Welcome! Howdy! Bonjour! Gutentag! Hola!

[krolmeister]

Welcome to the Adventure Europe chat with Her Interactive, makers of the Nancy Drew mystery game series. I am the Executive Producer for the company and have overseen design and production of the series since we started it in 1997. We have just released in the US The Creature of Kapu Cave featuring the Hardy Boys and earlier this year, we released Danger by Design.

Our games are availabe in Russian and French. Plans are way to localize in German.

Right now, we are in production for our 16th title, The White Wolf of Icicle Creek and designing our 17th title.

[axelkothe]

Plans are way to localize in German.


When will the german versions of the games be released?
which ones will be translated? all? or only selected ones?
will they be sold individually, or as compilations?
whos the publisher ;) ?

[krolmeister]

We are in discussions with a German publisher who's name I don't have. They have yet to determine details or dates of localized products. German publishers seem to have mixed feelings about the games since the Nancy Drew brand isn't well known there and the market is not seen to be similar to the American market.

[axelkothe]

I see the problem, since I only know about ND from your games - I never heard about ND anywhere else.

[krolmeister]

Right - so the key then is to promote the games as adventure games w/o the benefit of the brand name. So far, it's worked well in France and Russia since neither of those localities are familiar with Nancy Drew. Or at least, not to the extent that she's known here in the US.

Even so, we were surprised by the number of US players who weren't familiar with the brand either, but have enjoyed the series nonetheless.

[Noone]

The last officially released game in Russia was "Train to Blue Moon Canyon". The newer two games are still not announced in localization. Do you have any info if they will be translated to Russian?

[krolmeister]

Howdy Alex,

We're doing a lot of localization in Russian. I would prefer to have them make any kind of announcements, so - all's I can say is that we're very busy with our Russian partners these days. ;)

[Noone]

Thats good to hear as our publishers were too silent for quite a time.

[krolmeister]

It's been a lot of fun working with our Russian partners - and it helps to have a Russian on our staff! They're very quick, smart and adept! We'll need to send Nancy over there and match wits with her doppelganger. Is there a Russian counterpart to nancy drew?

[Noone]

In literature? Nobody comes to mind, sorry.

The only thing I can imagine is "Timur and his comando" by Gaidar writer - but they are some analogue of scouts helping people duirng World War 2...

Well, I'm not young to know if there are good modern Russian writers and characters... It needs more research :-)

[HIddenSanctum]

With Kapu Cave, there was a lot of time spent on chores so to speak - fishing, necklace making - with very little sleuthing. Is this a trend that will continue or can we expect the next Nancy Drew game to be more like Blackmoor Manor (which many consider the best of the series)?

[krolmeister]

Welcome Hidden Sanctum,

We always try to change up the stories and games a bit. For ICE (White Wolf of Icicle Creek), we really concentrated on creating a cohesive story with clues and plotlines that you could investigate and follow up on. We also emphasized the location and historical aspect of it all.

So, there will definitely be similarities with CUR (Curse of Blackmoor Manor), in that there'll be more investigation involving the storyline, but there will also be some chores. However, the chores are there to allow the player access to information, rather than just being there to earn resources such as Big Island Bucks.

And for ND17, the mood will definitely be very similar to CUR, but with a fun twist.

[one-cool]

hm, this is one iof the few games or companys I don't know and never heard about.

And I never saw one of those games published or reviewed here in Germany... Can you maybe name the games published here? It's nearly the same questio like axelkothe. But instead of him, I never heard of it before. :/

[axelkothe]

hm, this is one iof the few games or companys I don't know and never heard about.

And I never saw one of those games published or reviewed here in Germany... Can you maybe name the games published here? It's nearly the same questio like axelkothe. But instead of him, I never heard of it before. :/


Thats easy, there are no games published here yet, afaik.

They make the Nancy Drew - Games, first person adventures based on popular books of the same name. (hope i got it right)

[HIddenSanctum]

Excellent news! I've played all of your games, except for Danger By Design. Mainly because I have to watch my spending at the moment and having heard it was not as good as Kapu and that I really wasn't crazy Kapu. My favs thus far are Last Train, Blackmoor, and Shadow Ranch (yes, despite the chores! There was plenty of sleuthing to do in there). Kapu in my opinion went way overboard on chores so I'm pretty happy that the next titles will be moving away from that.

Next question: The Hardy Boys.

I realize you are "Her"Interactive, but is there a good chance we'll start to see the Hardy Boys in their own games?

[krolmeister]

Correct!

We've created an adventure series from a book series featuring a teenage detective named Nancy Drew. We've been creating these titles for almost 10 years and have 15 titles out on the market:

Secrets Can Kill
Stay Tuned for Danger
Message in a Haunted Mansion
Treasure in the Royal Tower
The Final Scene
The Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake
The Haunted Carousel
Danger on Deception Island
Secret of Shadow Ranch
Curse of Blackmoor Manor
Secret of the Old Clock
Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
Danger by Design
Creature of Kapu Cave
White Wolf of Icicle Creek

[one-cool]

Thats easy, there are no games published here yet, afaik.

They make the Nancy Drew - Games, first person adventures based on popular books of the same name. (hope i got it right)

So no shame on me for not knowing the series *phew*

@krool: thx I'll search for this games soon :)

[krolmeister]

Excellent news! I've played all of your games, except for Danger By Design.

Awesome - thank you for your support! Danger by Design is not as chore intensive. We really tried to emphasize the feeling of being in Paris.




Next question: The Hardy Boys.

I realize you are "Her"Interactive, but is there a good chance we'll start to see the Hardy Boys in their own games?


We'd love to take the Hardy Boys and give them their own mysteries. I think if we did do a HB game, it would be much different than the ND series.

[HIddenSanctum]

Hmmm, maybe I'll have to move Danger by Design up a few notches on my wish list. :)

Next Question: Where do your games from from? Are they all developed exclusively in-house, or do you sometimes receive story ideas submitted from outside sources?

BTW, it's a shame that most of your fans are in the US and either at work or in school at the moment. I'm sure they would LOVE this opportunity to chat with you! On second thought, it's probably better because you wouldn't be able to keep up!

[krolmeister]

Hmmm, maybe I'll have to move Danger by Design up a few notches on my wish list. :)

Next Question: Where do your games from from? Are they all developed exclusively in-house, or do you sometimes receive story ideas submitted from outside sources?

BTW, it's a shame that most of your fans are in the US and either at work or in school at the moment. I'm sure they would LOVE this opportunity to chat with you! On second thought, it's probably better because you wouldn't be able to keep up!


Danger by Design was definitely experimental - especially with the story. I wanted to create this feeling that there was a whole universe happening outside of the bounds of your experience.

We develop everything in house, except for music and character animation. We do not accept story submissions unfortunately. We've got a kajillion Nancy Drew books to work with and read through and read through and read through... :P

Yeah - we're thinking of doing a similar chat on our Msg Boards. I think our French partners want me to chat on their msg board - so, if you 'parle francais' - you'll have a 2nd chance! ;)

[one-cool]

Yeah - we're thinking of doing a similar chat on our Msg Boards. I think our French partners want me to chat on their msg board - so, if you 'parle francais' - you'll have a 2nd chance! ;)
Not in french >_<"""

[HIddenSanctum]

Back to the Hardy Boys. How would those be different 'if' you did take those on?

I grew up reading the Hardy Boys, my sister read Nancy Drew. I think Chet would make an excellent comical sidekick in HB games!

[krolmeister]

Back to the Hardy Boys. How would those be different 'if' you did take those on?

I grew up reading the Hardy Boys, my sister read Nancy Drew. I think Chet would make an excellent comical sidekick in HB games!


Definitely 3rd person, where you could control the Hardy Boys. The Hardy Boys are much more about action IMHO. Chet could definitely be a funny sidekick, but Aunt Gertrude could also be used for some funny moments. Like, maybe the Hardy Boys sneak back into their rooms and then the lights suddenly go on and there's the horrific figure standing there, but it's just Aunt Gert in her housecoat, rollers and cold cream!

[HIddenSanctum]

Hehehehe, yeah plenty of those "Aw Shucks!" moments at the start of a chapter after a cliffhanging end to the previous one. My most memorable was the head on collision they had while driving. Despite trying to avoid the crash, they opposing car did the same and remained in their path. Of course all this turned out to be a huge mirror in the road! :)

3rd person, eh? That brings up a question. Why do we never see Nancy?

[Dorofey]

Hi. I am a big fan of your ND games. Especially old games, when they had a bit of edutainment. After 'Scarlet hand' I could decifer primitive hieroglyphs, after 'Haunted carrousel' I got some practice in shorthand. Unfortunately it seems that last ND games lost it. Now all we got is some pages of information about region. Rather dull. I asked friends of mine who are also big fans of ND games what do they think. And they have the same feeling. But at the same time last ND games had real commercial success. Does it mean that in the future ND games will be like "Kapu cave" and "Danger by design"? :(

[krolmeister]

Hello Dorofey,

We try to mix up the content - so that it's not always scary/moody or 'edutaintment' like. But we always try to convey interesting information such as what we did in Scrarlet Hand. For example, in Danger by Design, we discussed the French Resistance, codes, fashion design, etc.

We like to take our players to different worlds - be it based on location or based on the information/story that's going on. For example, in White Wolf, you'll discover a lot more information on wolves and other things that I cannot give away yet.

[Noone]

That is pity that your appearance on ADOC'06 was announced too late. Will you be browsing this forum tomorrow and on thursday so our readers can ask you questions if they have them?

[krolmeister]

That is pity that your appearance on ADOC'06 was announced too late. Will you be browsing this forum tomorrow and on thursday so our readers can ask you questions if they have them?


I'm not sure - it's definitely fun hearing feedback and discussing 'shop' with y'all. I'm also not sure if this discussion gets magically closed down now (3 minutes to go).

[HIddenSanctum]

Actually you can still post even if it is in the 'closed' section. Of course, it's up to you whether you want to stick around! ;)

What are your thoughts on the way big sites treat point-n-click adventure games? (Ok, maybe this is too dangerous of a question...)

[krolmeister]

Actually you can still post even if it is in the 'closed' section. Of course, it's up to you whether you want to stick around! ;)

What are your thoughts on who the big sites treat point-n-click adventure games? (Ok, maybe this is too dangerous of a question...)


I'm just always amazed at how the computer game industry criticizes the old point-and-click. I talked with some VIP's at a very VIP game developer, and they could not for the life of them understand why haven't yet taken Nancy to the '3d' world. I think they were imagining she should be like Lara Croft or something. I dunno.

But my belief is that the medium and technology should fit the requirements of the market. Our market is not at all interested in buying the latest and greatest video card to play the game, how many frames per second they get or how many vertices/polygons are used in production of the game. They want a strong storyline, realistic environments and an easy interface. And IMHO, point and click is the way to go.

[Noone]

yes, you can post even when the topic is moved to "finished section". But I only wanted to say that our readers simply were not informed that Her Interactive will participate in ADOC and thats why they simply had no chance to prepare questions... And yes, Nancy games have their own auditory in Russia.

nancy - like lara croft? hmm... a sexy one teenager girl solving mysteries... hmm.... :-))

[krolmeister]

yes, you can post even when the topic is moved to "finished section". But I only wanted to say that our readers simply were not informed that Her Interactive will participate in ADOC and thats why they simply had no chance to prepare questions... And yes, Nancy games have their own auditory in Russia.

nancy - like lara croft? hmm... a sexy one teenager girl solving mysteries... hmm.... :-))


The discussion is very pleasant and enjoyable. I think I'll be checking out soon to do.... well, work. But, it's a 'snow day' here in Western Washington, so it's not as busy. Therefore, I can check back and add my 2 cents here and there.

And no comment on the 2nd response. ;)

[HIddenSanctum]

Exactly. I think they don't understand what it is all about. To me it about taking your time and absorbing everything in. Picking up clues, solving challenges, etc. No other format compliments that style like point-n-click. Many people find the current games a bit overwhelming because there is some much to do and examine. Just imagine how much more complex it would get if they could actually look behind everything with free movement. Then you would REALLY hear complaints about how unfair things are if they missed looking behind a dresser. It gives a whole new meaning to the words "pixel-hunting".

[Dorofey]

For example, in Danger by Design, we discussed the French Resistance, codes, fashion design, etc.
"French Resistance". Checked. "Codes". Checked. "Fashion design'' Well, I wouldn't agree that creation of collection for that old lady (cannot remind her name) had something common with fashion design study. That was pure logic task.
And one more claim. :) I cannot understand why you mix in one game task which had absolutely different level of diffiulty. For example, in 'Danger by design' you put really primitive parfait preparation task and at the end of the game - really difficlult task with decoding of Noisette message. Why not to 'normalize' the level of difficulty?

[HIddenSanctum]

That seems kind of hard to do Dorofey. Everyone thinks differently so determining a balanced difficulty is a nearly impossible task in my opinion. Someone may find puzzle A easy and Puzzle B impossible, and someone else may be the complete opposite. :)

[krolmeister]

Puzzle balancing is very tough - and a lot times despite our testing, we discover that there are some puzzles where either people can solve them very quickly and others are stumped and vice versa. The parfait production was put in as a 'fun' thing to do. If the puzzles get too heavy or difficult as you get through the game, it can be draggy.

But these are good comments. We always ponder over puzzles. One user complained that he wanted all puzzles OUT of the game! He just wanted story.

[ibberman]

Yeah is realy must be difficult making the puzzle and the games because there is so many ages playing the games, but I think you are doing a good work!!! :D :D :D

Some one realy wanted the games to be with out puzzles? I think they belong in the games!

[PolloDiablo2]

Here in the Netherlands, Nancy Drew games are quite hard to get. yet they are the best-selling adventure series in the USA. So when I finally found one, I had to buy it. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it much (Curse of Blackmoor Manor) because of a couple of things.
1) I didn't like Nancy's voice much (but that was not really a big issue)
2) There were too many mini-games that involved quick reflexes (typing, throwing ball, chasing ghosts...) or sheer luck (board games) for my taste
3) Each time you wanted to open a door or use the computer, you had to solve the same puzzle over and over again which was frustrating

Now I am hesitant to try another game in the series. Are all games like this or did I just pick the wrong game? In this thread, some people consider Curse of Blackmoor Manor the best Nancy Drew game, yet I was unable to finish it... perhaps they are just not for me? Let me know if you think I should try to play another one or leave the series alone. I'm willing to give it a go if the other games depend on dexterity less.

[ibberman]

PolloDiablo2 I personnaly think that Curse of Blackmoor Manor was the best game but obbiosly you have an other oppinion, I wish that you would try another game insted of just stopping, the games are differnt and maybe you will like some of the others.

I know all about what you say in the top of your post about it being difficult getting the games, it is in Denmark too, actuly you can't get them in any shop that I know of very frusuating >:(

[��Axels Girl��]

Hi everyone, I'm late but may I join? ;)

PolloDiablo2, I personally enjoyed CUR, because I loved all of the secret passageways, and having to do research, it is one of the best games in those ways. I didn't enjoy it for the zodiac, but other than that I believe it was a great game. About the different puzzles that you had to do to get in somewhere, there is usually a way around that. ;) Each game is different, I would give it another chance. You may want to try Secret of Shadow Ranch, Treasure in the Royal tower or Secret of the Scarlet hand. You may find those a little more interesting. :)

[Aleksandra]

I agree that Curse of Blackmoor was one of my favorite games but it was probably the hardest.

[Aleksandra]

Greetings Krolmeister! I realize that I'm late on the discussion.

Has Herinteractive ever thought of teaming up with Kmmproductions to release a soundtrack of music from the games?

[CaseSolver]

Hey Aleksandra!! ;D

As far as I know, Kevin Manthei has come as close as possible to confirming that there will be some sort of soundtrack. As to its release date, I'm not sure. But, this is only word-of-mouth. :-[