MALTE SCHMIDT TALKS LEISURE SUIT LARRY: WET DREAMS DON'T DRY

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

Already when it was first announced it was causing controversy just on the sole premise of existing. That is, of course, a sign of the times we’re, and now Larry, is in?

That is one of the reasons we wanted to make this game. Because on the one hand it obviously needed some modernization, but on the other, the main themes of the "Larry" games are still, and maybe, even more, relevant nowadays. We put a lot of modern problems in the game which Larry has to cope with. However, the game does not want to be political, it is more like a sex comedy with a parody take on our modern society. The game doesn't take itself too seriously.

Will Larry himself be adapted to the new decade he finds himself in?

Larry would definitely be well-advised to change his behavior and adapt to modern times. But of course he won’t because that is what the character is all about, in my opinion. Larry struggles with our modern society and of course the laugh is always on Larry but we tried to make the humor more modern by putting a lot of modern stereotypes, like a wannabe influencer girl in the game. We also tried to make Larry more sympathetic. So we made his character a bit more goofy and silly. The new Larry is more forgivable.

How does Larry end up in the twenty-first century in the first place?

He just pops up there, the player gets some hints to speculate on how Larry ended up in the twenty-first century but that is not the story that the game wants to tell. It is much more about what Larry encounters during his journey and how he handles the dating scene of our modern times. I sometimes like to compare it to Austin Powers, in a way. Larry just ends up there and then it is about the situations which this misplaced character gets in.

Larry not only enters a modern world where people are more “triggered” by things. But also this dating world where it’s mainly important to use good filters and swipe left and right. Is this something you’ve added to ‘Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry’?

Yes, we got a lot of references to the modern dating scene. Larry gets his own smartphone, and a dating app called "Timber" in which he needs to gather points by dating several characters throughout the game, the player can also use this app to swipe profiles left and right.

Larry has long been voiced by Jan Rabson, just once being replaced by Jeffrey Tambor in ‘Box Office Bust’. Who's voicing Larry this time around?

Jan Rabson is of course back in action! We had some other voice actors in mind and ran some test recordings, but in the end, we decided on Jan as the voice of Larry.

Germany is known for dubbing most things. Is there another voice actor for Larry there?

Yes, we Germans are a little bit weird in that regard, and of course, we stuck to that habit. The German Larry is voiced by Philipp Moog who's also the German voice for Neil Patrick Harris in 'How I Met Your Mother'.

While on the subject of different Larry's, what made you go with this look for the character?

Since our Larry is representing the Larry from the original game from 1987 we wanted him to look more like the Larry's from the early EGA version of Larry from the three first games. Also, story-wise we pretend that the Larry in our game comes directly from the very first installment from 1987, that was particularly important because we needed his character to be as misplaced as possible in our modern times.

CrazyBunch is still fairly new as a studio, what did most of you do before that?

Before CrazyBunch some of us worked at Daedalic Entertainment, a Hamburg-based developer of point and click adventures like the 'Deponia' series.

How did the Larry franchise come your way?

We are working with German publisher Assemble Entertainment who acquired the license. From the very beginning of the project, it was part of the concept that this new Larry-game would be a classical point and click adventure. We are all huge fans of Sierra and especially the Lucas Arts adventures because those were the games we all grew up with. Although we modernized a lot in 'Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry', we wanted it to stick to some classical elements in order to appeal to the fans of the series and to a younger audience.

Can older fans still expect some references?

Yes! The game is full of references not only from other adventure games but also from general pop culture. There also might be some more elaborately hidden easter eggs.

Impossible puzzles and hard-to-find items?

There's some puzzles that can be a bit tedious if you do not get the hints from the beginning, and also some items that might be hard to spot or to obtain. But we have a hotspot indicator in the game and the player gets a lot of hints by talking to characters and by examining items and objects. So, overall, I would definitely say the puzzles are challenging but not impossible.

Have you had any creative discourse with Al Lowe, the original creator of the franchise?

We actually did not talk to Al Lowe as he's retired and handed on the torch to a newer generation, and we saw this as an opportunity to do our own take on the 'Leisure Suit Larry' franchise.

I noted that you have been developing some Virtual Reality games in the past?

(Laughs) That would be funny, we already had some ideas for this but I am not sure if this would be a good idea. Maybe as a spin-off or something.

With a November 7 date for the PC version of the game, what hope is there for console gamers?

We are evaluating options for console releases but I cannot confirm anything right now. Of course however we would love to bring Larry to consoles.