Looking Back: The Apprentice

[admin]

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[ad7venture]

Nice to see a feature article up again.  Amateur adventures are still maturing and finding their niche.  Personally, I think music is way overrated, just like voice acting.  The focus should be on story and puzzles, the scope should be small.  It really is hard to put your finger on one that stands out, and I think the author mentions almost all of them that do.  I tend to quit playing most of them before they are finished because the puzzles are almost all seek and find, the story is almost non-existent, and the conversations just seem to be there because it's an adventure.  I guess the only ones he missed were the Flash ones, Goat in a Grey Fedora was probably the best amateur adventure I've played.  The voice acting and music helped, but really, the puzzles were somewhat more interesting, the humor was good, and the story was consistent for a humorous tale.
The other one that stands out for me was "Curiously Strong All Night Long".  That's like a home run when it comes to puzzles and story in my book, although it was semi-professional because it was sponsored by Altoids.
And then there's Samarost.  In it's own way a real ground breaker.

[Trumgottist]

Yay, a feature!

Personally, I think music is way overrated, just like voice acting.

Music is generally underrated IMHO.

[Erwin_Br]

What I like about Apprentice is the continues background music, which was the norm in the nineties, but kinda disappeared today (not in all games, but most of them).

The music isn't obtrusive, but does set the mood. I agree with Trum that music is generally underrated. It can set (or break) the mood. Somehow the tunes in Apprentice made it seem like the pastures were greener, and the surroundings more alive. If done well, it enriches the experience.

--Erwin

[ad7venture]

Music is generally underrated IMHO.

I think you did one of the best jobs of background music that I've heard in an amateur adventure, but I still don't consider it important to a game. I can play music anytime.   Most of it doesn't fit very well with what's going on and I end up trying to disconnect it and still keep the sound effects because it usually gets old for me and breaks my concentration.  I found Apprentice music got old after a short while. Music and voice acting can't even begin to make up for a boring game.  It's like icing on a cake. It's the thing you're most aware of, but it's not the substance.  I'll take "reading" good dialog instead of "listening" to bad dialog any day of the week.  I'll take gameplay and story to music any day of the week.  Try reading a good comic strip sometime.  No music, no animation, no voice acting, but it works because the characters are connecting with us. I know people who won't even touch a computer game, but they'll read Dilbert in a flash.  Amateur adventures try to do too much most of the time and end up being mediocre at everything.  Sure, if music is your thing, as in your case, it makes perfect sense, but for most it's a pretty bad add on.

[NigeC]

i played Apprentice when it first came out (it was a bit buggy when i played it) and it did seem to change peoples approuches to adventure games, around the same time Danny/Wizkid did Norman Cook, not brilllant story wise but good crisp graphics its a shame his bigger project went quiet or did it?

i'm not a big fan of midi sound, so it often gets turned off, i can think of quite a few games where the contantly looping music drove me insane! sound effects in context are ok but yet again people often go into over kill, the worst has to be footstep sounds
remember the constant clunk clunk in games like tomb raider? baby hippo or what lol

[deadworm222]

If I was to make an adventure game, I would not have music playing constantly in the background - it'd be cinematic, and most of the time there'd be just environmental sounds.

In most of Yahtzee's games I've turned the music off, because I really dislike most of it. :/ (It's the MIDI-RPG maker music I don't like, I don't think I've played any games with music by m0ds yet. And besides, horror film music is scary!) So definitely, if you can't make music, use it sparingly and don't have it playing in the background just for the sake of it. The same goes for voice-acting. But if you can get good background music that "sets the mood", then by all means, I think it can be one of the best things in a game and redeems a lot of Discworld Noir, for example.

Super Jazz Man is the first HEP game that has got the music right, I find.

[Squinky]

Super Jazz Man is the first HEP game that has got the music right, I find.

I agree. 

[Trumgottist]

So definitely, if you can't make music, use it sparingly and don't have it playing in the background just for the sake of it. The same goes for voice-acting.

The problem with that rule is that it's not so easy to adhere to. Everyone (including me) like to think (regardless of any evidence to the opposite) that they and create music and do at least half-decent acting.

[Vel]

While apprentice is among the finest examples of amateur adventures in most areas, save for the story, I don't think it was the first, nor the best, for that matter. KQ1 and 2 VGA, as far back as I remember, were released before that.
A nice article overall, I'm eagerly awaiting more features on AD.