Words of Wisdom – From Abby
I had a bit of trouble yesterday uploading pictures to the site, so I missed the blog post. Sorry! Here’s today’s words of wisdom by Abby, from Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion.
I find it suspicious that she gives this bit of advice when she clearly knows Nancy is a skeptic for ghosts. She was really pushing the spirit danger here. Does she have a reason to burn this warning into Nancy’s mind? I am often amused by characters’ insistence on their beliefs for what is going on in the story. Everyone has such different ideas, and it makes me, as a player, think about all the possibilities for what’s causing the mayhem. Was it really supernatural, or is there foul play at hand by a human? What about mother nature? Could an animal cause trouble? These are the silly questions a good detective must consider!
Have you seen the latest March Madness results? We are in the semi-finals! Be sure to vote on Twitter for the best all-time puzzle/activity!
-Little Jackalope
Hey LJ,
Hope you are doing well!!! Are you feeling under pressure to represent the company as best you can without actually communicating anything to those asking questions? Also, does HeR still work with Cosmic Toast Studios?
Thanks!
Hello again, Ben. I’m doing the best I can at all aspects of my job. When there is news to share, I share it. I also try to maintain consistent messaging with our team so that no there are no mixed messages. I believe we worked with Cosmic Toast for Codes & Clues, but that’s all I can say for sure.
Hi again, LJ! That’s great that you are doing your best at your job! We are all rooting for you! I just looked up Cosmic Toast Studios, and it looks like they had to close and left many of their employees unpaid. Did you experience any of that in the making of Codes and Clues? What are you going to do for Codes and Clues 2?
Hi again Ben. I’m not sure what the plans are for CNC 2. However, there are many companies out there to choose from. 🙂
Hi LJ
I read this disturbing news:
The CEO of Cosmic Toast “resigned from Cosmic Toast and is now general manager of Kid Genius, the children’s channel on Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand service.”
COsmic Toast was having artists work 60 hour weeks and didnt pay them 🙁 The same people are now running Kid Genius, that HeR now uses.
I am very disappointed that HeR is using sketchy exploiters of creative artists. I know these are not your decisions, but HeR has always been so ethical, it breaks my heart. I am so sad 🙁
I hope you can convey this information in your meetings and maybe the company will use ethical labor in the future.
Thank you!
Hello Jackson, where did you find this information? I’d like to pass it along to the team. Thanks.
Hi Lj,
I know we are not supposed to put external links, so if you google Cosmic Toast on a website called Cartoon Brew, there is a big article on them
Thank you Jackson, I will look into it.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/l-studio-cosmic-toast-shut-without-paying-artists-cartoon-brew-investigation-140053.html
Hello Detective, we have no knowledge of what transpired at Cosmic Toast but we only wish the best to all the employees that were affected by the closing of the studio. For more info, please contact Cosmic Toast.
Also someone posted a link to yelp that said that Cosmic Toast treated their female employees with a lot of discrimination.
HeR says they want to promote STEM and Coding for girls than use a developer company that does not treat women fairly. 🙁
Hello again, Jackson. We have no knowledge of what transpired at Cosmic Toast but we only wish the best to all the employees that were affected by the closing of the studio. If you want to dig deeper for more information, please reach out to Cosmic Toast, or Picture Fish studios. Thank you.
I’m not directing this at you LJ, but I think HeR should be the ones to reach out to CosmicToast/PictureFish for more info, since you guys are the ones supposedly using that company.
Hello again Milly, we used Cosmic Toast in the past for the creation of the app, but we are no longer in partnership with them. Our partnership ended when the game was launched last year. We have not suffered from these turn of events, but wish the best for those who were affected. We are no longer in contact with them.
Hi Little Jackalope, may i ask you how have you made that chinese food restaurant box “Great Kings”, that was in Message in a haunted manison? Its cute so i want to make it myself.
Hello! I printed out the design on a piece of paper, cut it out and taped it to an actual take-out box. 🙂
Thank you, but where did you find thhe desingg?
I got the design from our Art archives of when we made it for Message in a Haunted Mansion.
Whenever I hear spooky noises in my house, I have to remember it’s just a really old building! No ghosts here… I think…
Hi LJ, I just wondered if you can confirm that HeR will 100% eventually release another game? (even if it’s not MID)
Hi Cleo, we are working on the next game, yes, but I can’t say anything more about its updates or progress.
Hi LJ!
I was just wondering, how big is the orchestra for the games? Or do you have to piece together individual artists for the soundtracks?
Hello Esther! Do you mean for the soundtrack? The soundtracks were done by Kevin Manthei for games 1-25, and by Thomas Regin for games 26-32. They work their magic and compose all of it and occasionally bring in individual musicians for solo pieces.