies (you only have 2 days left to enter!).

*Edited
I nearly forgot about the puzzle! It is a Drop Quote puzzle from a few of the recent games. Fill in the spaces on the grid with the letters (guess and check) to get the Quote said by Takae in Shadow at the Water's Edge: ["You just need to be patient and you need to learn to see more than you are used to seeing."] This is excellent advice for any detective! ;)

~Little Jackalope~

Fan Letters and Items for Fans

Today I received a wonderful letter from a fan named Nina. I was very excited to receive it! The envelope had stickers (some were 3D!) and crayon art, and inside were fan doodles and many references to Nancy Drew games! I LOVED it! Check it out:

Also, for everyone who sent in fan mail to me this year and hadn't received anything in return, I will be sending you a letter in return. (Even if you mailed me 12 months ago...!)

Randomness: Here are all those medallion designs that you can create in the merchandise store! The ceramic ornaments (smooth and flat) are the closest thing to the real deal! Add these to your ultimate Nancy Drew collection!

We have a birthday!

~Little Jackalope~

Treasure in ... Your Home!

Have you entered the cookie contest? Last weekend we showed you the prizes for winning here:

Take a look at that! (I know, I'm still SUPER excited). One of the holiday ornaments (which are made of ceramic) are from Treasure in the Royal Tower! I pretty much added the three colored medallions from the game, but then I couldn't stop there. Since the ornaments are double-sided (you get to pick an image for the front and an image for the back) I also added Marie's favorite color: purple, to match the box art color. This way it seems more matching, I think.

You could also choose to purchase these medallion ornaments in our store here. One idea: buy two circle ornaments, on one ornament you could have the red and blue, the other could be purple and green, that way, you have all the colors. ;)

Looks like you all solved the weekend puzzle! Using semaphore flag code, you can decipher the little jackalopes to read [Bird names]. Which, as some of you did suspect, is not, in fact, a reference to SPY...

Also, I wanted to highlight some more awesome fan art sent in to feedback@herinteractive.com:

We have a birthday 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~

"Ach! The Lights!"

"Turn them back on!" as Jacques would say in Treasure in the Royal Tower as Nancy (you) flick on and off the switch in the circuit breaker.

Come on Jacques! One of the best ways to enhance your game-playing experience would be to turn off the lights! If you have played Shadow at the Water's Edge, you would totally understand this Nancy Drew Moment:

But in some cases, like the scarier mysteries, perhaps playing with the lights out would not be such a good idea if you'd rather not be more prone to jumping out of your chair and potentially hitting something with flailing arms as you scream at the top of your lungs.

...

Just a thought.

~Little Jackalope~

A Classic Moment from TRT

Today we shared a classic Nancy Drew moment from Treasure in the Royal Tower. See for yourself!

This was something that drove me to insane curiosity when I first played it: What was in those rooms?!?! Nothing important. They must have been other maintenance rooms and empty guest rooms, and somewhere downstairs must have been the kitchen, as well as Jacques's and Dexter's and Lisa's rooms. But none of those were relevant to the mystery. I personally like when all the environments have reasons to return to, so exploring non-important rooms might throw the detective off course in her sleuthing.

For those of us that really really want to be able to explore every room in the game and feel satisfied, I recommend Shadow at the Water's Edge, where you eventually get to explore every single room! *Insert little victory dance here*.

~Little Jackalope~

Nancy Drew Castle Adventure (part 2)

As promised, here are a few more photos of Phoenix's and my Nancy Drew adventure from this last weekend.

As mentioned yesterday, we went to Manresa Castle, which inspired Message in a Haunted Mansion and Treasure in the Royal Tower. This castle is an Inn and a restaurant. There have been stories of hauntings here, and I heard that when the Her Interactive team visited and spent the night a long time ago, one of the team members got spooked and left in the middle of the night!

Phoenix and I only stayed for dinner (in the turret/tower!!), so we didn't spend enough time trying to find ghosts. Do any of these areas look familiar? (~.^)

Hey! We have a caption contest going up today on Facebook! When we post the photo, submit your best caption for a chance to win a prize! Head over now!

Also, Phoenix posted a new video up on YouTube for our Kickstarter page here. Also, Megan and Stuart provide an update to our Kickstarter campaign as well here.
~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~

Old Tricks and New Craftiness

Hope you all had a great weekend, for many of you students this means school is either out already, or will be out soon. Yay, summer!

I wanted to share with you something one of our Twitter fans, Maddie J. has made from The Captive Curse. It looks SOOO cool! I love it! (^_^) Thanks for sharing Maddie!

I think something like this would go great with a "I came to see the creature, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt" t-shirt (I have this, it's amazing), which is available in our Merchandise Store.

Speaking of merchandise...today is the last day to enter our Facebook Caption Contest featuring an image of Phoenix, for a chance to win this Tomb of the Lost Queen pillowcase! Head over and post the best caption!

Puzzle solved! Congrats on the sleuths who cracked this one! If you have learned about fingerprints from playing Treasure in the Royal Tower (or elsewhere), you would remember that fingerprints [start prominent (or dark) and leave less oil as the finger is used.] So the most recent/first press of a button would be [the darkest, and the last press would be the lightest print]. You'd also have had to identify the grid, which is on your [keyboard number pad (likely on your right)]. Writing down the correct numbers you gather from the prints, use the alt button to punch in the code. You can do this on a word document of any kind. Example: Hold down the "ALT" key and type 0116 to get the letter "t". Once you have gotten all of the correct letters, it spells "[Teslascope]", a rather interesting word contributed by our Designer.

~Little Jackalope~

Nancy Drew Spaces

We have been *cough*purposefully*cough* keeping you in suspense for a few days with the secret YouTube video. Cue evil laughter: Mwahaha! Cut evil moment: The "private" video on intern Phoenix's play list is now viewable! Check out our YouTube channel and subscribe to stay informed on all the latest uploads she adds. ;)

 

This is my favorite video so far, because it's really cool to see what our office looks like. Although to a non-Nancy Drew fan, it might look just like any other office. There are still tiny secrets around, you would just have to look harder, with keen eyes. The story behind every room and every cubicle and every space is most interesting. Perhaps Phoenix will enlighten you on some while she snoops further.

You also get a sneak peak at my desk in this video. Oh dear! Now you know how much of a Nancy Drew nerd I am... XD The game collection on my top shelf, posters on my wall, the tin on my desk with the Earth's remaining Koko Kringles, a box of crayons and colored pens next to my monitor...*sigh* This cubicle is my Nancy Drew dream space. Although, I think I would love to have a living room designed the same way Nancy's looks like in Alibi in Ashes. It's so homey! That would be the dream space for me.

I would have to put up the coat rack somewhere, the mugs and coasters on the coffee table, along with a magnifying glass and a few Nancy Drew books on some shelves or side tables. That would be amazing.

How would you decorate your space Nancy Drew style? Would it be Nancy Drew memorabilia, or would it look like an environment from a game? Say, Nancy's bedroom in The Captive Curse, or perhaps decorate it like the Wickford Castle in Treasure in the Royal Tower? The artist in me wants to go crazy with all these possibilities...now where's my canvas? 

Weekend puzzle answer will be posted tomorrow. For those who are new to these, you do not need to submit your answers, these puzzles are just for fun. But if you'd like, you may discuss them on the Message Boards here.
~Little Jackalope~