HeR Interactive Launches Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues Mobile Game Teaching Coding Skills & Inspiring Love of Storytelling
New Look and Tech Focus for Nancy Drew Engages Early Learners in STEM
BELLEVUE, Wash., May 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nancy Drew uses her coding know-how and de-TECH-tive skills to solve a mystery in Nancy Drew®: Codes & Clues®, a new story-driven hidden-object mobile game. HeR Interactive, an award-winning mystery adventure game publisher and developer, launched Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues today, the first initiative under its new division, Hi Kids® (HeR Interactive Kids), which focuses on mobile games and apps geared to a younger audience.
Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues is ideal for kids without any coding experience or skills. Geared for early learners 5+, the mystery unfolds in a full narrative story spanning six chapters as Nancy and friends, along with their new robot puppy, encounter students who may have taken the missing tech fair project.
The game play shows the importance of cause and effect learning by introducing kids to the foundational principles of coding in an engaging, fun and accessible manner. At the end of each chapter, players program their robot puppy to help Nancy out of a tight spot. Coding difficulty increases as the story progresses with new puppy commands, including roll and crawl, introduced in each chapter. Players are exposed to basic computer programming structures such as sequences and loops. They are also introduced to critical thinking skills involving pattern recognition, problem solving and spatial visualization.
"Over the last 18 years, we've been inspiring young women to go into STEM-related careers through our core line of PC/Mac games. Today, we are introducing a new generation to Nancy Drew and empowering younger players to take an interest in a skill that is fundamental to 21st century success," said Penny Milliken, CEO of HeR Interactive. "We worked closely with an advisory panel of teachers and conducted focus groups while developing Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues. We discovered that by incorporating programming principles into a story based game, we're inviting early learners, especially girls, to explore coding in a new way, and one that retains their interest. Players want to solve the mystery."
Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues brings a fresh feel and new skills to the iconic detective:
- For the first time, players will meet a tween version of Nancy and her beloved friends, George and Bess, as they work together to solve the mystery of the missing tech fair project.
- Players learn to program their own robot puppy to help solve the mystery and along the way they:
- Find clues within 20+ hidden object games
- Open new pages to Nancy's Clue Book to review clues, evidence and possible suspects
- Select undercover disguises for Nancy, Bess and George
- Investigate a new location in each chapter
- Play bonus coding levels in Obstacle Course mode
- Collect in-game charms
The mobile game debuts Codes & Clues, a new theme song written by Ana Tish, a student from the Berklee College of Music and performed by Sofia Mazursky. Ana worked alongside Tena Clark, producer of Grammy Award winning projects and CEO of DMI Music & Media, a music branding agency, at DMI's Firehouse Recording Studio in Los Angeles to produce a fully mixed and mastered version of the song.
Digital animated shorts of the iconic detective and her friends solving mysteries and helping others as they find "Codes & Clues" were created to introduce younger fans to these new STEM role models. This six-part series is featured on Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues YouTube channel.
Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues is available for iOS and Android devices in the App Store, Google Play and Amazon app store for Android for $3.99. Learn more about Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues at http://www.NancyDrewCodesandClues.com/.
About HeR Interactive:
Based in Bellevue, Washington, HeR Interactive was a pioneer in 1998 when it began developing and publishing Nancy Drew interactive games for females. Since then, the company has released over 32 games, won 30 Parents' Choice awards and has sold more than 9 million copies of its games. Nancy Drew players now include moms who have introduced their daughters to the girl detective, making her one of history's longest-running iconic figures spanning generations. More information about the company and Nancy Drew games can be found at www.herinteractive.com.
About Nancy Drew:
Nancy Drew debuted in 1930 and is still going strong. She is a smart, independent, gutsy and resourceful teen detective who can crack even the toughest case. Published in 22 languages and with more than 100 million copies in print worldwide, Nancy Drew has engaged readers and served as a role model globally for generations.
Copyright © 2016 Her Interactive, Inc. HER INTERACTIVE, the HER INTERACTIVE logo, DARE TO PLAY, and CODES & CLUES and HI KIDS are registered trademarks of HeR Interactive, Inc. NANCY DREW is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Licensed by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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SOURCE HeR Interactive
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