Meet some of the HeR Game 34 Team!

Welcome to the Nancy Drew Games community, whether you’ve been around for decades or days! If you’ve been hanging out with us here on the Amateur Sleuth Blog for a while, thank you and welcome to today’s post! For those of you who are newer, we thought it was time to maybe reintroduce ourselves. There are a lot of wonderful individuals with their fingerprints on Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys™, so we can’t forget to thank all those talented people as well. If you’ve seen our story on Instagram lately, you’ll know we’ve been asking for you to submit questions to us about the new game! Head on over there before we close the questions! But in the mean time, here are a few words from some members of the HeR team so you can get to know us!

Meet Roo

Howdy Sleuths! I’m Roo! I’ve worked at HeR Interactive as part of the Game 34 Team for about two years (one year as an intern, one year now full-time) and it has been such a wonderful experience. I came straight out of college after receiving my degree in Emergent Digital Practices (say that 10 times fast!) which means I got a degree that focused in Graphic Design, Video Editing, some animation and other fun skills that have helped me fit right in with our incredibly talented team!

Like many of you, I grew up playing the Nancy Drew games so getting able to now work for this company and help Nancy go on her next adventure has been truly a dream come true. We have all been working so hard to make this next mystery fun and memorable for old and new detectives! I think I am most excited to share some of my experiences while working on this game and tell you all about the incredibly talented people I have met, the things I have learned, and the memories I will forever cherish when it comes to the making of Game 34. I hope you enjoy what we have in store!

Roo, Brighella, Ghost, and Indy on a video call!

Meet Brighella

Hi everyone, Brighella here – sometimes I also write ‘Bri.’ I’m so excited to share more about our next Nancy Drew game with you! I love behind the scenes and how-it’s-made type content, it’s so cool to be able to curate this for you! I’ve been a part of the HeR Interactive team for about 2 years, and I’ve loved every minute. I’ve been playing the games obsessively since they started releasing when I was a kid, and like many of you, know more random Nancy Drew facts and quotes than I feel confident enough to share on a day-to-day basis, haha. This new game is going to be fun, funny, and with a twist of that Nancy Drew brand of educational, if you dig deep! I’ve had a ton of fun working on it, researching, adding our own creativity, and giving input on behalf of the long-time fans. I hope you like it as much as we do!

Brighella, Roo, & Indy reviewing a puzzle proto-type

Meet Indy

Hi Nancy Drew Clue Crew! My name is Indy, I’ve been a fan of the games for 20 years and have worked (on and off) for HeR Interactive for 7 of those years. BOY does time fly fast! It feels like just yesterday I was driving over to WA to start my very first summer as an intern for HeR Interactive back in 2016. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to earn two BS degrees, one in Art + Design and one in Digital Media Production, a master’s in Mass Communication and a certificate in advanced business research. I can honestly say I have used every degree while making this game. One of my favorite things about working here is I can finally put all that random knowledge I’ve gathered over the years to use like, “What is Bess’s phone number?” or “How many games does Nancy travel out of the US in?”

It’s been really great working on Game 34 because HeR Interactive has created a perfect blend of those who know a lot about Nancy or a lot about games in general. Early on in the pre-production stage, I was given lots of different games to play to expand my creativity when thinking about what we wanted with Game 34! Working on this game has definitely expanded my own general game knowledge as I never played many different games growing up outside of our favorite sleuth. Being a part of it has also healed my inner child, seriously guys! I cannot tell you the deep happiness I felt when I first saw an art asset I made appear in-game. I worked on a creative extra to help plus up the café and when it was implemented during game testing, I cried a little. I don’t want to spoil it so I won’t say anymore, but when you snoop around the café you will see what I’m talking about 🙂

Indy’s pre-production notebook

Meet Ghost

Hi everyone, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Ghost. I haven’t introduced myself until now, but I joined this team back in March of 2020. I wasn’t as familiar with the Nancy Drew games when I was brought on like the others were, but gaming is still a huge part of my life otherwise and getting to know Nancy during my time here has been fantastic. My favorite so far is The Silent Spy! I’ve done hands-on work for a few games in the past and have still grown and learned so much working on the 34th installment. I can’t wait to share it with you all. Making a game is truly a huge undertaking, and everyone has put in tremendous effort to create the Mystery of the Seven Keys!

Ghost’s Scenario Board

So, if you’re ready to delve deeper into the exciting world of our brand and have some questions you’d love to ask your HeR Game 34 Team, head over to our Instagram page right away! Our Instagram story is your gateway to ask us any of those burning questions you have. They just might make it into a post later on! See you on Instagram! 📸✨

—Brighella, Ghost, Roo, and Indy