After graduating from college, most students get jobs or continue their higher learning by attending graduate school. But not Britney Brimhall.
Brimhall, an ASU alumna, along with an international team at Himalaya Studios are set to release "Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine," a classic adventure PC game that leans more toward a modern role-playing game than an action fix.
While it does offer a few arcade-like sequences, the game focuses mainly on problem solving and decision making skills, testing the player's brain more than his hand-eye coordination.
Brimhall and her team have been in the business for five years but were successful right from the start with their first project, the recreation of the classic games "Kings Quest I" and "Kings Quest II."
Brimhall said she and her co-workers decided on the idea for "All Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine" because they wanted to add variety to the gaming world and saw a market for the increasingly rare puzzle game.
The game also features a strong humorous aspect through creative dialogue and scenarios. Its title character, Al Emmo, serves as the prime example.
He's a short, balding 42-year-old man, who is unemployed and still lives at home with his parents in New York earning a modest weekly allowance.
The game begins when he decides to travel west in search of a bride to make his parents proud.
Al Emmo arrives in the fictional dead-end town of Anozira, with landscaping based on the western United States, where he meets the beautiful but hard-to-get Miss Rita Peralto.
He soon learns that Rita's father has disappeared in search of a fabled lost treasure, triggering the main storyline. Al Emmo must find the treasure, discover the truth behind the disappearance of Rita's father, and ultimately earn her affection over the main antagonist, a rival suitor from Spain.
Though he starts out as a low-confidence pushover, one of the game's sub-plots is Al Emmo's growth and maturity as a character.
The game offers over a dozen hours of gameplay, featuring over 7,000 lines of dialogue and more than 100 hand-painted, high resolution backgrounds.
Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine will sell for $30 starting this August and is already available on its official Web site, www.alemmo.com.
Reach the reporter at steven.bohner@asu.edu.
