Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude Q&A Feature

Veteran computer gaming fans will fondly reminisce about the good old days when games were really exciting and innovative and with each new offering a bucket load of surprises would be unearthed. Fact is, play any game from the late 80s and you would be bored out of your skulls within 15 minutes. It was the new novelty factor that was the real fix. Sure there were some great titles but games nowadays are vastly superior on nearly every count. There are a few exceptions however and favourites high on many fans lists are the great adventure games from Sierra onâ?“line like the Kings Quest series and industry names like Roberta Williams, responsible for this and other series were cult figures. Top of the then day pops was Al Lowe who created the Leisure Suit Larry Series. It was an adventure game full of ladish humour, puzzles and clever ideas. In fact, Larry was possibly one adventure game that made the genre blockbusters. How times have changed. It was however great to hear the announcement last year that Vivendi were bringing back this great cult brand into the new millennium â?“ keeping the essence of what made the game so appealing and creating the ultimate 3D adventure series. Although the central character in Leisure Suite Larry will not be the same Larry, his nephew and namesake is now put on the spot, we were pleased to find out that the focus is to bring the same flavour, sarcasm and wacky ideas to the fore â?“ with even perhaps some womanising!

Our very own veteran and fanatical Larry fan spoke with the team to find out if Larry could hack it with a new audience!

TVG: Tell us why the publisher believed it was the perfect time to bring back Leisure Suite Larry and will you be keeping the same persona, traits, and foibles that a generation of gamers came to love in the 80s?

There is a lot of love and respect at Sierra for the point-and-click adventures of our youth. Bringing back Leisure Suit Larry was a matter of when and not if. In 2001 the president of the company put out a call for new product plans, and specifically asked for us to consider Larry. We wanted to be very careful about how we approached this, not just because of Larryâ??s sexual innuendo, but because of how some adventure games faltered in the last few years. We came up with a concept for a game that had the freedom of movement like Grand Theft Auto 3 but focused on making all the interactions funny instead of violent. Roughly at the same time we received a prototype from High Voltage forâ?¦ a new Larry game. We liked their technology, and asked if they would explore our ideas. They came back with the concept for a Larry game set in college, and we went on from there.

TVG: What input, if any, has Al Lowe had and will you use any of the old stories â?“ even as cameo references - in the new game?

While Al's work with the previous titles was certainly an inspiration, he has not been involved in this project. We definitely want to keep the flavour of the older Larry games, so that means being sexy and risqué, for sure.

TVG: How much do you believe both technology and 3D will push the character and gameplay forward and will it offer the same â??ladishâ?? off the cuff humour and adventure styled gameplay?

The decision to go to 3D was really a no-brainer. Traditional 2D adventure games are all but obsolete at this point. While 2D adventures offered a great deal in terms of story and characters, they were not generally good at immersing the player in the game world. The player had little choice in terms of where he could go and what he could look at. In our 3D world, Larry can go almost anywhere and examine almost anything. The exploration aspect takes a giant leap forward. Of course there's much more to it - 3D allows us to create all sorts of exciting mini-games that you couldn't do in 2D, as well as a whole host of additional features. People used to old adventures will recognize a lot about this game, but they will also experience much more freedom to explore and have fun in the world.

TVG: Apart from the graphical presentation what do you feel will be the most innovative feature of the game?

The Conversation engine is one of the most exciting aspects of the game. In it, the player can steer the course of a conversation by choosing what Larry says to a girl in real-time. The player chooses by steering an icon at the bottom of the screen while the conversation is going on.

TVG: Can you tell us about how the story behind the game was devised and what the overall aim for Larry will be?

Itâ??s important to mention that our game centres on Larry Lovage, who is Larry Lafferâ??s nephew. It wouldnâ??t make sense to have Larry Laffer go to college, so we needed a younger Larry. Our goal was to stick to the roots of the series and create a character that a lot of people can identify with. I think people love Larry because he isnâ??t a typical hero and things donâ??t always go his way. Weâ??ve been able to infuse a lot of character into Larry through our use of voiceover and our conversation system. There are lots of subplots going on in the game that really give the player a sense of who Larry is. I think many people will be able to identify with aspects of his personality, and others are going to love him just because of what a loser he is. Heâ??s definitely not much of a ladiesâ?? man, but that doesnâ??t mean he doesnâ??t get lucky every once in a while. I expect people will really enjoy getting to know Larry Lovage as they play through the game.

TVG: The Sierra games, as well as Larry, were full of strange and straightforward puzzles. Have you tried to change this aspect of the game and please will you give us an insight into one of the puzzles â?“ quandaries that will present themselves?

For Magna Cum Laude, we've shied away from the puzzles you'd expect to find in a traditional adventure game. While puzzles can certainly be fun, they are often frustrating and annoying. We've replaced a lot of puzzle elements with arcade-style mini-games. For example, if Larry needs a drink to give to the girl you're hitting on, you go to the bar and play a game where Larry mixes the drink, rather than searching high and low for the individual ingredients and combining items in your inventory to make it.

TVG: Who are you aiming the game at, in terms of audience, and will it offer adult humour?

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is a game for adults. While we have not received a rating from the ESRB we do expect to get a â??Mâ?? rating and we are creating a game for age 17 and up. We know for a fact that there are plenty of adults who own consoles.

TVG: Can you pinpoint any reason why the adventure game genre has almost died when it was once so popular? Has the audience grown up and become tired of computer games or did they want more sophistication and ideas?

Games and gamers have grown far more sophisticated since the last Larry adventure. Older Larry adventures focused on solving obscure puzzles and navigating dialogue trees. While keeping the spirit of the game the same, weâ??re implementing totally new ways to interact with people and the environment, and giving players the freedom to explore a whole college campus in 3D. What this results in is a living environment thatâ??s less like a 2D adventure, and more like... real life. The game is less linear and more responsive to the player than classic adventure games.

TVG: Is there a long-term goal for Larry and is this a kind of test to see how successful it will be?

We would like to continue to make and see Larry games beyond the Magna Cum Laude title. Weâ??re extremely excited about how things are coming together. We have a really funny game on our hands, itâ??s just a matter of putting it all together and making sure it meets the high expectations of Larry fans, old and new.

TVG: What are some of the locations within the game and will there be lots of deep and detailed characters to interact with and are any taken from real life characters? Tell us about one of your favourites and why?

At the core of the game, you can wander around the world, exploring the environments, interacting with all sorts of different characters, and getting Larry into trouble. We've created many of the locations you might expect to find on a college campus or in a college town, and each of those locations is full of funny stuff to check out. A big part of our game is the conversation system, in which Larry talks with a girl, and the player controls what Larry says in real time. Rather than using the sort of branching dialogue trees you'd find in old adventure games, the player steers a little icon at the bottom of the screen. If you steer it properly, Larry will say some dumb stuff, but the girl will like him enough to keep their relationship going. If you steer wrong, Larry is likely to say some really idiotic things, and the girl will blow him out. The end result is that the player gets to participate in lots of funny interactions. It's a lot of fun and far better than watching dull cut-scenes to get the story. I'd definitely say that the humour really sets it apart from what people have seen before in video games.

THANK YOU

TVG will hopefully be back with more on this game very soon�����..