Leisure Suit Larry is a series that I’ve only experienced indirectly. I’ve seen full playthroughs of two of the games (Shape Up or Slip Out and Magna Cum Laude, for those wondering), but I’ve never played any of the games myself. For those unfamiliar with the series, they star a sleazy man clad in a white leisure suit named Larry whose primary goal in life is to hook up with beautiful women, usually through a delicate process consisting primarily of lying, endearing yourself to them with gifts, and esoteric adventure game puzzle-solving. The original series of games were point-and-click adventure games developed by the venerable Sierra Entertainment, with the two more recent spin-off games (Magna Cum Laude and Box Office Bust) 3D adventure games by different developers. Now there’s a new game under development, titled Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry, going back to the original point-and-click gameplay style, albeit with modern refinements. I didn’t get to play the game at PAX, but I got the chance to sit down with the game’s director as he walked me through their current build.
The game’s visual style is all hand-drawn, a more natural evolution from the older games’ pixel art than the 3D graphics of the spin-offs. Larry himself has been redesigned to have more realistic proportions and match the other characters in the game (something the game references indirectly), and the story revolves around him being transported forward in time from his home time of the 80s to the modern era. It follows him as he needs to catch up with the changes in dating, trends, and technology, keeping true to his character from the old games and dumping him directly into the modern world.
Players will have access to a smartphone Larry is given near the start of the game, able to use apps such as the social networks Farcebook and Instacrap, as well as the dating app Timber. Certain parts of the story will be told through cut-scenes resembling Instagram stories in the Instacrap app, and the main thrust of the story involves Larry needing to reach a certain score on Timber in order to get with Faith, the woman he falls in love with at the start of the game. The dating, as one might expect, will involve plenty of the aforementioned esoteric adventure game puzzle-solving, similar to the older games. According to the developer, there’s over a hundred items to find, likely leading to some very strange ways that they need to be used and/or combined.
While I’ve never personally been a fan of Leisure Suit Larry or Sierra’s games in general, mainly because they were somewhat before my time, this will likely be exciting for the fans out there who have been waiting for something new. The director described himself and his team as fans of the classic Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games, and they hope to deliver something that lives up to that legacy. The game is set for release on Steam on November 7 of this year, and the team wants to release it on consoles as well but there’s no official confirmation on that.
