Apprentice!

[Nelinas]

I am absolutely enchanted by this game. I don't want it to end. Fantastic. And just look at this thread - unanimous applause. Congratulations for the Herculean effort.
As to Q&A - there is a new thread in the Hints&Tips section.

[magintz]

I am loving this game to bits, evrything is incredible, the animations are so brilliant, how did you get them so smooth and perfect? did you model around someone performing the tasks? Got any quick tips for animating?

This is definatly becoming my favourite AGS game of all times (sorry Pleurghburg and Larry Vales) I hope you have plans for an aprentice 2 or another, yet similarly brilliant game.



Thumbs up

[miguel]

Apprentice has all the qualities that adventure gamers want, graphics are superb, the dialogs makes us laugh and so do the animations. The music sets us on the location and when you see the tower screen going downwards to reveal  a cartoonish rural landscape with sheeps!, then you know you're facing a brilliant game. An inspiration.

[Alexis Vale]

I guess I'm the only one with the problem...

I downloaded your game. I unzipped it into it's own little file. I tried to open Apprentice.exe...but then the screen turns all black and then a bit of white lines and the game doesn't open. My computer just runs on like nothing happened...as if it were innoccent...or maybe it's just me. Usually if I get this problem, it gets fixed by unzipping everything into the same directory as ags.exe...but this time it does not work...help?

Just thought I'd let you know of any problems that anyone else might have...

[Gregjazz]

Alexis: I have a few suggestions. You could start by checking to make sure the zip you downloaded is the full size. It could be possible that the download didn't finish, but it said it did. Also, try changing the screen settings from the setup.exe.

Magintz: There was no rotoscoping used in this game, if that's what you mean. We just kind of eyeballed everything....

[Timosity]

Great game so far Geoffkhan, I just started it, very nice graphics and animations.

just a couple of bugs i found straight away:

Spoiler

You can still press F5 and F7 to bring up the default save and restore gui's

The door down the bottom of the stairs with the rope between, I knocked on the door and I thought I might be able to open the other door when the wizard opens his door, but when I moved the mouse down the bottom of the screen to change cursors the game crashed (just paused because the gui comes up while the animation is happening, so it just pauses the game) this just happened to be the first thing I even tried to do in the game, appart from picking up a few items with the wand

I know you can change modes using the keyboard but having right click to change is so much better, just as another option

[close]

Looking forward to playing more of this, where time permits

[Yvonne]

Your so-called "bugs" are nonsense.
My God, be honest to yourself .ro, it is ENVY...

[Timosity]

Your so-called "bugs" are nonsense.
My God, be honest to yourself .ro, it is ENVY...

what on earth are you talking about??? and I'm not bagging the game at all, quite the opposite, what I mentioned are a couple of little things that can make the game flawless, and what I mentioned I can recreate, it's all in the timing.
and fixing the F5 and F7 thing is rather easy to do, and easy forget to do before releasing a game, as many people do the same thing. I just thought I would try and help Geoffkahn.

Yvonne, just think before posting next time, no hard feelings

[Scummbuddy]

perhaps if he had used emoticons, we could tell if he is joking or not... or is it the fact that there were no smileys on purpose..


<points to reader>
You Decide.

[Alexis Vale]

Sorry, but there's still a problem...I'm almost positive it's something I might be doing. I get this message when I try to open it:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP=
0x0044190A ; program pointer is +4300, ACI version 2.56.571, gtags
(297, 100)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the
numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify
CJ on the Tech forum.


Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this
entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.

         [OK]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmm...I've no idea what that is.

[Gregjazz]

First of all, thanks everybody for the compliments and constructive criticism (bug reports are always welcome).

We plan on fixing those bugs and updating the game.

Sorry if those bugs caused you any inconvenience or detracted from the gameplay. (yes, I know they did both)

[MillsJROSS]

I'd like to say that the animation, backround, character sprites were all very nice. The dialog was decent. I loved how you spent the time to make a reply to every click on an object look/talk/take/use (it's one of my pet peeves when people don't do this).

Most of the puzzles were easy, but I must say that...(and I'll use spoilers DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T Completed the game, and don't care to know a few hints or answers)

Spoiler

The cheese puzzle was a bit far fetched, even for an adventure game. I would have never thought of it, had I not just gone through my inventory one at a time, seeing what I could do.

This is not to say that some of the puzzles weren't good. I liked how you had to clean the grinder, but couldn't take the dishtowel, it kind of closed my mind to the dishtowel until I was desperate. I liked the the stool and the broom combination to get the saddle.

But the cheese puzzle just didn't agree with me.

[close]

I think you did a very nice job with this game, and look forward to future games on your part.

-MillsJROSS

[TheHotTrout]

This is gonna be mainly spoiler so the usual, not finished, don't read

Spoiler

For the towel thing have the little guy say something like "If I want to use it I'll have to use it here" or something, make it so that he sounds like he wants to use it but can't take it, but I do have to agree I never would have got the cheese puzzle if it hadn't been for a bit of luck (i was all set to go search for the three things in another mini-mini quest style) I just suddenly decided i'do do something I never do and thats hand in the objects in the list before I'd collect them if you understand me, i guess looking at the saddle while it's on the horse could give you some clues (ie "Boy in this sunshine the saddle is sure getting hot!") but the mention of rennin threw me, I was looking for some stomach juices or something

[close]

[Gregjazz]

Spoiler

To clean out the coffee bean grinder, you can also use the picnic blanket (provided that it's not already on the horse.) We'll take the mention of rennin out and leave it at "a stomach enzyme".

[close]

Did anyone get the clues about the saddlebag being made from a horse's stomach? (He comments on it twice. Once if you look at it before you put it on the horse and once if you look at it while it's on the horse.)

[TheHotTrout]

I dunno why but that seemed to only really stand out afterwards
maybe "The saddlebag still feels a little icky" or something to hint that some of the stomach juices or enzymes are still there? I had just assumed because it had been made into a saddle that it was dried and that maybe the cow would be the source of the enzymes or something

[Ginny]

OMG this game rocks! I have just started and I adore the animations and I lauged out loud many times already from the dialog. This game is wonderful, the graphics are great, the puzzles are funny and very well done, and Lloyd is sweet! I just love the animation when Pib tries to oepn the closet. Hilarious and beautifully done! All the animations are.

I also really like the world you created, with Pib calling the dolphin an alien creature etc, it cracked me up!

Small bug\thing- in the kitchen of the tower, if you walk into the counter closest to the exit (while walking towards the exit) Pib is behind it and we see his head above it and his legs below. I found when walking outside, it really doesn't matter much lol.

Oh and the music is brilliant, it really makes me think fantasy, magic etc. You composed if I'm not mistaken, I think you said so in the thread with the screenie. Anyway, it superb!

This game (though short if you look at the size of the zip) is great and has commercial quality. Brilliant. I also really liked the sound the robot made while speaking.

edit: I forgot to mention, great GUI!

Ok, I finished the game! Hilarious ending, though the game is too short! I want more of this excellence! lol. I adored this game! So wonderful! Everything is great! It crashed a few times but aminly cause I Alt-Tabbed too much. Are you planning a sequel?

edit: Just reading your website (nice lolgo!), I'm looking forward to The Find as well (or anything by lol).
oh and;

"Someday, maybe, If I get enough feedback and support, I might turn Apprentice into a full-blown Lucasarts-eque journey. Financial persuasion is always welcome."

Please do! This game is just screaming for it! I really love this game, there's something in it that makes it special. I believe it's the effort you put in and the fact that you made it for fun. Or it could be the sticky cheese .

edit 2:

Spoiler, don't read if you havent finished the game!

Spoiler

I really liked the cheese puzzle actually, it took me a little while to get the connection between the cheeze recipe and the saddle, but I got it and it seemed oly too logical that there would be enzymes left.
All the puzzles were funny and well hinted of lol at least to me.

At the end, I got a bit dissapointed that it'll be over when he says "hello wizardhood" meaning that the game would end, but when the "spell" was revealed I thought maybe the game will continue, but unfortunately no. It's still brilliant though. Short and sweet.
I would really love to see a sequel/full game made of it.

[close]

[Pet Terry]

Great! If I didn't know I would have thought this is some old LucasArts' game... Haven't finish it yet, but graphics and music makes great atmosphere. Good job!

[Vel]

Just finished it.

Spoiler

The cheese puzzle is too far fetched. The others are good thoughI was disappointed with the ending. The graphics are awesome, as well as the music. Looking forward to seeing a full-length game made by you!

[close]

[renn_inoue]

 :o

Incredible!  How did you get all those backgrounds to look so good in an 8-bit setting?!  

Great work in all aspects.  You've raised the bar to heights that will be tough to reach.

[lspace]

I'm stuck.  How do I get the sheep to move so I can get the oregano?  And how do I get rid of the twine on the closet door?

Great little game.  Having fun playing it.