Community
April 2012
Interview with Programmer Lead, Peter!
Thu, 2012-04-26 09:46 — HerInteractiveWe interviewed our Programmer Lead, Peter!
Her Interactive: How long have you worked at Her Interactive?
Peter: I’ve worked here just over 6 years.
Her Interactive: What are you currently working on?
Peter: I am working on an internal tool to help our designers. Currently, they forge the logic of the game out of sheer will and brainpower. If all goes well, they will have some support in their quest. I call this tool “Brain.”
Her Interactive: Do you have a favorite saying or quote?
Peter: Yes.
Her Interactive: And what is your favorite quote?
Peter: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. -2 Timothy 2:15
Her Interactive: If you could invent a gadget or machine, what would it be called and what would it do?
Peter: The gadget would make the consequence of a stupid action immediate so that practitioners of stupidity would associate bad results with stupid actions. I have no name for this gadget, and I clearly should not be allowed to invent things.
Her Interactive: If you were the main character of a video game, who would you be and what is your story or mission?
Peter: I would be Indiana Jones as he’s one of the few heroes whose life pattern is not ultimately self-destructive. My mission would be to recover lost artifacts, defeat the Nazis, have an awesome soundtrack and, of course, run away from snakes.
Her Interactive: What is your favorite Ice Cream Flavor? Either in real life or from the ice cream parlor in Alibi in Ashes?
Peter: I am partial to mint chocolate chip and to vanilla bean. But not together.
Her Interactive: What is your favorite movie?
Peter: I only get one? That’s so mean of you. Just for that, I’m going to pick “Mean Girls.” Know why? Because you’re a mean girl. See the connection? I want people to know how, like, smart I can be, and stuff.
Her Interactive: If confronted with one of the following options, which would you choose?
A) Expose and catch a criminal
B) Sleep in a haunted place
C) Hunt for treasure in a dangerous location
Peter: Clearly (A). (B) is impossible because you cannot sleep if you’re creeped out; (B) is a trap. (C) is just asking for bodily damage, and that will never be on my bucket list. (A), by process of elimination, is the only viable answer.
Thanks Peter for helping to put our games together and all of your hard work!
Tomb of the Lost Queen: Pre-order Facts
Tue, 2012-04-03 18:14 — HerInteractiveTomb of the Lost Queen pre-orders are now live! Head over to purchase your copy and receive the *Bonus Edition. The Bonus Edition includes these fun features:
- An extra Metagame award at the end
- Cell phone games
- Extra translation hotspots
- Cell phone charms
- Ability to call S.P.I.E.D. (Strange Phenomenon Inspectors: Extraterrestrial Division) for secret recorded messages
Pre-orders begin Tuesday, April 3, 2012. Pre-orders end Monday, May 7, 2012 at 12:00PM PST.
*Physical pre-orders are only available while supplies last.
If you order your copy after noon on May 7th, you will receive the standard game.
The official release date for Tomb of the Lost Queen is May 8, 2012. It will be in all major retail outlets then.
Shipping Options:
Physical pre-ordered games will ship out no later than April 30, 2012. Digital Download pre-orders will be available to download on April 30. If you ordered multiple items (other than TMB) they will ship at the same time as TMB does if you ordered them with the pre-order.
Depending on the shipping method you choose and your location, you may receive your game earlier or later than your friends. Physical games are shipped out of Minnesota, USA. Here are your shipping methods:
Within the US:
- USPS (Standard Post Office)
- Next Day
- Ground
- 2nd Day
International:
- Post (International Post – No Tracking Available)
- UPS
(Some international orders can expect delays up 3 weeks or more due to varied customs and delivery regulations.)
Strategy Guides:
Due to increases in printing costs, Strategy Guides starting with Tomb of the Lost Queen and subsequent games will only be offered as digital versions. Here are the facts and benefits of the digital guides:
- No shipping cost to you
- Guides are in .PDF format
- Can be printed out at home
- High quality resolution
- Unlike physical guides, the digital version is in full color
- Zooming in and out option in .PDF to better read text and view images
If you have further questionsconcerning ordering, shipping, or downloading, check out our Help Page here.
Interview with Creative Director, Tim
Mon, 2012-04-02 13:44 — HerInteractiveWe interviewed our Creative Director, Tim, who designed the new User Interface for Tomb of the Lost Queen!
Her Interactive: How long have you worked at Her Interactive?
Tim: About 14 ½ years. Probably longer than some of our players have been alive…gulp.
Her Interactive: How did you get into the game industry?
Tim: I went back to school to get a degree in Computer Animation and got my first job as an artist at, yes, Her Interactive. And they haven’t been able to get rid of me since!
Her Interactive: How instrumental were you in creating the new UI? How would you describe the process?
Tim: I was responsible for designing the look and feel of the UI and defining its behavior, but I got a lot of invaluable feedback along the way that brought it to where it is now. It was certainly a collaborative process. I would come up with a concept with several variations based on a lot of reference images that were used to draw inspiration from, and then a group of us would look at it and discuss what we liked and what we would like to see changed or added. I’d take that feedback and go back and make changes and then present it again for further feedback. It evolved a lot through that back and forth process.
Her Interactive: Why will fans of Nancy Drew games love the new UI?
Tim: It’s pretty to look at and is very easy to use. All the things that you use most in the game are right in front of you.
Her Interactive: What’s your favorite part of the new UI?
Tim: I really like how the expandable task list/journal turned out. And the new auto-sorting task list is a nice addition.
Her Interactive: Will fans of Nancy Drew games notice the higher resolution graphics used in TMB?
Tim: I think so. I pulled up a screen shot from one of our first games and was shocked to see how small the game screen was compared to TMB. You can really appreciate all the detail our artists put into these scenes now.
Her Interactive: What are you working on next that we should know about?
Tim: I’m helping to build out one of the environments for our next game. It’s been fun getting to do some 3d modeling again – I haven’t had a chance to do much of that in a while and although I’m a bit rusty, I’m enjoying it!
Her Interactive: If you were the main character of a video game, who would you be and what is your story or mission?
Tim: I would be a young man fighting against an evil tyrant, up against seemingly insurmountable odds using only his wits, his courage and his very life if necessary to save the one he loves. Either that or a Minecraft dude building all sorts of cool stuff!
Her Interactive: If you could travel to any place, either real or fictional, where would it be? What would you do there?
Tim: Heaven. Hang out with Jesus and ask a lot of questions.
Her Interactive: What is your favorite movie?
Tim: Oh, so many good ones… I’ll say the Lord of the Rings trilogy off the top of my head. Epic.
Her Interactive: What is your favorite TV show?
Tim: Firefly. Hands down the best TV show ever created. Why FOX! Why did you have to cancel it! :(
Her Interactive: Last question, what is your favorite video game of all time?
Tim: Ultima VII. I have fond memories of spending waaay too much time playing this game. I realized that I needed a break from it when I was driving down the road one day and saw a dead animal on the side of the road and my first instinct was to double click on it to see what I could loot from it. :)
Thank you Tim for creating a new and beautiful User Interface and for all the hard work you put into making these games!
