Al Lowe's Leisure Suit Larry Remake -- Out Now

[asper]

I find this so incredibly ugly, it's almost insulting.

One bad thing about the new MI remake is that you can only switch between VGA and this, the EGA version is gone. I've tried to find the EGA version for quite some time, without luck; only versions I seem to find on torrents are copyprotected...

 

[JarlFrank]

One bad thing about the new MI remake is that you can only switch between VGA and this, the EGA version is gone. I've tried to find the EGA version for quite some time, without luck; only versions I seem to find on torrents are copyprotected...

Wait... you don't have the printed out copy protection wheels lying around somewhere?

 

[RK47]

I see nothing wrong with this. If there's a market for Monkey Island remakes, this one looks pretty good and cheaper to buy too.

 

[Nope]

Scott is ready to jump on board, we already spoke to him. Mark, however, can't since he works for Foundation 9, a developer / publisher and he would have a "conflict of interest" as he put it.

I remember Scott Murphy saying in an interview a fair while back how he wasn't interested in working with Crowe anymore because he was a two-faced bastard, so that's probably for the best.

And since both Josh Mandel and Al Lowe will be working on the remake i'm sold.
I've gotten the impression that Josh wouldn't involve himself with a company he didn't like at this point as well so that's a plus in Replay Games favor.
Just one of those guys doing anything adventure game related would do for me really.

Their FAQ answers pretty much all complaints in here as well.
The reason why they aren't making a new game yet is because Codemasters want to see what they can do with the old game before giving them more leeway with the license.

Tex Murphy and LSL in the same month. Thank god for tax rebates.

 

[Churrasco]

This was another really popular question today. I (Paul) just got off the phone with Greg, the producer over at Double Fine and asked him how it was possible to make a full fledged adventure game for $400k when it's costing us $500k to re-make Leisure Suit Larry. He told me that they initially only planned on making a small iOS game with 3 people on the entire team: 1 artist, 1 programmer, and 1 producer. That, plus they already had a game engine they spent millions of dollars making for a previous game whereas we're using the Unity engine and we're starting with the PC English version, which is a huge, huge difference!! The only thing we can re-use is the original design. Everything else we need to create from scratch: characters, environments, animations, engineering, and even sound effects.

Does this mean that Double Fine Adventure was(still) focused on the mainstream audience?, no wonder Schafer said there was a probability on failure

 

[asper]

I love the game but I would pledge more if you guys made a brand new Leisure Suit Larry game instead of a re-make of LSL 1
We would LOVE to make a new version of Leisure Suit Larry!! We thought about making LSL 4 (the missing floppies) or 8, or even 69!! The problem is, Codemasters, the publisher that owns the rights to Leisure Suit Larry and sold them to us wants to see what we can do with the game first. They said if we do a good job at a re-make then we'll have total freedom to do what we want on the next game. So, we have to really kick major ass on this game and show Codemasters what we're capable of. Once we do that, and the game is a success, then we can talk about a new design for our good friend Larry. Trust us, nobody wants to see a newer version of Leisure Suit Larry than us, his biggest fans (yes, we too are fans of Larry Laffer).

Hmmmpfffpf...

*pledges 15$*

 

[Aeschylus]

TOO MANY KICKSTARTERS.

No, I was fence-sitting on this, but their recent FAQ answers have cleared up most of my concerns, so I put in $15. For what they're offering I don't think it's worth a huge donation, but if they can somehow convince Scott Murphy to come out of video-game retirement it will all be worth it.

 

[Stabwound]

I'm not exactly knowledgeable about how copyright law works, but if they bought the rights, why does the previous owner have any concern or say over what the new owner does with them?

I also don't like how they're name dropping the other Sierra franchises to get people to donate. It's one thing to say "we should get the rights to King's Quest and have Roberta Williams help design a new game!!!" and a completely different thing to actually do it. As far as I'm concerned, King's Quest is dead, and Roberta Williams is the one that put the bullet in its head with 8. That's disregarding the fact that she's been out of game design since KQ8, too.

 

[Aeschylus]

I'm not exactly knowledgeable about how copyright law works, but if they bought the rights, why does the previous owner have any concern or say over what the new owner does with them?

I also don't like how they're name dropping the other Sierra franchises to get people to donate. It's one thing to say "we should get the rights to King's Quest and have Roberta Williams help design a new game!!!" and a completely different thing to actually do it. As far as I'm concerned, King's Quest is dead, and Roberta Williams is the one that put the bullet in its head with 8. That's disregarding the fact that she's been out of game design since KQ8, too.

Well, the part about Roberta Williams does seem disingenuous -- she's publicly stated many times that she's done with video games and not coming out of retirement. That said, I don't really care about that so much. I would, however, murder for a proper Space Quest sequel... MURDER.

 

[Renegen]

The rights were probably only licensed temporarily instead of outright sold, much cheaper for Al Lowe.

 

[Metro]

He told me that they initially only planned on making a small iOS game

Cocksuckers.

 

[lulurkinglurkerlurk]

Yes sir!
Old 2d pixel fueled looks better by a mile. More stylish more original,more.

 

[commie]

I find this so incredibly ugly, it's almost insulting.

Exactly. Was much better when there was an attempt at merging realistic looking character pictures and locations with only a bit of wackiness. Since Monkey Island 4 though, every developer has gone full on with dis-proportioned crazy looking buildings, worlds, people. Looks ok in specific games older games like Day of the Tentacle, but everyone is doing this shit now. Not to mention it all looks ugly and contrived as well particularly for series where it wasn't standard from the start like MI or Larry.

 

[Alex]

Now you guys mention it, this actually got me curious. Why is it that no one is using the older, more realistic style anymore? Did some game using it fail completely? Are the new artists just not interested in it? Do they think this is what the older games would have looked if they had the tech back then?

commie
I dunno, I mean, the style of most newer games, like MI in your post above, doesn't look cartoony like Day of the Tentacle or Sam & Max. So even for these games it doesn't look that appropriate to me.

 

[commie]

I dunno, I mean, the style of most newer games, like MI in your post above, doesn't look cartoony like Day of the Tentacle or Sam & Max. So even for these games it doesn't look that appropriate to me.

Well just look at anything by Pendulo Studios, Telltale Games(works in Sam and Max, doesn't elsewhere), all those Kraut games like Jack Keane or Ceville, Lost Pirates of Voojoo Island or whatever it's called, that female Vampire game(can't remember the title), a whole bunch of Russian cartoony crap. There's also a whole industry of low budged episodic stuff and digital only distributed that is full of games with this style. Everyone tries to go for the wacky disproportionate look and it only works in very few cases. It's bad when the games try to be funny too and it fails miserably most of the time and is even worse when you have such art directions in serious games.

Have you heard of Goin' Downtown? Now THAT is an example of making cartoony graphics correctly in a serious story. Not this Pendulo shit...

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/goin-downtown/screenshots

 

[Infinitron]

Now you guys mention it, this actually got me curious. Why is it that no one is using the older, more realistic style anymore?

I've always thought that the Valve/Source Engine style (not TF2!) was sort of a modern example of that style.

I can totally a see Guybrush in this style.


Larry was already going cartoony in the early 90's though.

 

[Alex]

Well just look at anything by Pendulo Studios, Telltale Games(works in Sam and Max, doesn't elsewhere), all those Kraut games like Jack Keane or Ceville, Lost Pirates of Voojoo Island or whatever it's called, that female Vampire game(can't remember the title), a whole bunch of Russian cartoony crap. There's also a whole industry of low budged episodic stuff and digital only distributed that is full of games with this style. Everyone tries to go for the wacky disproportionate look and it only works in very few cases. It's bad when the games try to be funny too and it fails miserably most of the time and is even worse when you have such art directions in serious games.

Sorry, I didn't get my point across. I was thinking exactly about this kind of game. I dunno, they are cartoony, but they miss something that was present in Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle. Maybe I just don't like 3d trying to look 2d.

Have you heard of Goin' Downtown? Now THAT is an example of making cartoony graphics correctly in a serious story. Not this Pendulo shit...

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/goin-downtown/screenshots

No, I hadn't. Thanks for the link!

I've always thought that the Valve/Source Engine style (not TF2!) was sort of a modern example of that style.

I can totally a see Guybrush in this style.

I was going to disagree at first, but, after examining the screenshot a bit, I think you do have a point. The style is realistic without trying too hard to be so.

Larry was already going cartoony in the early 90's though.

Yeah, but he wasn't that cartoony. And he was cartoony in contrast with the rest of the world (which was more realistic looking). A distinction I am afraid this game won't keep. I would be pretty ok with 90s Larry, however.

Still, Al Lowe is in the team, so this gets me pretty optimistic. Specially if we can get the missing floppies.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, but he wasn't that cartoony. And he was cartoony in contrast with the rest of the world (which was more realistic looking). A distinction I am afraid this game won't keep.

Good point. Actually, the joke was that the men in the games tended to be cartoony, while the women were realistic.

 

[commie]

Sorry, I didn't get my point across. I was thinking exactly about this kind of game. I dunno, they are cartoony, but they miss something that was present in Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle. Maybe I just don't like 3d trying to look 2d.

No that was my fault for not understanding what you meant. Yeah that MI style is neither here nor there and looks like shit in either case. Regardless we both agree that all the other pseudo-cartoony stuff these days kind of misses the point.

Oh and regarding Goin' Downtown you should give it a go if you can *ahem* find it. It's short, easy but a nice little game and as I said, I really dig the art style in it.

Still, Al Lowe is in the team, so this gets me pretty optimistic. Specially if we can get the missing floppies.

Didn't Al once say that that was a joke regarding the missing floppies and that there never was a Larry 4 because he made a promise after the third one that he was never going to make a fourth one? By going straight to 5 he kept his promise.

I've always thought that the Valve/Source Engine style (not TF2!) was sort of a modern example of that style.

Yeah that's pretty good. It's both 'realistic' yet retains such vibrancy and color that it still cannot be anything other than a game.

 

[Alex]

No that was my fault for not understanding what you meant.(snip...)

No problem, mate!

Oh and regarding Goin' Downtown you should give it a go if you can *ahem* find it. It's short, easy but a nice little game and as I said, I really dig the art style in it.

I will certainly look for it.

Didn't Al once say that that was a joke regarding the missing floppies and that there never was a Larry 4 because he made a promise after the third one that he was never going to make a fourth one? By going straight to 5 he kept his promise.

I didn't know that! I just mentioned the missing floppies because the kickstarter mentioned them:

The team that created Leisure Suit Larry 1 has been reassembled to create a 2012 "Reloaded" version. Al Lowe, Josh Mandel, Sabine Duvall, and Leslie Balfour have teamed up with Replay Games to form what we call "The Dream Team" of adventure games. We'll be making Leisure Suit Larry 1-7 and keeping you guys informed every step of the way. If this game is successful then we can bring you guys the rest of the Leisure Suit Larry games (and maybe even Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Case Of The Missing Floppies)!

But if they do get to make new games in the old style, I will be a happy camper no matter the name.

 

[HanoverF]

He told me that they initially only planned on making a small iOS game

Cocksuckers.

Well originally it seemed like they were shooting to make a short forty minute adventure (or something like that, I forget how long Ron Gilbert said in that little pre-campaign back and forth between Schafer and him), but now they're spending more on rewards than the initial requested funding so it's become a much more ambitious project.

Anyway I was probably going to pick up the refurbishment, so I guess I'll support this.

I am shocked that 500 people want a Leisure Suit Larry condom

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Yeah, but he wasn't that cartoony. And he was cartoony in contrast with the rest of the world (which was more realistic looking). A distinction I am afraid this game won't keep.

Good point. Actually, the joke was that the men in the games tended to be cartoony, while the women were realistic.

What? That's a bunch of bull.

And Larry 7 was the best Larry too.

 

[Infinitron]

Larry 7 != early 90's

 

[Azalin]

Larry 7 != early 90's

Mid 90's actually

 

[kazgar]

I not removed from inventory box office bust yesterday to give it a spin, and was considering doing a blind LP for lulz, since it reviewed so badly.

However, after giving it a hour or so, I don't think I can continue with it, its some shitty GTA clone with jumping puzzles and having to run against timers for fetch quests.