This page tracked all the updates, teases, clues, puzzles, reveals, and some speculations for game #34 between April 1st, 2023 and May 7th, 2024. See below for the linkable table of contents and to jump down to that section! Or click the GO BACK button below to go to my main page for the game.

HeR Interactive’s 34th installment to their PC/Mac Mystery Adventure games based on the classic female detective, Nancy Drew! Speculation and confirmation of information will be kept here until I learn things and as the information becomes available. Please comment your findings below so I can give you credit on this page. Thanks, friends! On May 26, 2023 HeR Interactive confirmed the title; Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys, and that the location is set in Prague. On April 1st, 2024 HeR revealed the official cover art! The Official trailer is below. The release date has officially been announced as Tuesday, May 7th, 2024.

Game News – Updated April 16th, 2024

Below I will mark clues leading to this next game as speculation, or confirmed if HeR confirms as correct or incorrect.

We now have an official product page for the game on HeR’s web site here.

Official trailer has dropped! Revealed at 7pm PT, Tuesday, April 16th on YouTube:

Table of Contents for this Page:

Click on any of these dates to jump down to that section of this page!

Title and Trademark:

This is the first core series game title to be registered for a trademark, which was issued on October 18th, 2022, giving HeR Interactive, Inc. 6 months to use it or will have to submit for renewal. The trademark number is 97071234. Shout out to Charity (ChazzvsJazz) on YouTube for sharing her learnings about trademarks. The trademark is for the title of a piece of software for Mystery of the Seven Keys. Here’s the web site for info on the trademark.

Themes and Mystery: Hacking? Austria? Castles/Cathedrals/Churches?

Austria: In the 33rd game, Midnight in Salem, at the very end when Nancy phone calls her boyfriend, Ned, she says “I got it. Ready? Austria. Yeah I know I was just there. But I really didn’t get to enjoy it much. I feel like there’s a lot more exploring left to do there. Did you know Schönbrunn Palace has one-thousand, four-hundred, and forty rooms? Yeah. Well I don’t know if you can stay there. I’m sure we can find something close by. Yes, I promise. No cases this time. Just the two of us.” This alludes to a game set in Austria, perhaps to visit the Schönbrunn Palace, and perhaps Nancy Drew will be there with Ned Nickerson.

April 1, 2023: April Fools Day Newsletter

HeR Interactive sent their newsletter to subscribers at 12:05 am Pacific Time with the subject line “ A birthday gift from Nancy”. See below for my reaction video to this.

I reconstructed the newsletter in parts, below, including any links they have.

(Calina’s note: the little social media icons above each linked to their respective account pages, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest.)

(Calina’s note: The merch image links to here. The center image links to here. The Amateur Sleuth image links to here. The www.herinteractive.com links actually to the blog posts here. The “View as Webpage links to here. The little social media icons above each linked to their respective account pages, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest.)

Newsletter Notes: The black and gold coloration of the header is not the HeR brand colors typically used. Nor is it symbolic of any country flags. Could it be the color used from the black and gold balloons with the 93 balloons? Or could it be the box colors for the game?

The header says “April is Fan Favorite Month”. This is unclear what this is supposed to mean. Since Nancy Drew’s anniversary is April 28th, 1930, this month could be the month where they highlight fans, and perhaps have fun events like contests.

The Nancy Drew Trivia features letters in different colors. These letters in order of appearance spell out “THIRTY FOUR”, a nod to the next game number in the sequence.

The Nancy Drew Trivia also uses backgrounds of floors that are not (subjective opinion here) aesthetically a balanced design choice. Looking closer at them, they appear to look like Computer Generated art. Are these perhaps screenshots of environments from a near-finished Unity-built game?

The blue sky background features a glimpse of a spire. Could it be a castle? Cathedral? Church? Calina knows the HeR team uses Photoshop and Canva.com or the Canva app to create the newsletter graphics, social media posts, and social media videos. Could this be simply stock footage? Or is this also a glimpse of a game screenshot? Calina sees some similarities to St. Stephen’s cathedral, but the blue image looks like a simplified spire, as if the amount of detail needed to capture of the real location was too much, and therefore simplified a bit.

The open card “It’s Your day. Saturday April 1st Morning” shows a coffee cup, the “our” in “Your” is underlined, there are 9 sun rays at the top, and a video camera icon. Clicking on this image leads to the HeR Instagram page, which showed all posts as gone. Later in the morning, they posted a single video of the same letter seen in the newsletter email.

The Nancy stationery is her old stationery from game 32 and before. Game 33 used a very plain white piece of paper and different font for Nancy’s handwriting. This image also shows Nancy’s old stationery in front of her iconic bedroom desk, which was also from game 32 and before. Game 33 used a different desk scene entirely, and only in a cutscene. Will we get Nancy’s classic desk and stationery back?

This letter from Nancy has subtle letter color changes. When finding all mis-colored red letters, it spells out “You’ve been hacked”.

This can refer to the HeR Instagram posts being “gone” but could also mean a hacking theme for the game.

The contents of the letter indicate a gift coming from Nancy. Perhaps on April 28th? She indicates her packing her bags and picking up her magnifying glass, and to be on the lookout for her case file. This is a strong clue that could mean we, as fans, will get more news and details then.

Footer secret: at the footer of the newsletter are text links, but with a white space. If you click Ctrl+A or click and drag your cursor over the space, the hidden message will appear “Hidden Clues Are The Key ” This can refer to all the previous mentioned clues and hidden messages in the newsletter. The “Key” could mean many things. It could mean the potential title to the game “Mystery of the Seven Keys”, or key as in the key to a code or cipher. But I’m not seeing any other codes or ciphers on the newsletter.

Casey Nickerson said “The keys could be metaphorical. Like pieces of the past or something.”

ChazzVsJazz said “KEY PIECES”

Gooba and Jetpack suggested they Key is computer keys.

MonikaMarie suggested musical keys, since Vienna and Salzburg have deep musical roots.

ThatDrewGirl on Reddit in the comments of this post noticed that there are seven trivia questions in the newsletter. A coincidence? Or in relation to “Mystery of the Seven Keys”?

Carter of thenancydrewtimes on Instagram summed up everything from the newsletter in a simple graphic series:

Additional Research:

GoobaandJetpack on Instagram reshared a post that HeR Interactive shared prior to the newsletter drop. GoobandJetpack called out in the corner that the number is actually the patent number for Mystery of the Seven Keys trademark: 97071234

Fans are zooming in on HeR’s post from March 28th on their social media accounts, especially reading into the Shakespeare story. Could this be a part of the next game? While this newsletter design was made for a scene in The Creature of Kapu Cave, the hotspot in that game zooms into the center story. While we can catch a glimpse of surrounding stories, the part about the Jackpot and Shakespeare are out of bounds. Since we cannot confirm if these were originally in game 15, it’s possible these were added after the fact, much like how the trademark number was at the top right.

ChazzVsJazz posted an excellent theory about the Seven Keys on her Instagram channel:

Reddit user u/c_raftery posted an excellent theory about seven keys associated with the Bohemian crown jewels in Prague Castle, which require seven keys to get to.

Calina followed up with these clues and looked up St. Vitus Cathedral in Canva.com and found this spire for the famous cathedral in Prague castle.

April 4th: “💻 A Reply From HeR Interactive” video shared on YouTube, Instagram

The capitalized letters in Stay Sleuthy spell “salut” which is French for “Hi”

Here’s Calina’s blind reaction video:

ChazzVsJazz caught on to a new Trademark! “The Case of the Missing Clue”

April 6th Drop Quote Post

Early on April 6th, 2023, HeR posted this to Instagram:

Huw Miller live streamed on the channel Nancy Drew Walkthroughs, working with the rest of the clue crew in solving this drop quote puzzle. Carter of thenancydrewtimes also was updating LIVE results on his Instagram here. Shout out to “Emily” who solved the anagram in the HeR Insta post: “👀 e a s t t e g n e l c h b i e” unscrambles to read “let the case begin.” Big kudos to all who are working on these clues in the Reddit community https://www.reddit.com/r/nancydrew/.

Here’s Calina’s solved version of the Drop Quote puzzle:

Written out:

No one seems to have found what the missing clue is that is hidden in the newsletter trivia.

My latest theory is that since there are seven trivia questions, each one may represent one of the seven keys. We’ve also tried thinking about the “chores past” that we could “mix up.”

April 11th, 2023: Secret Landing Page found on HeR’s web site!

Step 1: Find the hidden web site: https://www.herinteractive.com/new-nancydrew-mystery/ (was previously https://www.herinteractive.com/not-landing-page before they changed the name)

Step 2: Guess the password (it’s purgamentum in lowercase) to arrive at:

Step 3: Right-mouse click on the image of the page, and choose “Inspect”, and in Inspector mode, choose the Sources tab, and under the lists, choose wp-content, uploads to see the list of uploaded images:

File name and link: IsThisARenderFromGame34Maybe.png

https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/34-nEwGamehappeninGS.png (reads “new game happenings”) but the capitalized letters are EGGS.

https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/HintsrEveAleDinoUrNewsletTer-300×78.png (reads “hints revealed in newsletter”) but the capitalized letters are HEADUNT.

https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/IMPortanTwrOnganSwERs_–300×78.png (reads “important wrong answers”) but the capitalized letters are IMPTOSER.

Step 4: Write out the capitalized letters in the image file names and unscramble them to read: EGGS, HAUNTED, IMPOSTER

Scrolling further down in the source code, read on, especially focus on the green text:

It reads

Step 5: Also visit the Amateur Sleuth Blog post dated April 8th, but posted today: https://www.herinteractive.com/2023/04/easter-weekend-memories/

Step 7: Right-mouse click each egg to read the image names. Here are the pictures individually, note the letters at the beginning of the file name, which I will highlight:

https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/Tu-e1681000611105.jpg

https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/Esd-e1681000630189.jpg

https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/Ay.jpg

Unscrambled, this spells Tuesday.

At precisely 10:34 am, Pacific Time, HeR updated their social media profile avatars to the gold color background:

Did the clue crew scoop HeR Interactive? Did we get the clues figured out before they intended us to? Will there be another update later Tuesday?

Credit:

Laura Gabrie’s first discovery post on (where?), highlighting the first site: https://www.herinteractive.com/not-landing-page, and then the site URL revision.

@Jcat_Ngyuen (KATYDID) figured the password “purgamentum”

u/SligPants credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/nancydrew/comments/12imq49/i_got_into_the_new_game_webpage_heres_the_banner/

thenancydrewtimes: his Insta Stories here.

Nancy Drew Walkthroughs: https://www.youtube.com/@UCOFbrznge6tmwLbTiaMgfjQ

Huw live streamed reactions and discussions here:

And here’s my reaction video:

Calina’s Discovery:

I wasn’t supposed to find this extra screenshot, hidden in HeR’s web site: https://www.herinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/IsThisARenderFromNewGameMaybe.png

I simply messed around with the file name, maybe there were more uploaded that we were not seeing in the source code? Possible, since Word Press (how HeR’s site is built) keeps a media library, and uploads will appear if you type in the exact file name, which is, of course, difficult to know unless YOU KNOW. I didn’t know, and was just guessing… what can I say? I’m a master sleuth, lol. (Sorry HeR!)

Here’s my reaction video:

@Salad#0094 on Discord discovered the image ALT text revealed more hidden messages:

April 12th Puzzle! And Game 34 First Look

At roughly 10:34 am Pacific time, HeR Posted to their social media a new puzzle with clues:

Here’s my reaction video:

The Clue Crew suspects there will be an update tonight, April 13th at midnight, when a new password will be applied to possibly the landing page for the new game here. Someone also created a great Google Doc here listing out the puzzle and potential passwords for tonight.

Here’s my live stream video:

Turns out HeR didn’t mean THAT Midnight, but rather the time of 11:59PM on April 13th. Let’s try this again, shall we?

SPOILERS The password was “lediamantdemamisere” and kudos to celeclose (sp?) for entering it correctly! Which let us into the web page where only one change occurred: a behind the scenes video! Here’s the link, go watch it! https://youtu.be/fgyxhO-IYMw

April 18, 2023 Update

Around 3:30 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, April 18th, HeR posted a new video to Instagram and YouTube:

Their post caption read: “which nAncy dRew cookIng puzzle do you like To plAy BeSt?” and the capital letters were:

ARITABS

Which, unscrambled, spells Barista, a coffee maker/server.

Here’s my breakdown video and reaction:

Their web page was also updated with this video embedded, but they removed the previous “First look” video. No worries, it can be seen in the Instagram feed below on their page. Also, notice the coffee icon, which has changed it’s burgundy color to gold:

April 21st, 2023 Update – Coffee Activity!

HeR Interactive shared a new video around 3:34pm PT on their Instagram and YouTube channels. The caption from them reads…

Here’s my spontaneous live stream break down on YouTube:

April 25th, 2023 Nancy’s Birthday Puzzle

On April 25th, a new mega puzzle dropped. It was a spiral cipher where you start in the middle and circle around and around until you reach the end.

Huw Miller of Nancy Drew Walkthroughs Live streamed the solving with the Clue Crew helping out:

Here’s how the solution looked (thanks again to Huw for letting me use this image)!

April 28th Update – Video on Nancy’s Birthday

I, Calina hosted a birthday party LIVE stream! It, along with the details of the event and prizes with their winners are on this web page here.

HeR Interactive also shared a new character! Radek! And shared behind the scenes footage of the actor.

May 3rd, 2023 Update: Ciphers and Binary

At 3:34pm Pacific Time, HeR posted another awesome two-graphic puzzle:

First, I crossed off every instance of the number 34, including the ones that wrap around to the next row (note: there is a typo in the second row where a 4 should be a 3). Then tried to guess which numbers were associated to the alphabet, where A=1, B=2 and so on. With some guess and check work, here’s what I got:

Here’s how it is written out:

Shout out to Risha on Discord and who posted the answer first, and big thanks to the Clue Crew on Discord for sharing the details. Thanks to Janine on Discord for sharing the following images.

The girl who was from a past case and expresses herself in tempo and song is Mel Corbalis from Warnings at Waverly Academy. The book chapter is about Rita Hallowell, a founding teacher of the school.

Risha’s discovered conclusion:

https://www.herinteractive.com/nothingtoseehere/ password: rufuswilmotgriswold

The web site was discovered via ALT text, when you hover your cursor over the icon on the landing page, you’ll see the link URL.

This new landing page, once unlocked with the password above, leads to a blank page with binary code.

Copy and pasted code:

01000011 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000001 00001010 01000011 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000010 11100010 10011001 10101101 00100000 01000111 00001010 01000011 00100000 01000111 11100010 10011001 10101111 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000111 11100010 10011001 10101111 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000111 11100010 10011001 10101111 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000111 11100010 10011001 10101111 00001010 01000011 00100000 01000111 11100010 10011001 10101111 00100000 01000011 00100000 01000111 11100010 10011001 10101111 00100000 01000010 11100010 10011001 10101101 00100000 01000111 00100000 01000010 11100010 10011001 10101101 00100000 01000111

Translated from binary reveals music notes:

C A C A C A C A
C A C A C A B♭ G
C G♯ C G♯ C G♯ C G♯
C G♯ C G♯ B♭ G B♭ G

May 5th: New Environment, Tech Store?

At around 1:34 pm Pacific time, HeR posted a new video to their social media channels:

Here’s my blind reaction:

May 9th, 2023 Giant Nonograms and sun

HeR shared a giant nonograms puzzle on social media!

Huw Miller of Nancy Drew Walkthroughs live streamed this (and I got to join, along with Carter of thenancydrewtimes!) A LOT was discovered! Turns out, HeR has been hidding secret messages and clues to ND34 since last year!

Credit list to the clue crew (thanks Huw, for letting me share this great compilation!):

May 12th, 2023 Elka Reveal and Merch

Starting with a newsletter, HeR shared a lot today for Mystery of the Seven Keys! *Disclaimer, they still haven’t announced the title, but I am calling it that until otherwise announced.

Here’s my reaction and coverage video:

And here’s the Elka reveal!

The morse code in the description of the Midnight listing on Teespring says “TO THE CLUE CREW: IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW”

May 16th, 2023 Phone Number Puzzle

At about 2:34pm PT, HeR shared this puzzle:

The caption… cAn yOu finD a neW HiddEn clue foR #nd34? 🤳 iT’s youR call!

has uppercase letters again: AODWHERTR

Unscrambled, it reads WHAT ORDER

Shout out to rocketship2mars on Discord for creating this Google Doc.

Step 1: Look at the background photos and identify the game.

Step 2: Read the text message and find the answer in that game

Step 3: Once you have the answer, note the character who is messaging you

Step 4: Assign the game number to that character

Step 5: reorder the text answers by the order of the character’s appearances

Instagram Post Order:

Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake: The rings of the tree on the Ranger Station is 1987. Answer = 87
Secret of the Scarlet Hand: Tools of the Trade is mentioned on a display plaque for the Ham radio. Answer = 55
Danger on Deception Island: length of the largest Dall’s porpoise is found in Whale World. Answer = 8
Midnight in Salem: the banner hanging on the front of the museum. Answer: 1+6=7
Labyrinth of Lies: the pink invoice on the crate near the inside entrance of the museum. Answer: 1
Trail of the Twister: the Dustbowl display in Pa’s museum. The year was 1934, add the last two digits together. Answer: 7.
Midnight in Salem: found in the museum, on the large timeline plaque. Answer: 5
Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake: sign next to the computer has 1932. Answer = 32

Character Order:

Daryl Gray is from game 1, and so the first text answer is 1
Mattie Jensen is from game 2. Answer: 5
Abby Sideris is from game 3. Answer: 55
Prof. Hotckiss in the picture is from game 4. Answer: 7
Nicholas Falcone is from game 5. Answer: 87
Taylor Sinclair is from game 6. Answer: 7
Jeff Akers is from game 7. Answer: 32
Ingrid Corey is from game 8. Answer: 8

Written in order, the full answer is: 1-555-787-7328

Now, back on the main HeR landing page, the icon of the phone is now linkable. Clicking on it leads to a password-protected site. Use the password 15557877328 to arrive at an unlisted video: (congrats to “risha | saddled with your drift” on Discord for getting into the password-protected page first)

Thanks to the Clue Crew (big round of applause to jesse on discord), the morse code translated to…

“Your skills have uncovered a mystery vast. There is more to discover in the game 34 cast. The identity of the caller is a mystery concealed, but keep your keen eyes opened, soon the identity will be revealed.”

(Note: you can snip the audio from the video, and use it at https://morsecode.world/international/decoder/audio-decoder-adaptive.html)

Huw of Nancy Drew Walkthroughs live streamed the progress!

May 19th, 2023 Oskar Reveal

Around 1:34pm Pacific Time, HeR Interactive posted a new video on YouTube and Instagram, additionally updating their landing page.

Calina live streamed her blind reaction, ending with an unboxing of Sleuth Style’s Coffee and Clues Nancy silhouette T-shirt.

Shout outs to Anfinwen on Discord for sharing this cleaned up photo:

and Svanessa5 on Discord for sharing this photo:

May 26th, 2023 Title Reveal

Leading up to Friday, May 26th, HeR posted a series of puzzles spread out every 7 hours leading up to a video reveal of the game title.

June 7th, 2023 Packing for Prague

HeR Interactive uploaded a YouTube Short and Instagram Reel showcasing words and phrases in Czech.

June 2nd, 2023 Merch Available

The HeR team shared on social media their limited time run of Mystery of the Seven Keys merchandise, from their Teespring shop here.

June 9th, 2023 Weekend Puzzle #378

Indy posted an Amateur Sleuth blog post for the weekend and included a fun puzzle. The alert about this was shared on social media, but of course on Instagram you need to go to the Nancy Drew Games bio link to click on the image to click on the link to get to the HeR Interactive web page for the blog post:

Here’s the Amateur Sleuth blog, titled “CAN’T CZECH THAT OFF YET AND WEEKEND PUZZLE #378”

And here’s the puzzle:

Here’s what the clue crew got:

Second bullet item unscrambled: Prague Castle is the third largest in the world.

Fourth bullet item unscrambled: The first cafe in Prague dates back to the 16th century

Last bullet item rearranged: Legend has it that Old Town councilors blinded Hanus Carolinum, the genius who created the world-famous clock tower. They feared that he might create a similar clock tower in another city, making Prague’s less unique.

June 14th, 2023 Wallpapers

HeR Interactive shared this alert on their social media pages:

Here is where you can find their lovely wallpapers, as mentioned on the Amateur Sleuth blog post with the previous weekend puzzle’s answers. “PUZZLE #378 ANSWER AND MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN KEYS WALLPAPER!”

June 16th, 2023 Packing Puzzle

HeR shared another puzzle on social:

Shout out to katedrewsomething for breaking down the answer for us:

Post (postage stamp) + Car + D = Postcard
Bob (action of a float) + Bee + Push Pin – Push = Bobby Pin
Camera (Wingdings font)

June 21st, 2023 Packing Video

HeR uploaded a video featuring the three aforementioned packing elements, showing some really cool scenes and a potential lock-picking puzzle!

I react to this in my own video here:

June 23rd, 2023 Differences Puzzle

On Friday morning, HeR Interactive posted another puzzle to their social media accounts featuring a scene and character (Radek) from Mystery of the Seven Keys:

The clue crew was quick to solve it! Here’s my puzzle solution and explanation:

June 27th, 2023 Packing Video, Magnifying Glass

On a Tuesday morning, HeR Interactive posted a follow up video to this last week’s packing theme for Mystery of the Seven Keys, showing the past magnifying glass designs and cursors. This video was shared on their Instagram Reels and YouTube channel and reveals what the new, fancy mouse cursor looks like: a bronze/gold metallic magnifying glass with a faded glass center and the whole cursor highlights red when it hovers over an interactive object.

This is the first time in the games where the magnifying glass handle is angled to the left, instead of the right. While the footage of this says “Not actual gameplay” it’s tough to say if this is the final orientation, or if anything shown here will change.

The video captions read “Nancy Drew’s trusted tool is here to pack 🔎 Spy through to solve the next Mystery of the Seven Keys!

🗝️ Get Exclusive Updates At: https://bit.ly/407DpUc”

July 7th, 2023 Poster Giveaway

On a Friday morning, HeR Interactive posted to their Instagram account a picture showing that they are giving away 34 posters to winners over the weekend. The background of the graphic is a scene from the library in the first Nancy Drew game, Secrets Can Kill Remastered. The poster image itself is blurred out, indicating that the poster is not yet revealed and could be multiple different images offered to the many winners.

The giveaway will be shipped out to U.S. participants only. To participate, a person must, Like and Comment on that post, and Follow their account.

July 11th, 2023 Poster Giveaway Winners

On the following Tuesday, HeR Interactive revealed the randomized winners of the giveaway in a video shared on their Instagram account.

In an additional comment by HeR, they shared instructions for claiming the prize: “📦Hey winners, please private message us your mailing address (name/address/phone), especially if you have a private account! –Brighella”

July 14th, 2023 Souvenirs Hangmen Puzzle

On a Friday, HeR Interactive shared a new puzzle on their Instagram account:

In their comment it says “📝 these hangMan pages fRom j.j. were Hidden in nANcy’S bag, help FigurE It out for hER so She can contINue packinG for thE trip to pRague! 💼”

If we pull out all the capital letters, MRHANSFEIERSINGER, we read MR. HANS FEIERSINGER. We knew that Hans was a confirmed real name in Mystery of the Seven Keys, but we now have a last name.

In the Instagram comments, b_garf (Brittany Beyer) posted the first guess: “Clue #1 “What book do you use in SAW and DAN?” ‘How To Be A Detective’ is in both games.”

Here’s my write-out:

I suspect that the second game acronym should be VEN, as in The Phantom of Venice. (SAW is Shadow at the Water’s Edge). Here’s my compiled list of books found in the following games:

SAW
How to be a Detective
English Japanese Phrasebook
Writing Japanese
Unveiling Ghosts: Paranormal Investigations from Around the World
Ghost Stories of Japan

VEN
How to be a Detective
Italian Dictionary
An Interactive Guide to Venice
Sassy Detective Magazine
German-English Dictionary
A Guide to Chess
EuroWelt Magazine
Religious Relics of Venice

DAN
How to be a Detective
Outdoor Gardening
Make Up Made Easy
(Car repair book)
Utne magazine
Common Cooking Substitutions
Codes and Deciphers
Electrical Engineering – A Beginner’s Dictionary
Fundamentals of Signal Processing
(Noisette’s Journal)
(French-English Dictionary) La Petite V?

The only book that matches is the “How to be a Detective” book, which appears at Nancy’s desk in the intro screen, but also appears in other games in that same location. My suspicion is that in this hangmen’s puzzle (which is a replica of a puzzle in Danger by Design) may be alluding to some sort of dictionary, phrasebook or translation book that we will be packing in the new game.

In the second Instagram post slide, I find it interesting that the word Favourite is spelled the British way, not American-English:

Here’s the third post slide (shoutout to the crew on Discord for solving this, and thanks to Indy for confirming this last one):

July 18th, 2023 Journal Reveal and Voice of Hans

On Tuesday afternoon, HeR posted a video to their social media accounts showing the journal concepts, which ended with an audio clip of the voice of Hans, quoting part of the puzzle from July 14:

If you are curious about the Easter Egg page, the copy is Lorem Ipson, a Latin writing commonly used as placeholder text.

It can be auto-generated from many software programs today, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and more. Simply translating to English, here’s what it says:

July 21st, 2023 GPS Coordinates Puzzle

On Friday, HeR shared another puzzle featuring a similar look to the GPS used in Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island. The social media post says:

Pulling out the capital letters, AVEMRLAEP, which could be Map Reveal or Reveal Map.

Shout out to rus_rum, Ruslan Lyubimov, on Instagram for sharing the answer! And of course, the Clue Crew on Discord for finding each individual number.

50°4’59.0″N 14°26’09.0″E
It’s Prague Main station🚉

Referring to the train station in Prague. The train track design on the graphic was a great hint. Here’s the solution and its references:

In-game GPS coordinates used in The Creature of Kapu Cave for Kapu cave
In Danger by Design, the metro map has numbers for the metro lines. Chateau Rouge at the top next to number 4 travels all the way to Mouton Duvernet at the bottom of the map.
In Alibi in Ashes, looking at the map of River Heights in Scoop ice cream shop to see the numbered list of locations
In Danger by Design, the metro map has numbers for the metro lines. St-Lazare is the starting point on line 14, which ends at St-Emilion.
In Alibi in Ashes, looking at the map of River Heights in Scoop ice cream shop to see the numbered list of locations
In Stay Tuned for Danger, the navigation map has addresses marked on the destinations, WWB is on ninth avenue, which runs north/south.

July 25th, 2023 Map of Prague Video

On Tuesday, HeR shared a video reveal of Mystery of the Seven Keys, featuring a birds-eye view of map navigation in the Prague castle grounds. Here’s their video below…

And here’s my video reacting and commenting on it!

July 28th, 2023 Hardy Boys in Prague Video

To follow up the train theme and the map of Prague, HeR shared a video on social media highlighting how the Hardy Boys have been to Prague before, in the Nintendo DS game made by HeR Interactive, Inc. in 2009, The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks. Could the clues in the video allude to a Hardy return in the Mystery of the Seven Keys? The caption in the social medis post reads:

August 8th, 2023 Ask the HeR Game34 Team

On Tuesday, August 8th on Instagram, the HeR team posted a two-picture Story showing pictures of select ladies who work at HeR Interactive. While we knew Brighella, Indy, and Roo, Ghost was a newer face to some. It took me a moment to place the face because the picture shows her with longer hair and no glasses. I worked with this lovely lady and was on the team that hired her for a role at HeR, but I know that she has been moved to another department. I will let the team share more if they choose.

In the second post, a text field is open to ask them questions.

Here’s the Amateur Sleuth blog post that gives more details about each team member. Interestingly dated August 9th. Looks like Ghost’s Scenario Board is logic-mapping the new game! I remember doing the initial Logic map for the team back in January of 2020, and I am happy to see the mapping looks less linear, so to me that means the game has undergone improvements since I was a part of the team! YAY!

August 9th, 2023 HeR g34 team video

On Wednesday, August 9th, the web page for Mystery of the Seven Keys had an icon change to a movie clapboard. On Instagram and YouTube, the team shared a very-quick paced video showing many things.

The caption of the video post reads:

🙋 Send uS your questIons to learN morE aBout tHe proDuction of the nExt nanCy drEw gamE, mysTery of tHe seveN keys! 🗝️ 👩‍💻 learn more about the team: https://bit.ly/3QxI154

The capital letters, SSINEBHDECEETHN unscrambles to say BEHIND THE SCENES.

A couple of notes to share: I find it interesting that the Radek scene is broken up by the newspaper in Alibi in Ashes.

The book shown in hand is Nancy Drew Files #83 Diamond Deceit, which could have some similarities to the theme of game 34. Interestingly, when I worked at HeR, the first book that was said to draw inspiration for the game was NOT this one. However, this title has strong similarities to the one I was told, which is not surprising because jewels are a common theme in many Nancy Drew stories.

August 18th, 2023 Team Q&A Part 1

On August 18th, HeR shared a vertical short on their social media called “Thanks for asking! Get to know some of the HeR #ND34 team in Q&A Part 1 | HeR Interactive” where Indy, Roo, and Brighella answer some fan questions. The caption for the video reads…

August 25th, 2023 Bonus Q&A with Brighella

On August 25th, HeR posted to social media that Brighella answered some bonus questions on the Amateur Sleuth blog. Here’s the link to read her responses!

August 30th, 2023 Key Production Notes With Roo!

On August 30th, HeR posted a video from Roo about a few moments from behind the scenes in the production of Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys.

The caption reads “Why did Ned and Carson make Roo cry?! 😭 Find out in Roo’s Key Production Notes!”

September 1st, 2023 Key Production Notes With Roo!

On August 30th, HeR posted a follow-up Amateur Sleuth Blog post where Roo answered more questions. Here’s the Amateur Sleuth Blog post link!

September 8th, 2023 Q&A Video Part 2

On September 8th, HeR shared a part 2 video from Indy, Roo and Brighella to social media. The caption reads:

September 15th, 2023 Weekend Puzzle #379

On September 15th, HeR shared a multi-post sequence to their Instagram account:

Here’s the link to the blog post on their site.

Puzzle #8

Take the first letters of each name, https://youtu.be/watch?v=mryyymSd_aI. (Click here to go to YouTube).

This shows that the ever-loved “Good news, Bad news” sequences are back with an all-new Second Chance screen!

(Bravo to ZigZag on Discord)

Puzzle #9

“Close but no cigar” is a reference to a quote by Monty in The Final Scene. The cipher below is to shift the letters down one.

Solution: https://youtu.be/EPHEGaxmkfg?si=soJSrNkEggCnQu7S (click here to go to YouTube)

(Bravo to raraRanda on Discord)

Puzzle #10

These are nautical flags, which you can also see as a poster in Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships here:

Therefore, the solution to this puzzle is…

Here’s the link result: https://youtu.be/FA_iKKQTBnw (click here to go to YouTube)

Indy mentions book 83 as a reference for Mystery of the Seven Keys.

Later, on September 22nd, Indy shared a re-edited version of the “Bonus Q&A with Indy – Part 3” as an Instagram reel, which was public, unlike the original, which was unlisted.

September 29th, 2023 Ghost Puzzle

On September 29th, HeR shared a multi-post Instagram series featuring a ghostly themed puzzle.

There are faint numbers hidden in all the pictures, sometimes multiple sets, as pointed out here below. The sets of numbers refer to the W (word) and L (letter) in the quote next to the corresponding picture. We know this because in the Instagram post it hints at W, L since those were the only two capitalized letters in the caption.

After you counted all the words and letter, you get a jumble of letters: WETFAIMTORSOHGEN

The last picture gives clues to where the first letters can be placed. For example, the first icon, a scarab, is from Tomb of the Lost Queen. Look for that picture and recall back to that letter, which is I. Place the I there. Here’s the end result:

This could allude to a new ghost in the new game, but we already know of the other HeR team member who goes by the name “Ghost.” Since select HeR ladies have been offering more about themselves and answered Q&A, speculation is that she will be next to share.

October 6th, 2023 Q&A with “Ghost”

On social media, HeR posted a graphic highlighting “Ghost” and her Q&A:

The caption has some letter capitalized, ICLATYMS. (Which unscrambled spells Mystical).

Ghost’s Q&A can be found here on the HeR web site.

October 13th, 2023 Friday the 13th Announcements

On social media, Indy shared contests coming up. The key point is that Mystery of the Seven Keys will be a prize as a digital download with the disclaimer “when available.” My speculation is that the game will be released before Halloween of next year.

Also shared by HeR Interactive was a video by Arglefumph, Michael Gray.

Arglefumph also posted two videos, broken up due to a technical error, on his own channel:

The big takeaways from these videos tell me that they wanted him to share hype about the game, even if he was not allowed to say anything about it, nor was able to finish the game during his testing. Hopefully, he was able to provide a few bits of great feedback to the HeR team even if he didn’t get to review the game in its entirety. Also, there is a jewelry puzzle in the game.

The second video was a LIVE stream here:

October 20th, 2023 Weekend Puzzle #380

On social media, HeR shared a post highlighting the weekend puzzle. Once again, the caption had capital letters in it, but when unscrambled, reads HIDDEN.

The puzzle is a drop quote (known in Alibi in Ashes as “Swap-a-lot”). When the column letters are swapped vertically into the correct rows, it reads:

(Credit to Katedrewsomething)

Here’s the link to the Amateur Sleuth blog post. And the link to the solution in the following blog post. In the picture, the keys and spring could allude to Teespring, the merch shop, which now has some Mystery of the Seven Keys themed merch to choose and purchase.

November 22nd, 2023 Thankful Video

On social media, the HeR team made a Thanksgiving themed video, which teased shots of a new screenshot from Mystery of the Seven Keys.

The post caption had letters capitalized.

The picture teased out was later on December 7th on their socials, but unfortunately is now available as a wallpaper download on their web site page.

March 5th, 2024 Icon Trivia

On Instagram stories, HeR posted a series of trivia about the game desktop icons.

Answer: 13

Answer: A

Answer: 2

Warnings at Waverly Academy

and

The Haunting of Castle Malloy

Answer: Labyrinth of Lies

I was feeling a little tricked with the one concerning the blue color, since The Deadly Device ALSO uses that blue color in its desktop icon.

Interestingly, the background art is a computer desktop with empty folders on the wallpaper. Each of the six folders are named with some letters being capitalized:

The Clue Crew found several anagram options using the letters AISYUDTENT, but were unsure which was correct:

Tea in Study
Eat in Study
Stay United
Stay Untied
Stay Tuned I
day ten suit
Indy Statue
A Student IY

March 6th, 2024 Icon Reveal

On social media, HeR shared a video showing off the official desktop icon for Mystery of the Seven Keys.

In the video, many icons shown on the laptop are actually images from the HeR Interactive community forums (message boards).

April 1st, 2024 Official Cover Art Reveal

On YouTube, HeR shared a video showing the official cover art! This video is available in 4K so if your computer allows it, watch it in the highest setting you can!

I created a reaction video as well:

And here’s the art! Click on the image for a closer look!

Later, I took the feedback from everyone’s comments and implemented a few changes to tighten it up:

Also, Huw Miller made several great variations…

And SouthernSleuth shared a version with 7 Lilo the dogs hidden in the art…

And on Reddit, user u/Default_Cube_Games went old school classic!

April 5th, 2024 Cover Art Squared, and Blog Post

On Instagram, HeR shared a post featuring the square cover art version, which extends the left and right sides.

Here’s the full size version:

They talk more about it in the Friday Amateur Sleuth blog post here, and they confirmed that Mark Tolleshaug, the illustrator for all past game cover art was the creator. The caption has letters capitalized:

ATENIEORTM

Shout out to SouthernSleuth who shared the answer with me: Marionette.

Could this be the small traveling theatre seen as the green cart on the cover?

April 14th, 2024 Newsletter Puzzle Tease

On Sunday, April 14th, HeR Interactive sent a newsletter:

If you noticed the little puzzle icon below the social media links, it was a clickable link. The destination landed here:

April 15th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza 1

On Instagram, HeR shared a post featuring a new puzzle. In the captions, the letters ASB are capitalized.

The book author is for the Nancy Drew books, but spelled Carolyn Keene. By transcribing the symbols, you can deduce the 3-letter post it note, and then the rest of the image to read: “In Indiana’s archives, secrets hide. Find those of Titusville take them in stride. Comments hold keys so you must follow the clues to unravel the mysteries.” Shout out to the Clue Crew on Discord, including Huw Miller, hbcman, Zigzag, madisonTM.

Next, you needed to search the ASB (Amateur Sleuth blog) archives for Titusville, which was the town in Secret of the Old Clock. Here is the post: The Secret of Titusville.

This led to Brighella’s first post: Meet Brighella!

And lastly, the post: Roo Graduates College!

So we shall need to remember TB3 until we have more parts of an answer!

April 15th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Community Puzzle

On Instagram in the evening of April 15, HeR shared the community puzzle featuring Tino Balducci:

Shout out to hbcman for sharing their survey answers on Discord: (the year of the first Nancy Drew game was 1998)

Amusingly, the Morse code around the book page border reads “Red Herring” over and over.

The watermarked post-it note for Minette’s House of Design alludes to the game Danger by Design, which has an Enigma machine and code puzzle in it.

The caption for the Instagram post has capital letters which, rearranged spell LEFT. Therefore, we take 1998 and shift a letter 1 time Left of the alphabet, the next letter 9 times, the next letter 9 times, and the last letter 8 times (for 1998), and we repeat until all the letters of the post it note are revealed. (Shout out to heghog for solving this part.) Answer:

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Cutouts

On Instagram and 12:34am Pacific Time, HeR shared another picture sequence, this time of the Nancy Drew book jigsaw puzzle. Inside are other items: a candle snuffer, opal ring, bracelet, passport, the book Secrets Can Kill, a key. The post caption capitalized letters spell O WISE ELDER or ELOISE DREW, which was the library password in the games Secrets Can Kill.

Thankfully, (shout out to Huw Miller for noticing), the Amateur Sleuth Blog post was updated today by Indy with a hint, and a convenient pdf printout for us to cut out the black shapes.

The community worked hard at piecing the jigsaw together. Shout out to Blooblis for the idea of merging the characters together and KaceyXD for solving it!

Indy confirmed this was correct. The result is 1123.

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Black Screen

On Instagram and 7:34am Pacific Time, HeR shared another picture sequence, this time of the Hardy Boys’ interaction with Nancy, followed by a black screen.

With some brightening and increase of contrast on the image, we can see GPS coordinates. Shout out to Huw Miller and ssojovelazquez1 for their work on this image alteration:

Shout out to heghog for suggesting we drop pins on a map to reveal an image. Big thanks to ThatBlondeJess for typing these up:

36.8922-19.49093 48.99054-96.6003 56.38785-48.77147 36.78986-67.05949 -22.84286 30.46163 38.18927 10.0662 36.71944-87.6259 -44.42311 34.71582 47.82372 -121.82491 36.86021-105.11613 53.99326 9.26559 -15.17839 59.63544 4175961-86.8184

and

14.48304 25.77708 -24.64387 118.71667 54.17164-109.87179 47.06798-67.58000 3.73174 25.52263 65,3461-7.12835 22.44204 108.18835 -0.90268 113.49496 65.28427 8.24106 -36.5078 -119.79387 -7.30898 88.8067 12.5217107 – 2.1513321 65.97222 23.36737

Blooblis quickly dropped saved pins on a map, and Megan Brown connected the dots to reveal RII (confirmed by Indy):

As for the musical notes we keep seeing in these puzzles, Tori called out that the notes play Good Kind Wenceslaus. (Thank you for sharing this picture on Discord, ThatBlondeJess!)

And if we put the full measure of music in order, matching up the answers from each puzzle solution, we get

LOCK
RII
1123
TB3

On an interesting note, the feast of Stephen (in the song lyrics) is 12/26 or 12/27 (Eastern Orthodox). Could that be significant?

I LIVE streamed a puzzle recap up to this point. Check out the video!

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Roman Numerals

On Instagram and 12:34pm Pacific Time (lunchtime), HeR Shared another puzzle!

The capital letters in the post caption are: TAPTAP

These are Roman Numerals, they translate into the following numbers:

(Note: the 17, or XVII appears to be a typo, and probably should have been 42 or XLIV to represent the letter R.) The TAPTAP is a clue to what type of code this is. Known as Tap code, it is a sort of Polybius cipher. (Credit to https://www.boxentriq.com/code-breaking/tap-code):

Simply align the row, then the column to get your letter. Example: 52 is Row 5, Column 2, which is “W”.

Answer: WENCESLAS PLUS CATHEDRAL NAME

Wenceslas I is the Good King in the aforementioned song. St. Vitus is the cathedral, which explains why the background art in the photo references Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, one of the dogs is named Vitus. So if we take all the Wenceslas music note puzzle answers, and include VITUS at the end, our full password would be:

Using this in the password page here lets us in to this!

The big reveal will happen Tuesday, April 16th, 2024 at 7PM PT / 8pm MT / 9PM CT / 10PM ET

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Big Reveal!

On the hidden password-protected page located here, at 7pm PT the page changed to this:

And points out the importance of subscribing to the newsletter. Here’s the newsletter that came at exactly 7pm PT (I blacked out my personal email address at the bottom):

The main story image linked to YouTube where the Official Trailer has premiered:

Game News – Updated April 16th, 2024

Table of Contents for this Page:

Title and Trademark:

April 1, 2023: April Fools Day Newsletter

April 4th: “💻 A Reply From HeR Interactive” video shared on YouTube, Instagram

April 6th Drop Quote Post

April 11th, 2023: Secret Landing Page found on HeR’s web site!

Credit:

And here’s my reaction video:

Calina’s Discovery:

Here’s my reaction video:

April 12th Puzzle! And Game 34 First Look

April 18, 2023 Update

ARITABS

April 21st, 2023 Update – Coffee Activity!

April 25th, 2023 Nancy’s Birthday Puzzle

April 28th Update – Video on Nancy’s Birthday

May 3rd, 2023 Update: Ciphers and Binary

May 5th: New Environment, Tech Store?

May 9th, 2023 Giant Nonograms and sun

May 12th, 2023 Elka Reveal and Merch

May 16th, 2023 Phone Number Puzzle

May 19th, 2023 Oskar Reveal

May 26th, 2023 Title Reveal

June 7th, 2023 Packing for Prague

June 2nd, 2023 Merch Available

June 9th, 2023 Weekend Puzzle #378

June 14th, 2023 Wallpapers

June 16th, 2023 Packing Puzzle

June 21st, 2023 Packing Video

June 23rd, 2023 Differences Puzzle

June 27th, 2023 Packing Video, Magnifying Glass

July 7th, 2023 Poster Giveaway

July 11th, 2023 Poster Giveaway Winners

July 14th, 2023 Souvenirs Hangmen Puzzle

July 18th, 2023 Journal Reveal and Voice of Hans

July 21st, 2023 GPS Coordinates Puzzle

July 25th, 2023 Map of Prague Video

July 28th, 2023 Hardy Boys in Prague Video

August 8th, 2023 Ask the HeR Game34 Team

August 9th, 2023 HeR g34 team video

August 18th, 2023 Team Q&A Part 1

August 25th, 2023 Bonus Q&A with Brighella

August 30th, 2023 Key Production Notes With Roo!

September 1st, 2023 Key Production Notes With Roo!

September 8th, 2023 Q&A Video Part 2

September 15th, 2023 Weekend Puzzle #379

September 29th, 2023 Ghost Puzzle

October 6th, 2023 Q&A with “Ghost”

October 13th, 2023 Friday the 13th Announcements

October 20th, 2023 Weekend Puzzle #380

November 22nd, 2023 Thankful Video

March 5th, 2024 Icon Trivia

March 6th, 2024 Icon Reveal

April 1st, 2024 Official Cover Art Reveal

April 5th, 2024 Cover Art Squared, and Blog Post

April 14th, 2024 Newsletter Puzzle Tease

April 15th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza 1

April 15th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Community Puzzle

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Cutouts

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Black Screen

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Roman Numerals

April 16th, 2024 Puzzle Palooza Big Reveal!

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