You might be surprised to hear that despite his less than sunny disposition, Hector: Fat Arse of the Law is a big fan of the festive season. Yes, Hector will be the first to tell you that there is nothing quite like stuffing a game bird on Christmas morning, or roasting your nuts over an open fire.

So from all the Hector production team working on the ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’ iApp we would like to wish everyone a very Crappy Christmas and a very Merry New Year! Hector’s will certainly be very crappy and undoubtedly merry! Watch out for the launch of the iApp some time early in 2010!

As if we didn’t have enough to do with the production of our first ever point and click adventure game – ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’, we have also been shooting the Hector: Fat Arse of the Law ‘making of’ movie, as well. The movie will be a no holds barred, warts and all documentary following the production team in the Straandlooper studio as they navigate their way through the rather ambitious production of the first installment of the trilogy of ‘Badge of Carnage’ iApps.

Here we see Kevin working hard on the Apple SDK creating the ‘Tour de Force’ of gaming that will be the first Hector iApp. In these never before seen shots, you can see an exclusive first glimpse of Trampy Tim in situ in the Alley beside the Police Station. Kevin is working on deciphering the dialogue that was recorded for Trampy Tim and attempting to subtitle it. Easier said than done, as you will find out when you get the game. Trampy Tim has a rather unique tone and timbre to his voice which has to be heard to be believed.

We also captured some footage of young Ciaran Oakes working away on the Hector game. Ciaran works so fast that I am surprised that his fingers were not blurred in this image. We have had to slow the frame rate way down for any sequences including Ciaran to avoid the motion blur around his lightning quick mouse action.

On the other side of the coin, any sequences featuring animator Colin McCusker we have sped up so that you don’t have to spend too long looking at him! Only joking, Colin, you are the handsomest animator that I know! The video will feature candid shots of all the production team working on all aspects of the game, including voice record sessions, character design, animation and the all important programming and testing. The video will also feature exclusive interviews with Hector creator Dean Burke and other members of the Straandlooper team.

We will be releasing the ‘Making of’ video in the coming weeks as we come towards the end of production and get closer to the, yet to be confirmed, release date. Keep watching this space for more details.

The cinematic cut scenes that will be included in the upcoming release of the Hector: Fat Arse of the Law point and click adventure iApp – ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’ – are nearing completion. I have included a few storyboard panels here to give you a taste of what will be happening in the scenes. We were keen to make sure that the production values of the cut scenes were as high as the rest of the game, so no detail has been spared and the cut scenes promise to be an integral and extremely entertaining part of the adventure game.

The guys in the studio have done a fantastic job animating the movies that will feature in the iApp. As with everything that we do the schdules and budgets have been tight but the guys have really risen to the challenge.

I attribute a fair amount of what the guys have achieved to their innate talent, but I like to think that the continuous drip feeding of various chocolaty treats has kept the guys fueled and animating to the best of their abilities. I have to say that productivity almost doubled last week after the family size tin of Quality Street arrived. They have long since been polished off, apart from the obligatory strawberry creams that no-one wants.

The Animated cut scenes will now enter post production where we will polish the audio and tweak the animation before including it in the final game. Keep you eyes peeled for exclusive previews of the animation that will be coming soon.

It’s time to meet another thread in the rich tapestry that is the population of Clappers Wreake. Today, I would like to introduce you to a person who plays a starring role in the upcoming Hector: Fat Arse of the Law point and click adventure iApp ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’ – it’s the Clock Keeper.

The Clock Keeper, as his name suggests, looks after the town clock in Clappers Wreake. He is ex-armed forces, but this implies that he was armed at one stage, which mightn’t necessarily ever have been the case. The townfolk consider him to be as mad as a box of wasps, but what is so bad about wanting to keep the people of Clappers Wreake endowed with the correct time. Nothing, I suppose, but there is plenty wrong with a grown man sleeping with a 6 foot tall galvanized minute hand. But who am I to judge. Whatever spins your props.

Confined to his wheel chair the clock keeper whiles away his days inside the clock tower doing whatever he can to ensure that the clock runs with ex-military precision. But this being Clappers Wreake he is on a hiding to nothing trying to keep his little part of the town functionaly properly. Maybe one day he will be able to restore the clock tower to its former glory. Until then he finds comfort in the warm embrace of sweet inebriation brought about by his industrial strength moonshine that he brews inside the clock tower out of the not-so-watchful-eye of the Clappers Wreake Police Department.

Will Hector be able to resist a tipple of this tempting elixir?

Will the clock tower ever get fixed?

And will Hector manage not to shove his fist down the clock keepers throat when he starts up another story about his time in the forces?

You will have to buy the first installment of the ‘Badge of Carnage’ iApps to find out!

The other day I spotted that Adventure Gamers had given the Hector Badge of Carnage games a bit of a write up so I thought that I would share the wealth and let you all know about it.

Adventure Gamers is the premiere online destination for news, reviews and discussion relating to adventure games. Founded it 1998, it is now one of the foremost and widely respected websites about adventure games and is brought to you by an international team of editors, writers, news updaters and community moderators.

The article, entitled ‘Hector: Badge of Carnage to be flashed on iPhone in 2010′ is worth a look for those of you who are new to this blog and have not yet been indoctrinated by my constant barrage of Hector information. Click here to view the article, or click here to visit the Hector: Fat Arse of the Law website to find out a bit more about the iApp and Hector himself.

It has long been an ambition of the Straandlooper studio to move into 3D and on Friday we finally made the move with our Hector: Fat Arse of the Law property. We decided to move production of the ‘Badge of Carnage’ iApps into the third dimension.

As you can see from the above image Hector himself was the first character that we rendered in 3D. Obviously moving to a 3D pipeline will not be without its difficulties. For example we had difficulty recreating the ample girth of Hector in 3D and his chin is not meant to be quite so Men’s Health cover model, more Curry Monthly cover model. But I am sure that these are teething problems that any studio will experience when making such a dramatic change to a production this late in the day.

Special thanks must go to Ciaran Oakes who created the Hector cut-out. And a special mention also to Professor Ali McIlwain who rigourously tested out our new Hector 3D character rig by using it as target practice with the studio’s arsenal of Nerf guns.

You might have noticed that the activity on the blog has been a bit sparse lately. I can now confirm that while work in the studio on the production of ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’ has been continuing as its usual pace I have been out of the office working on the production of a different kind.

Beau Bryans is the latest addition to the Hector: Fat Arse of the Law iApp team. Our mantra here at Straandlooper has always been to spot young talent early and immerse them into a studio where they will learn so much more than they would in further education.

So Beau has already been allocated to the Animation Department and he is currently working on the cut scenes for the ‘Badge of Carnage’ game. The beauty of hiring them this young is that they never sleep so productivity should therefore be very high, although the frequent toilet breaks could become an issue. I will keep you posted as to the young man’s progress.

Here is an exclusive look at some of the animation from the upcoming release of ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’ the first of a trilogy if iApps from Straandlooper based on our adult property Hector: Fat Arse of the Law. For regular readers apologies about the continuous plugging of the App, but if you tell all of your friends about the game and then they start reading the blog I won’t feel the need to keep doing it!

This piece of animation is from a critical moment in the game where Hector has to interact with a group of yobs who are making a nuisance of themselves in Clappers Wreake. Kids, eh! As you can imagine this trio of miscreants don’t make life easy for Hector and there are a few choice words exchanged. It will be up to you the player to make sure that Hector can out-think these bozo’s. So, if you think you are up to the challenge of out-smarting these jumped up little runts then be sure to check out the game when it is launched next year.

Special thanks must go to Colin McCusker for doing such a great job of animating these ‘young adults’ with such aplomb. He has managed to beautifuilly recreate the liquid hips that he himself posseses and regualrly wows crowds with at the Groovy Train in the M-Club on Friday nights.

In preparation for the huge licensing and merchandising campaign that will undoubtedly follow the launch of the Hector: Fat Arse of the Law iApp ‘We Negotiate with Terrorists’, young Ciaran Oakes; designer extraordinaire and collector of amusing and sometimes frightening artefacts (like giant clothes pegs), has created a Hector Advent Calender for the studio.

Today was a chocolate snowflake and it was delicious. I am giddy with excitment to see what is in store for us tomorrow. As if Christmas wasn’t exciting enough already! See what you are missing Mr Bandai! I expect the phone to be ringing off the hook this afternoon now. Other items in the Hector: Fat Arse of the Law L&M pipeline are Hector Y-Fronts, Jarvis Suppositories, Lambert Prozac Tablets and Meeks ivory back-scratchers. No doubt they will be the must have gifts for Xmas 2010!

So I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone who reads the blog a very Merry Christams and a Crappy New Year.