Bellevue, WA, July 29, 2009 – Vanishing valedictorians? Scared salutatorians? What’s a school to do? In the 21st installment of the award-winning Nancy Drew PC adventure game series, the school in question calls on the super-sleuth herself, Nancy Drew, the star of Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy, the newly announced game from Her Interactive, the designer, developer, and publisher of the best-selling adventure series.

Inspiring today’s tech-savvy generation of future leaders much like its literary counterpart has for more than 80 years, the latest case features Nancy as an undercover student at the prestigious Waverly Academy as she attempts to thwart a vicious chain of events directed at the school’s most promising students.

“As empowering as our games are for female players, at the end of the day they still must be as challenging and fun as their competitors, and with Warnings at Waverly Academy we have all the compelling ingredients needed for a hit,” said Megan Gaiser, president and CEO of Her Interactive. “Our games are really mystery-adventures wrapped in layers of increasingly complex puzzles that require deductive reasoning to not only get through, but to ultimately determine the culprit, and that sense of accomplishment is what keeps our community so committed to the franchise.”

The community continues to grow for the Nancy Drew PC game series as evidenced by the July release of Nancy Drew®: Ransom of the Seven Ships which has proven to be the most successful launch in the series to date.

In Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy, players take on the role of Nancy Drew as she heads undercover at a prestigious all-girls boarding school to discover the culprit behind threatening notes and dangerous accidents that seem to be targeted towards the academy’s valedictorian candidates.

To fit in at the school, players will immerse themselves in the boarding school culture by exploring the campus, helping other girls with projects and navigating the social scene. To build the case, players will surreptitiously snoop through dorm rooms and snap cell phone pictures of evidence they come across. A handy, adjustable skill feature lets players choose to play as a Junior or Senior Detective depending on their mystery-solving abilities.

The game is based on the book: "Nancy Drew: The Curse of the Black Cat" that takes place at Waverly Academy. You can see the description of the book here.

Seems ND has some new writers who have deviated from the tried and true formats which have made ND games so popular. I hope Herinteractive gets a CLUE!

While Ransom of the Seven Ships was a good game, it was far from being one of my favorites. But I will try Waverly Academy and hope for the best---because one of the interesting things about the ND series of games is that there are several different design teams who work on them, and it's highly doubtful that it will be the same design team who did Ransom. Thus, I will definitely give Waverly Academy a chance.

The community continues to grow for the Nancy Drew PC game series as evidenced by the July release of Nancy Drew®: Ransom of the Seven Ships which has proven to be the most successful launch in the series to date.