Nancy Drew Misinformation

Hello fellow sleuths! I wanted to talk about some... inconsistencies I've noticed in HeR Interactive's marketing recently, specifically in their Trivia Tuesday Instagram stories.

As I'm sure many are aware, I'm a huge Nancy Drew fan and have been since 2005. As I've played these games for most of my life, I've picked up on many details. It's been really fun to build up a wealth of knowledge. However, I fear that sometimes the company that is known for making the Nancy Drew games has made more errors in the marketing of their games than they should be. I often wonder what kind of quality checking the company does before they post anything.

The main subject I want to discuss today revolves around the Trivia Tuesday events that HeR posts on Instagram. I've noticed multiple times that they have made errors in properly identifying which in-game item belongs to which game, or which game was the first to X. For instance, on today's Trivia Tuesday (April 12, 2022), they were asking which Easter egg was from which game. All but one of the answers was correct. This is a screenshot of their story post:

The post looks normal, right? Well, that's because it is. I mean, I'm going to point out the glaringly obvious fact that the image is not only low-resolution, but has clearly been cut out of another low-res screenshot of the game it was from. This kind of blows my mind and annoys me at the same time. Why? Because I can go into the shipped game's files and pull this image in a much better resolution and nicer colors. On top of that, the image from the game's files doesn't have a background by default so there's no need for it to be cut out of another image. Take a look at the egg below (click to enlarge):

My main point is that if HeR employees have to go and find a screenshot of the Easter egg they are trying to use for their post, I see that to mean one of two things: either their employees simply don't have access to the original file, or they were never properly educated on where to go looking for the original art file.

Now, I just want to say that I'm not at all trying to bash HeR or the lovely people that work there. I've had several encounters over social media with multiple employees, all of whom have been very kind and enthusiastic. However, the attention to detail and apparent lack of quality is something that, as a longtime fan, is concerning.

But that's not all. The image they used isn't the only thing I take issue with. The other problem is that they incorrectly provided the game from which this egg is from. Take a look at this screenshot of the potential answers for which game this egg is from:

Again, these are seemingly viable options. However, not one of these are correct. According to their Instagram story, the egg is from The Silent Spy, or Silent Spy as they put it. That is simply not the case. The truth is that the egg belongs to Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness. Take a look at the screenshot below (click to enlarge):

At no point in The Silent Spy does this egg appear. You'll notice it's designed to look like the flask on the top shelf immediately behind the egg.

Anyways, it's not a huge issue and everyone working at HeR is human. However, this isn't the first time something like this has slipped through the marketing screening. Now, I don't want to tell HeR how to do their job, but all I'm saying is that if they are looking to hire anyone in their marketing department, I would be more than interested in joining the team.

What do you think of this? Have there been errors show up that have bugged you? Have these small mistakes flown over your head? Let me know in the comments!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!
Seriously, if HeR is reading this, I want to work for you guys so badly. Expect an email within the next month or two!
Huw