Her Interactive, the company behind the Nancy Drew and Nancy Drew Dossier series, has brought in Stuart Moulder, a 20 year veteran in the gaming industry, to take the role of CEO at Her Interactive, focusing on corporate strategy and day to day operations in forming a new, dual leadership structure. Completing the duo, Megan Gaiser will retain her role as Chief Strategic Creative Officer, focusing primarily on “creative direction, brand and portfolio expansion, business development and strategic partnerships.”

“I’m eager to join the talented team at Her Interactive,” says Stuart Moulder, CEO, Her Interactive. “The Nancy Drew series has attracted a loyal audience and earned dozens of Parent’s Choice Gold Medal awards by delivering fun and inspirational entertainment to millions. The opportunities for Her Interactive to reach an even broader audience are tremendous.”

“As we have grown Her Interactive from a dedicated PC game developer to additional platforms, we recognized the need to expand our leadership structure to better leverage Her Interactive’s native capabilities while successfully navigating the complexity of new initiatives,” says Megan Gaiser, CSCO, Her Interactive. “I’m very excited to welcome Stuart Moulder to the Her Interactive team. Together, we will build on our strong series foundation and outstanding creative work we have done to date, and continue to bring Nancy Drew to audiences around the world via a variety of games, platforms and applications.”

This announcement comes as the company revs up preparations for the launch of its newest title on PC and Mac, Nancy Drew®: The Captive Curse on June 28, 2011. Stay tuned for more details! I have a feeling we will be seeing big things coming from Her Interactive in the near future…

The Game Developers Conference is running through March 13 and with the news, there are also some great Women in Games events that you should attend if you are in the area.

IGDA Women in Games will hold their annual roundtable meeting on Thursday, March 11 from 1:30-2:30 pm in Room 230, East Mezzanine. The roundtable will be moderated by our friend, Tina Tyndal and will be talking about initiatives for 2010 including GameMentorOnline.

There are also two panels at GDC that are presented by IGDA Women in Games. Details are:

Starting Something New – Women in Games, scheduled for Thursday, March 11, 3 pm to 4 pm in Room 130, North Hall. This session is moderated by Sonja Kangas, Head of Game Lab, Paf and IGDA Women in Games advisor, and features speakers Tiina Zilliacus, CEO of IronStar Helsinki; Celia Pearce, Director of Experimental Game Lab at Georgia Tech; Megan Gaiser, CEO of Her Interactive, and Julia Brasil, the first G.I.R.L. scholarship recipient awarded by Sony Online Entertainment.

The second panel session is entitled Are Women the New Hardcore Gamers?, and is scheduled for Thursday, March 11, 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm in Room 130, North Hall. The session is moderated by Shanna Tellerman, Founder and CEO, Wild Pockets, with special guest speakers Amy Jo Kim CEO of ShuffleBrain; Wanda Meloni, Market Analyst with M2 Research; Morgan Romine, Community Manager and Online Marketing Manager for Ubisoft (plus Team Captain, Frag Dolls), and Jessica Tams, Executive Director of the Casual Game Association.

The IGDA Women in Games party will be happening at the IGDA booth on Friday March 12 from 3-4:30pm. Make sure you stop by at the South Hall of Moscone Convention Center and tell them you read about this on GamingAngels. We’re a sponsor of the party as well as Gas Powered Games, Her Interactive, Microsoft SideWinder, Mumbo Jumbo, Naughty Dog, Obsidian Entertainment and Thrust Interactive.

Women in Games events conclude with the Microsoft Women in Gaming Awards event that I attended last year. The awards are a great way to network and meet other women in the industry and to take time to acknowledge the work of 20 nominees.

In support of the upcoming release of the newest Nancy Drew installment, Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy, Her Interactive has introduced “Watching Waverly,” an online soap delivered through the Twitter accounts of the Waverly students today through October 16th.

Students Leela Yadav, Megan Vargas, Izzy Romero, Danielle Hayes, and Corine Myers tweet about their daily lives and update fans about the events as they unfold, revealing details about the game, and background of the characters and school itself.

“Many of our fans are already participating in social networks and ‘Watching Waverly’ is a unique way of delivering relevant content to them, as well as expanding the in-game universe to the real world,” said Megan Gaiser, president and CEO of Her Interactive. “It’s a great way to pique fan interest and get them involved in the game just prior to launch.”

See Her Interactive for details and to follow the students of Waverly Academy! Or, if you don’t Tweet, you can read the stories at the Ameteur Sleuth Blog.

In the meantime, Check out the trailer for Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy right here, right now!

Here is the first in what I hope will be a regular series of featured interviews with strong, successful, creative, interesting people and companies out there in the casual space today. Her Interactive is one of those companies which I believe has a strong, positive approach to creating games targeted toward females that challenge us to think critically, while still having a good time – without being all pink and frilly. I was able to ask a few questions of Amy McPoland, VP of Marketing at Her Interactive, a company which has always created and supported great games that challenge us and make us think to talk about the face of women in the industry, creating games for women, and what’s in store for Her Interactive.

GA: First, please tell me a little bit about your role in Her Interactive.

Amy: As the VP of Marketing, I’m responsible for the marketing of the Nancy Drew games, which entails reaching the consumer through multiple tactics. Our primary audience is tween/teen girls, so our marketing outreach includes online & print advertising as well as social media activity, HerInteractive.com and other promotional outreach.

As the voice of the consumer, the Marketing team also listens to our consumers. We have a very loyal fan base, and a very active Message Board of 90K users that give us feedback on our games, as well as share hints & tips with each other. Part of my role is to monitor that feedback to ensure we are using their feedback to make our games better.

Since Nancy Drew has been a positive role model for almost 80 years, we also have a very strong secondary audience of adult women, and have found that our games have created a multi-generational phenomenon, often bringing girls, moms and grandmothers together to share the experience. In fact, we get emails from moms and grandmothers all the time thanking us for providing them with a fun, quality and family friendly gaming experience they can share.

GA: What prompted the founding of Her Interactive?

Amy:Her Interactive grew out of a company called American Laser Games in 1997, as the division of that company focused on female play preferences. The first Nancy Drew game was completed in 1998.

At that time, the Publishers told us girls were computer-phobic and would not play the game, so we could not get into retail. So we sold the game exclusively through our own website and Amazon.com. Sales took off, and 20 games later, here we are, proud of being the pioneer of games targeted toward females.

GA:How do you feel the gaming industry as a whole views women now in both the casual and console sectors? Is this changing?

Amy: The gaming industry is changing, and is paying more attention to girls & women than ever before – designing games specifically for those audiences. This is happening in both the console and casual markets. For the console market, I attribute this change to the Wii and the introduction of additional family-friendly games. For the casual market, this change can be at least partially attributed to the growth and evolution of the online, casual gaming industry. Since the demographic of this market is primarily adult women, many ‘casual’ games are being developed to cater to their specific play preferences.

GA: What kind of reactions or support do you get from other industry leaders being a company with one of the few female CEOs? Do you feel that it makes a difference?

Amy: Megan Gaiser, the CEO of Her Interactive, frequently mentions the support and camaraderie she feels in the gaming industry. One point that she has repeatedly made is that it’s great to have other industry CEOs – both women and men – share information and collaborate in order to help guide and lead the industry.

Gaming is an art form. And like other mediums, games should offer as many preferences as there are players – both girls and boys. The only way that we, as an industry, will satisfy the preference of both boys and girls is by fostering environments in game companies where we are sharing different ideas and perspectives. It’s the blending of both women & men in the industry that helps improve all aspects of the industry – including the content.

To paraphrase a recent keynote speech that Megan gave at the Seattle Casual Connect conference in July, diversification is key. The people making these games and playing these games are fortunately no longer just 18-34 white males. So, as leaders in the industry, we need to do our part to round out the talent in companies with people of all ethnicities and genders. I strongly believe there is a link between employee diversification and product diversification. As with other mediums like films, it takes a balance of genders and perspectives to create outstanding works of art that satisfies a variety of preferences. We know that when we genuinely collaborate, we’re open to more creative inspiration and those aha moments.

In terms of whether or not being a woman makes a difference, I think that since women CEOs are a minority in the gaming world, the important thing is that there are forums for women leaders in this industry, such as Women in Gaming International or the International Game Developers Association of which Megan is a member of their Women in Gaming advisory board.

GA: Do you play? How do you feel about games out there that specifically target females?

Amy: I do play games, and particularly to better understand our market and keep up with the competition. In terms of games out there specifically targeting females, we have been doing that with our Nancy Drew games since our first game launched in 1998. And 11 years and 20 Nancy Drew adventure games later, our series has been the best-selling adventure game franchise (in units per NPD) for the last 5 years, so we know that there is certainly a market for these games. Our secret is to create a game that delivers on the Nancy Drew brand and caters to female play preferences such as strong storyline, character development, and games that make you think. Additionally, the player gets to be Nancy Drew in our games, so the games empower players to step into the shoes of the super-sleuth and crack the case!

In terms of other games targeting females, there should be as many types of games for females as any other form of entertainment (e.g. books, movies, etc.), so I think it’s great that the industry is moving in this direction.

GA:Do you see any trends in the industry to making more universally appealing games, either looking at males & females or casual & hardcore gamers?

Amy: Social gaming and the social gaming platforms such as Facebook and iPhone are strong trends that seem to be transcending specific consumer categories to appeal to more universal, mass audiences, and dovetail with the current social media phenomenon. Additionally, micro-transactions and virtual worlds seem to also be part of the overall, universally appealing trend.

GA: I see that Her Interactive is beginning to make games for the Wii and the DS, what can console gamers expect in the future from Her Interactive?

Amy: We are excited about launching The Hardy Boys Nintendo DS game – since it’s both a new brand and new platform for us, and yet still delivers a great mystery adventure experience. As for the future, we hope to continue this line, and will continue to leverage our story-telling and adventure game formula to deliver quality games on platforms that make sense for us.

GA: With the success of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Nancy Drew Dossier games, what is the thought about Her Interactive branching out into other brands? What does the future have in store for Her Interactive?

Amy: In the long term, we will continue to evaluate different brands as opportunities arise. Our goal is to continue with quality games that are good for you by challenging the player and making them think.

In the short term, we will be launching our next adventure game, ‘Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy’ in October. This game is #21 in the series, and as always, promises a new mystery adventure as Nancy goes undercover at an elite girls Academy.

Stay tuned for the trailer from the newest Nancy Drew game in the series: Warnings at Waverly Academy!

Her Interactive today announced the second title in its hit Nancy Drew Dossier series, Resorting to Danger. Available for online download and retail purchase this August. Resorting to Danger follows the winning formula of its predecessor, Lights, Camera, Curses, by integrating easily accessible gameplay with a captivating mystery, making it suitable for even the most casual of gamers.

In Resorting to Danger, players again assume the role of Nancy Drew as she sets out to interview suspects and solve daunting puzzles in order to determine who is planting bombs at the Redondo Spa. The Redondo Spa is a sanctuary to the rich and famous and with clients’ retreats in jeopardy, Nancy goes undercover as a general assistant to unearth clues. With six alternate endings, players can tackle Resorting to Danger again and again from different approaches and scenarios.

Nancy Drew Dossier is a next-generation casual game series that combines a seek-and-find mechanic with a new level of compelling story-driven gameplay involving detective work, sophisticated interaction with clues and characters, brain-teasing puzzles, and arcade mini-games. Playing from the point of Nancy Drew, players find hidden clues and use their strengths of observation, deduction, and problem-solving to uncover culprits and schemes in a heavily story-driven plot.

As Megan Gaiser, president and CEO of Her Interactive, explains: “Our games have such resonance with women of all ages due to the sense of empowerment they feel from being as brilliant as Nancy Drew®. We believe the traits that define Nancy – gutsy, intelligent, independent – are imparted to players on a very subtle level and ultimately act to increase self-esteem and instill confidence. So with all the games that are ‘good for you’ like fitness games and brain games, we’re glad we can offer a game that’s good for the soul.”

Resorting to Danger will be available this August at retailers nationwide and for download online at HerInteractive.com