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Apprentice
Apprentice
 | Developer's Description |
Apprentice began as a small college project during the latter half of spring semester 2003. Around this time,
Gregor was slaving away on the 3d renderings for the backgrounds in The Find. Because of the
distance between us, there really wasn't any way I could help, especially considering my computer doesn't
have the capability to run a hardware monster like 3D Studio Max. Instead, we corresponded via email and
Instant Messenger, but we didn't make very much progress.
As a surprise, I planned to learn some AGS scripting and make a small game I could show Gregor when
I went back home for summer break. Armed with a small forest of tutorials I had printed out from one of the
campus computer labs, I officially started the Apprentice project, and decided to go the ambitious route,
320x200 resolution with a whopping 256 colors. Hey, if it was good enough for Sam 'n Max...
This is when things got complicated.
Ok, so AGS wants to hog the first bunch of colors in the pallette, that's cool. And what's that? I get how many
colors for the GUI and sprites? Twenty-five, normally a pretty substantial number when we're talking about
pizza slices or shots of Zelko (typical college currency, I don't know what you're talking about), is not
exactly a plethora in the graphics department.
Anyways, my plans for making a small game megabyte-wise went out the window and I settled on 16-bit color.
With a little help from the tutorials, I was happily building rooms and slapping down walkable areas and
hotspots. I even made a small object entitled "key," which I was quite proud of. The default character, "Roger,"
could even walk up to said object and put it in his inventory. Yes, that was the height of my short scripting
career. I soon discovered how much more complicated AGS was when I tried to implement an interface
something like the fiery tattoo in Full Throttle.
About this time, I had drawn up a bunch of sprites and backgrounds in this neat little graphics program called
the GIMP. Its original platform was Linux, but some kindly soul ported it to Windows, so I now have a free
alternative to Photoshop. Since I was too stuck on my art to give up the whole thing at this point, I talked Gregor
into sending me a sample game that illustrated some basic AGS functions I would need. I tried to do this very
tactfully, without giving away any of my storyline ideas and gags.
This proved a royal waste of effort, as finals were days away, and I really couldn't muster the motivation to cram
scripting code into my already spinning head. I decided to finish as much of the art as I could before I went home,
and hopefully get Gregor to script the game for me. It worked out, and the game you can download is pretty
close to my original idea.
Now you might notice that Apprentice is a bit short, but that was how I intended it. Unfortunately, when I
ironed out storyline details, a much grander plot unfolded in my head, and many references to it
crept into the dialogue. 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.
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Features
-320 x 200 16-bit graphics
-MP3 music
-global messages, so there's a response for every action
Screenshots/Concept Art
(click thumbnail for full picture)
Downloads
Download Apprentice Updated Version (6.2 megs)
Download Apprentice Updated Version (faster mirror)
Download Apprentice in Italian (6.24 megs)
Official Apprentice Walkthrough
Testimonials
(taken from the AGS forum)
"Omg, absolutely incredible." - Yufster
"Whoa! Now this is a very nice game." - The Hot Trout
"I am absolutely enchanted by this game." - Nelinas
"I am loving this game to bits..." - Magintz
"An inspiration." - Miguel
"OMG this game rocks!" - GinnyW
"That was a damn good game!" - Jason
"Holy Jalapeno! This game looks great!" - Gonchi
"...Adorable." - Amaranth
"This is just a game." - Yvonne
All material on this website is copyright (c) 2003, Ian Schlaepfer. All rights reserved.
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