Al Lowe, Replay turn to crowdfunding for Leisure Suit Larry remake

Social game developer Replay Games and legendary designer Al Lowe have launched a Kickstarter project to crowdfund their remake of the original Leisure Suit Larry game with cash from fans. This effort follows several high-profile Kickstarter projects from veteran developers -- Tim Schafer and Double Fine raised over $3.3 million from fans to create a new adventure game, and Brian Fargo and InXile have picked up nearly $2 million to make Wasteland 2. "We want to do it without any pesky publishers telling us to dumb it down or to make it tamer so we can get it into Wal-Mart," says Lowe. "We want to give you what you've been asking for, a return to the one true Larry." Lowe and Replay, who are working with Israeli mobile studio Adventure Mob on the title, are looking to raise $500,000 to create a "Reloaded" version of Sierra On-Line's seminal adventure title Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. The Unity 3D-powered remake of the 25-year-old game will release for Windows and tablets, with updated high-resolution graphics, a modern point-and-click/touchscreen interface, fully voiced characters, and more. It's intended to release on Steam and with standalone DRM-free copies. When Replay announced that it had acquired the Leisure Suit Larry license last year, it said that this remake for the first game would release in Q4 2012, and that it plans to put out HD versions for other releases in the series. Along with Lowe, Replay has brought in several other Sierra On-Line adventure game veterans like Josh Mandel, Sabine Duvall, and Leslie Balfour to work on the project. If Replay manages to collect more than $500,000 in pledges over the next four weeks, it will put the extra money toward fully localized voiceovers, ports to other platforms (e.g. XBLA, PSN, Mac, iPhone, Android, etc.), a new soundtrack recorded by a live orchestra, and more additions to the game. To encourage fans, Replay is offering a variety of rewards to contributors, including alpha/beta testing access, cameos in the game, and even a weekend trip to Las Vegas with Lowe and Mandel. The campaign has so far raised over $16,000.