Community

Like we mentioned in the Jump Start post, we're getting started earlier this year with releasing information about the games. If you've been following our Twitter feed, then you might know that we've been trying to figure out which screenshots to release for Ransom of the Seven Ships.

It was a pretty tough choice, with a variety of contenders such as wildlife, beaches, and inventory items, but we finally settled on a few. We will have these screenshots on WEDNESDAY 2/25. In the meantime, here's a little teaser for our fans. :)



I imagine Nancy would have a great time here - I know I would! Sipping on smoothies, swimming at the beach, and going snorkeling would be at the top of my priorities if I was in the Bahamas. What would you do if you were here?

Recently we posted a tweet on our Twitter feed about women preferring 'girly' themes such as spa, fashion, and celebrities more than something traditionally more male oriented (engineering, cars, professional sports). There was a lot of feedback so we decided it would be a good topic to explore more on the blog.

We are a gaming company, and we first started, a lot a retailers refused to sell our games because "girls are computer phobic." Of course, we knew better. The only games girls had in 1995 were Barbie Fashion and 90210 Beverly Hills games. Girls are interested in more than just fashion dress up games we said. They like adventure games too, just not the same bloody ones that boys do. Girls want a good story and a reason for why they're doing something. And so the Nancy Drew games came to be.

As the gaming industry developed, other companies started to realize that girls DO in fact play games. They tried to appeal to girls by making things the color PINK. Perhaps they thought all girls liked Barbies and therefore would like anything pink (interestingly enough, there is a study that says girls are hard wired to like pink). Hence the rise of the pink DS, Twister Pink, pink Guitar Hero guitars, among other things. As we all know, merely having something the color pink isn't enough. There has to be substance behind the pink. But if the substance is there, then will the pink be just enough to make it appeal MORE to girls?

But what if the game the company was trying to sell was really a good game? Take for instance, a Nancy Drew game. It has lots of puzzles, thinking, talking to characters, and a great mystery. If all things stay the same, would girls be more interested in a mystery about a horse show or a model train competition? Both games have the same puzzles and same story elements, but the theme is different. Which one would you choose? Does the theme really help make girls more interested or are game developers just stereotyping girls?

PS. we're not thinking about putting horses or trains in our next title, but we have had both horses (Shadow Ranch) and trains (Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon) in our games.