I’ve written before about my love of mysteries. I’ve been a reader of mystery novels for a long time, and I love mystery games and puzzles.
Even as a kid, Scooby Doo was one of my favorite cartoons, and I’ve been known to listen to the version of the theme song by Simple Plan on any given day. It combines two loves of mine, which is 2000s alternative rock and Scooby Doo cartoons.
To stay on point, this week has been exciting for me because a new Nancy Drew computer game release date has been announced.
The games, produced by Her Interactive, have been some of my favorite computer games throughout my life. I got two of the games as a kid, and have played through every game since then. There are currently 33 of them, but game number 34, Mystery of the Seven Keys, will be released on May 7.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the games are point-and-click games from the point of view of the titular character Nancy Drew, based on various mysteries from the Nancy Drew books. Each mystery is different, and I’ve found them to be entertaining and educational. A lot of the random knowledge I have has come from these games.
And my favorite part of new game releases is that the marketing team at Her Interactive make it a puzzle for everyone.
Throughout the past week, they have posted various puzzles and codes on their social media pages for followers of the games to solve. A lot of them are types of puzzles we’ve solved before in the games, and the answers add a piece to what would eventually be the password for the Her Interactive website. Upon everyone figuring out the password, it led to a countdown to when the trailer for the game would go live. And the trailer contained the release date.
Now, I have never met more patient people than the dedicated fans of these games. The games have been in production since 1998, and up until 2015 there was consistently at least one game a year. Then we waited until 2019 for the next game, and there hasn’t been one since then until now. There was an announcement of the new game, via fun puzzles, over a year ago.
And this week, when I checked my Facebook one morning, I saw a coded message and jumped at the chance to solve it. My husband was very confused when he walked into the living room and saw me scribbling notes on the back of a piece of junk mail.
For the next few days, they released puzzle after puzzle. Some asking questions about past games to help decode a cryptogram, some images with pieces that had to be rearranged to form a message, and some that sent people on a scavenger hunt through the Her Interactive amateur sleuth blog.
The marketing team seems to really know their audience, and I appreciate it.
A critique I’ve heard of video and computer games is that they’re violent or mindless, but through these games I’ve learned a plethora of history, how to read and write Roman Numerals, Morse code, and various words and phrases in foreign languages. I can give directions in Italian, say hazelnut in French, and say knight in German. I know so much about ancient Mayan culture.
I even have a notebook full of notes from the games, which I made into a fun journaling project. It’s artsy, and educational.
All of this to say I’m excited to learn more about the city of Prague, which is where the new game takes place, and the history of it. I love learning. And I’m excited about new puzzles and a new mystery to solve.