Within the book is an in-depth and detailed 16 page story about the unreleased Burnt Out Cop by Infinite Lives. We spoke to Dan Malone, John Rowlands, Mitchell Goodwin, Nick Lee, Robin Ellis and Steve Rowlands about the cancelled development, and what seemed to be shaping up to be a fantastic arcade action title, inspired by films such as Hard Boiled and Die Hard.
Investing a lot of their own money into the initial development, things moved over to HotGen Studios, where the team expanded and the game even caught the interest of SEGA at one point. The title was to unfortunately get caught up in IP hell when HotGen hit financial troubles, and with the high buy out value of the IP – no other publisher/development team would go near it, leaving the ambitious and promising title to sadly gather dust.
Thankfully the IP was sold back to the original group for £1 back in 2016 as a gesture of goodwill, so could we some day see something happen with the title, or its protagonist Harry Ran?
Whilst doing our research, we were provided a number of character assets from artist Nick Lee which haven’t been seen before until now and didn’t all make it to print.
In addition to this, we had pulled together screenshots from various concepts and from the design document which has been out there for some time, ready to include in the book. You can find those we didn’t use below, including the full design document too. If you like what you have read and seen, then please do check out the book and the full story on the game and its development.
Also, Dan Malone has recently started selling high quality hand signed giclee prints of his work – which you can check out at https://danmalone-art.com/
An early cover art example, showing the main character and game title text.
Various model renders of some of the characters by Nick Lee, including the Fish Gutter, Molester, Dark Stranger, Dock Worker and the lead character himself. This is Harry Ran himself.
Gunman render by Nick Lee
Dock worker render by Nick Lee
Gutter character render by Nick Lee
Molester character render by Nick Lee
Alternatve view of Molester character, rendered by Nick Lee.
Dark Stranger render by Nick Lee
Dark Stranger render by Nick Lee
Weapons render by Nick Lee
Weapons render by Nick Lee
Dark Stranger art by Dan Malone
Dockyard characters by Dan Malone
Dockyard characters by Dan Malone
Dockyard characters by Dan Malone
Harry Ran by Dan Malone
Various character profile work by Dan Malone.
Harry pointing a gun – by Dan Malone
Drawing of Harry from various sides by Dan Malone.
Characters and fighting moves by Dan Malone.
Brothers of the Leaf characters by Dan Malone – first of 3 images.
The Femme Fetale characters, first of 4 images by Dan Malone.
Bar scene of all the characters, by Dan Malone
Bar scene of all the characters, by Dan Malone
Fighting moves in the game, sketched by Dan Malone..
Movement example sketch by Dan Malone.
Storyboard of one of the scenes by Dan Malone.
Map of the game, as detailed in the Game Design Document, and a more detailed Dock Yard level map, showing how the area would have broken up into different stages, such as the Dock-Front, Fish Packing Factory and the final Fish Market chase scene. By Dan Malone.
More detailed zoom of one of the level maps, showing the break down.
Closer zoom of one of the dockyard scenes. The Dock Front – by Dan Malone.
Closer zoom of one of the dockyard scenes. The Fish packing area – by Dan Malone.
Closer zoom of one of the dockyard scenes. Factory offices – by Dan Malone.
Chase scene mock up – by Dan Malone.
Mock up scenes (1 of 2) showing how standoffs with enemies would have looked and felt.
Mock up showing how the dock front scene would look rendered.
Capture from promotional video.
Capture from promotional video.
Capture from promotional video.
Grabs from an early X-box development build of the game, obtained by Logi26 and recorded. This shows early prototype titles, control options, very early part of the Dockyard and Fish Packing factory, with some rendered enemies (minus interaction). First of 8 videos – link to video can be found above.
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