Nancy Drew Dossier: Ship of Shadows! (lost build of unreleased PC game; 2010)

Nancy Drew Dossier- Ship of Shadows! Cover Art.jpeg

The cover art for the unreleased Nancy Drew Dossier game Ship of Shadows.

Status: Partially Found

Nancy Drew Dossier: Ship of Shadows! (hereafter referred to as Ship of Shadows; also commonly abbreviated as "SOS") was intended to be the third installment of the Nancy Drew Dossier series, a hidden object PC game series developed by Her Interactive. The Dossier series launched in 2008 and was designed to be a casual series complimenting the long-standing Nancy Drew Adventure series.^[1]^[2]

Shelving of Ship of Shadows and the Dossier Series

Ship of Shadows was teased at the end of the second installment of the Dossier series, Resorting to Danger, which was released in 2009.^[3] Although the teaser trailer did not include a release date, it is estimated that Ship of Shadows was going to be released in 2010 since one Dossier game had been released per year up to that point.^[4]^[5]

On March 15, 2011, then-Her Interactive Community Forums administrator Inter_Sleuth posted an announcement about the game on the "Notes from Her Interactive" message board. According to Inter_Sleuth, Ship of Shadows was originally delayed in order to make the game "the best the series had to offer," in response to feedback from fans on the first two installments. Development of the game was further held up due to work on other projects, including the Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries series. This unfortunately led to the removal of Ship of Shadows from the company's release schedule and the shelving of the Dossier series.^[6]

On October 14, 2011, then-Her Interactive CEO Stuart Moulder indicated during an interview with GameZebo that there were no plans to continue the Dossier series at the time. According to Moulder, fans of the Nancy Drew Adventure series "didn’t feel that the Dossier line met their expectations." He went on to say that "if we [Her Interactive] were to try our hand again at a Dossier game or something like it, we will need to figure out how to ensure that any new game meets the expectations of our current fans."^[7]

On October 28, 2011, then-Her Interactive marketing coordinator Little Jackalope posted the game's cover art to Her Interactive's Amateur Sleuth Blog.^[8]

Since 2011, a few comments made by Little Jackalope on the Amateur Sleuth Blog have confirmed that there are no plans to continue working on Ship of Shadows.^[9]^[10]

Game Premise

The game would have followed Nancy Drew aboard a haunted cruise ship. The following is a transcript of the teaser trailer audio, as spoken by Nancy:^[3]

When a recently renovated cruise ship invites me on a "sneak peak" passage, I immediately say yes. I mean, spending a couple of days aboard an antique luxury liner? How fun is that?
But as soon as we leave port, it becomes apparent this is not your ordinary cruise ship. Ghostly faces at portholes, eerie lights in the dead of night, people vanishing into thin air -- things quickly go from slightly weird to downright scary!
Help me figure out why before I end up going down with the ship in my next case, 'Ship of Shadows'...

Lost Materials

Although it is rumored that Ship of Shadows was close to completion at the time it was shelved, Little Jackalope contested in a comment on the Amateur Sleuth Blog that the game "only had some art and some rough design done." It is unknown how much artwork and design was completed for the game, but some images have been found (see "Found Materials" below).^[11]

In a follow-up comment, Little Jackalope indicated that she was unsure of the whereabouts of the game's script and could not find it in the company's archives.^[11] As such, it is believed that the script for Ship of Shadows is lost.