So the new “Leisure Suit Larry” that I am writing was announced …

When a new “Leisure Suit Larry” title was listed on Steam a few days ago without being announced properly some people thought it was just another bundle or some marketing stunt. Actually, it was just a glitch.

Some people thought that this could mean that a new instalment of the series is being developed.

Some commentators on the gaming news sites even had inside info:

So get ready to hear something about a new game on the way sometime during E3, because we can’t think of another time someone would try to announce this game.

Haha, sure.

The 3rd instalment of the “German Dev Days” took place at the end of May. Since all German gaming conferences like Quo Vadis in Berlin and Devcom in Cologne are international and in English, the GDD is all German (I know what you’re thinking and I can confirm that beer is being served early on). Assemble Entertainment, based in Wiesbaden, is organizing the event. The opening of this year’s conference ended with this teaser:

Assemble Entertainment is also publishing this game. What a lucky coincidence!

Thus ended months of secrecy.

And we didn’t even need any number of Es for that.

Reactions to the leak a few days earlier had been a foretaste to the actual announcement. Usually I don’t see much about things that I am involved with when I scroll through my usual Facebook or Twitter feed. This time it was different.

Personally, I had expected the whole range of feedback, but to see it condensed in your own feed was intense, to be honest.

Yeah, I know. THAT is not subtle. And not even historically correct!

There were many positive and encouraging reactions, and there was some negative feedback. I think the latter was due to the fact that no one had any idea who’s behind this game. I’d like to shed some light on that below.

But the #1 question was:

Is Al Lowe involved?

Short answer: no, he isn’t. He’s officially retired. We’re making up painful jokes all on our own.

(At least I may have absorbed some of his aura, because I had the honor of meeting Al at the 2013 “Quo Vadis” conference in Berlin, where I moderated a panel with him, Charles Cecil, Poki and Jan Theysen about Adventures.)

Is that some money grab with a popular licence?

In other words: Will this be some collection of bad mini games? No, this will be a classic Adventure of the pointy clicky kind. Crazy idea in this day and age, right? Too bad that we all love that kind of stuff.

Wait, is that ANOTHER remake?

Real nerds know that the original “Larry” was kind of a graphical update of “Softporn Adventure”. Look, we were tempted to make another remake just to have an excuse to reenact the cover of said text adventure, but our game is completely new. Yes, Lefty’s is back (again), but that’s it.

But … shouldn’t this sexist guy just be buried and forgotten? How can you possibly endorse the actions of such a slimeball?

I think some negativity to the accouncement stems from the fact that is was just that — an announcement with just a few screens. Of course, this is just a glimpse how the final game will come across. I think it’s safe to say that Larry won’t get away with his shitty behaviour unscathed. We are more than aware of the fact that we live in the 21st century. :)

Germans don’t have any humour.

Well, I can’t argue with science.

So, who exactly is developing this game?

There even is a production baby. Purely for research purposes, of course.

The developer is Crazybunch from Hamburg. The company name is just a red herring. They all lead double lives. When night comes they turn into accountants, brokers and attorneys.

Feel free to follow some team members on Twitter:

Crazybunch / Maurice / Noody / Irina / JoLott / Heiner

I am not in this picture. Please choose one of the reasons below:

• I am not sexy enough.
• I am the guy who took the picture.
• I live far away from Hamburg in some forest.
• I actually AM in the picture, I’m just very hard to spot.

Follow me on my German or English Twitter account to find out!

And who are YOU exactly?

Hi, I’m Falko, I am 44 years old. I’m a writer and translator, mainly working on games for the last 20 years (the recent 15 as a freelancer). Concerning Adventures: I had the pleasure of working with Deck13 on the Ankh and Jack Keane series. Recently I helped shaping the backstory of Everspace and worked on the German text in Anno 2205. I’ve translated a huge amount of games into German, the biggest of those projects was Kingdom Hearts II, the funniest was Sam & Max Season 2. One of my fantasy novels (I’ve written eight books) has been adapted as Hidden Object Game by Daedalic. A few days ago my latest novel translation was released.

What I want to say is: this is not my first rodeo.

This underground club will be the scene of … ah, you will see.

In Conlusion (for now)

The game is already on Steam. Now even officially. Its release is planned for Q4 this year.

We know that some material in the game may be deemed offensive by some people (on the other hand: well, what do you expect from a Larry game :D ). Some of our jokes will miss their targets. But we won’t be edgy or offensive, just to BE edgy or offensive. Our goal is to make a modern, fun game that sometimes makes you groan I can’t believe they really did this, but at the same time we hope that you can laugh about yourself and about the crazy time we live in just as much as you can laugh about Larry.