Leisure Suit Larry is coming again!
Based on the tiny slice of anecdote represented by forum feedback, it seems like a lot of folks weren’t all that terribly interested in a return of Leisure Suit Larry, even if it was accompanied by the inestimable Al Lowe, the man who thought the whole thing up in the first place. A few people were actually flat-out against the idea; one of our users summed a surprisingly popular view by calling the game a “sleazy piece of nonsense” that was “tacky, sexist and nasty” even when it was new.
Well tough noogies to all of you, because it’s happening! More than 14,000 people ponied up a grand total of $655,182, well over the goal of $500,000. With Paypal funding added to the mix, the final, bottom-line total becomes $674,232.
That’s a lot of money for a second remake of a 25-year-old game, but in his “thank you” video, Sierra veteran Josh Mandel expressed hope that the success of this Kickstarter will signal a wider resurgence of Sierra IPs and the adventure genre in general. With the Leisure Suit Larry Kickstarter completed, Mandel encouraged donators to throw their support behind Jane Jensen’s Pinkerton Road Kickstarter and, when it happens, the Two Guys From Andromeda, who are getting back together for another Space Quest game.
“This is all sending a message to the big publishers saying, we want adventure games, we want our Sierra back, we want our characters back, we want our designers back,” he said. “We want to see a resurgence of Sierra, and we want to see it this year.”
Jensen’s Kickstarter seems to be doing well, roughly $35,000 short of its goal with 15 days remaining, and I would expect, and certainly hope, that a Space Quest Kickstarter would be at least as popular as LSL. But even if both of those efforts fail, we’ll always have Laffer. The Replay-made remake of Leisure Suit Larry is expected to be out later this year.
