Apprentice!

[Gregjazz]

After too much work...

Apprentice is out! You can download it off the brand, spanking new Herculean Effort Productions website, which can be found at the following url,
http://www.sonic.net/~schlae/herculeaneffort
Be sure to check out the screenshots and concept art on the site!

Have fun with the game!

[Scummbuddy]

Wow... that was fast... Since you only had showed us one image up till now on the critics lounge, I figured we were a ways away from seeing this game surface... I'll check this marvelous beauty out soon.

[Nel]

I am enjoying The Apprentice very much, so I wanted to download The Find as well. But the download link at freewebs doesn't work - no such file on the server (says GetRight). And it is a big file to d/l with the browser. Perhaps a broken link? Could you fix it if so?

[evilspacefart]

it worked for me...

[Yvonne]

Beautiful art! I really enjoy this game. Can anybody please help me with moving the sheep away, and with taking the saddle?

[PeaceMan]

These must be some of the best graphics i've seen in an AGS game and are even as good as the graphics you would find in a LucasArts game. The GUI is very origional. Great game!!!  

[Dave Gilbert]

Woah!  Impressive!  Although I'm stuck already.    I'll keep plugging away though, since I refuse to break down and ask for hints merely 2 hours after starting the game.  I'll give myself 4 at the very least!

Nice work here.  Some great dialogs (especially with the highwaywoman) and that intro is fantastic! I'll write more when I play more...

-Dave

[Vel]

Holy maccarel!
This game is awesome! the graphics are very, very reminiscent of S&m and dott.

[Gregjazz]

Glad to hear you all are enjoying it!
You probably want to have the satisfaction of beating the game on your own, but if you're REALLY stuck, I can give you some hints...

Nel: The Find demo download is not a broken link. We took down the old Find website and the download because we plan on redoeing basically everything with the Find. You can read about the Find and see new concept art at:
http://www.sonic.net/~schlae/herculeaneffort/thefind.html

[Dorcan]

Wow!  :o :o
Amazing work ! Excellent music, beautiful graphics. I really like the animation, and all those details that make this game a great one.   Really atmospheric. Yep, it was good.

I've finished it yet, and I must say I really enjoyed this game! Mmh I was hoping we could turn back the farmgirl, and that she would give us a reward, but...oh well

Just one thing : You don't have to include .wav sounds in your package, because they are already compiled in the .exe file.

[Cerulean]

This is an excellent game so far, but I must be missing something, because there doesn't seem to be any exit to the outside. I have no place to go but upstairs and downstairs, and I'm reasonably certain I've exhausted my options.

[Dorcan]

There shouldn't have any problems to get out of the tower.. Just walk on the luminous layout, in the middle-bottom side of the screen

[Dave Gilbert]

Wiigii!  Finished it!

In a word - EXCELLENT.  The graphics are gorgeous (You've succeeded in making my game's graphics look like a pile of poo) and the interface is very slick.   If it were a larger game  - with a larger number of inventory items - it might have been annoying, but it works perfectly here.

The characters were very cool, although I was hoping for a little development later on.  Is there a sequel planned?  The intro kind of hinted at more things to come.

There were few fatal bugs, which you mentioned in your readme.  They were a bit annoying but nothing unmanagable.  small spoilies:

Spoiler

The game froze when I was hiding from Master and tried to use an inventory item on him.  Maybe you should mention in the readme that you don't need to do that?  

[close]

Anyrate, I'm looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.  

[Meowster]

Omg, absolutely incredible. Fantastic graphics, fantastic music, gorgeous sprites, great puzzles and great dialogue!!! I love this!!!

[evilspacefart]

i like the amount of anims in this game.

[Gregjazz]

Thanks for the input, guys!

Dave: Yeah, you found another bug. I guess when we can find enough of them, we'll fix them and re-compile. (Also fix some minor typographical errors...)

Dorcan: We tried removing the .wavs from the directory when we compiled it, but it didn't seem to work. We'll look into it, though.
Good story idea about the farmgirl...

It didn't really start out this way, but the plot of Apprentice kind of blossomed into something much bigger. We didn't have time to make everything (with other projects and all), so we just chose an interesting "chapter" from it.

Originally, Llyod (the shapeshifter) was going to be a running joke in the game, turning up at various parts as different creatures. (There could even be puzzles like you have to free him, in pidgeon form, from a cage, etc.)
Each time you encounter him, he would have the same "What's the issue, darling" line and have some crazy story how he got in his situation. (Kind of like Murray in MI3)

And then there's Navy Joe...

Maybe someday, we will make a commercial-length game out of it.

[Dorcan]

Aha! I understand now why Pib says "Maybe later" when we try to interact with the roots... that's where Navy Joe was supposed to be, right ?

About the .wav files : They must be in the directory when you compile the game, but they don't have to be in the compiled folder. I haven't extracted the wav files from the zipped game, and it works well, sounds are played.

Do you have a colored sprite of the farmgirl ? If it is the case, I would like to see it

[TheHotTrout]

Whoa! Now this is a very nice game. You guys have got that lucasarts style sorted, even down to the logo which is reminiscant of the lucasarts sun holdy thing. I'm very impressed with the artwork in general here, a real pleasure to solve the puzzles aswell. In general this is fantastic. Heres hoping for that commercial length game (or if they're all going to be to this quality any game!) from you guys soon!

[Mark]

You're simply THE BEST!/
Better than all the rest...
Why isn't this game in the competition?
Ah yes, because of the strange "illustriuos AGS something" rule.
Please, go on with The Find.

[Necro]

Yep FANTASTIC GAME!! I just completed it myself and thought it was great the detail that went into the animations stood out loads and they were all very very very nice.

I loved all the backgrounds and especially the first intro one, that looked great!! (did anyone else notice there logo conceled in that background? ) and what can I say but Wow...

Also very nice GUI, I actually designed a similar one recently before playing the game so now I know what to aim for

Cant wait for the next installment if there is going to be one..