Apprentice

Apprentice is a PC point-and-click amateur adventure game released by Herculean Effort Productions as freeware in 2003. It was created using Adventure Game Studio. The game begins with a dream of a young wizard apprentice, Pib, in which he is confronted by Lord Ironcrow, the ruler of the region. In the dream, Ironcrow tries to persuade him to become a soldier. After refusing, Pib wakes up, screaming. His teacher comes to check that everything is alright, and informs him that today is a special day for Pib - it's time he prepared his very first spell. The rest of the game is spent finding proper ingredients.

The project was started as a side project while the makers worked on The Find, introducing the player to the game world and some of its characters. Therefore the game was criticised for its shortness and a lack of any real storyline. Furthermore, the dream sequence at the beginning of the game bears no relevance to the rest of the game. Nevertheless, Apprentice was praised for its high production values. It is even mentioned as a good example of a game created with Adventure Game Studio in the book Gaming Hacks published by O'Reilly Media and it won four AGS Awards in 2003 for Best Room Art, Best Character Art, Best Animation and Best Music.

The first version of Apprentice was released on 10 July 2003. The first bug fix version, which also added a bonus puzzle to the game, was released on the 28th. Two years later, on 29 May 2005, HEP released a Deluxe version of the game, which improved animations and music and added voice overs to the game.

The Apprentice series is planned as a trilogy. The second part Apprentice II: The Knight's Move was released in 2004. The release date of the last part, Apprentice III: Checkmate! is not yet known.