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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 30</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
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              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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        <p align="center"><img src="../../images/cover1.30_sml.jpg" width="240" height="309" align="middle" hspace="4"></p>
        <p align="center"><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">Chillin' 
          WIth Jason Hall<br>
          </font><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"> 
          </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
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          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
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        <p><img src="../../images/letters/f.jpg" width="26" height="40" align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
          ew people can claim to have tangled with Microsoft and come out on top...not 
          only has Monolith managed to sever its ties with the evil empire, but 

          in the process they managed to set themselves up as a self-publisher 
          in an ever-condensing industry. Add to that the fact that they internally 
          developed and released two first person action titles while the engine 
          itself was actually being written. Pretty impressive indeed. We caught 
          up with Monolith CEO Jason Hall to find out just how the heck they managed 
          to do it.</font></p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How was Monolith started? 
          </font></b></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Many of the board members 
          at Monolith worked at development houses before Monolith. While we enjoyed 
          making children's software at Edmark, we desired to have their own freedom 
          and create games themselves would play. The original members started 
          a "demo crew", one thing led to another, and Monolith the company was 
          born.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>One of your first projects 
          was actually the original Windows game demo frontend...how did that 
          come about?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm...this is a long story, 
          but the 5 cent version is this: Monolith (while at Edmark) was really 
          into the European "demo scene"... We were duly impressed with the skills 
          that were being displayed whenever we saw those cool little "demos" 
          in action. The "demos" that were being made at the time were coming 
          from groups like the Future Crew, etc. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Every year some of these 
          groups would come together somewhere in Finland for a competition (to 
          see who REALLY had it goin' on) that was called "ASSEMBLY". "ASSEMBLY 
          '94" was coming up and we wanted to do a kick ass demo CD and compete. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The competition in Finland 
          was going to be tough, so we had to figure some special way for us to 
          stand out and win. We thought that the best way of doing this was to 
          make our demo using Windows 3.1. At the time, Windows was notorious 
          for being incredibly slow and cumbersome, so ANYTHING written under 
          Windows that graphically looked good and moved fast was considered to 
          be a fairly impressive programming accomplishment. A new technology 
          for Windows called "Win-G" had recently emerged, and with that we felt 
          that we could pull off some neat stuff and possibly win. Anyhow, (long 
          story short) we made the "Monolith CD" and we planned on entering the 
          competition. Before that could happen, we received a call from Microsoft. 
          Apparently, after we finished the "Monolith CD" a copy somehow found 
          its way into hands at Microsoft. They where very interested in what 
          we had done with Windows and soon we where working on the Microsoft 
          Game Sampler CD and later the Game Sampler 2 CD. This was the start 
          of our working with Microsoft and DirectX.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Why the split with Microsoft?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Simple. Monolith and Microsoft 
          had different visions with regard to Shogo's development. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>It would appear that as 
          soon as you split with Microsoft, you immediately went into self-publishing. 
          Was there any desire on your part to shop Shogo (then Riot) around to 
          other publishers, or were you set on publishing it yourself? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We were very confident that 
          <b>Shogo</b> would aid Monolith in reaching its long-term goals. We 
          had the opportunity to publish <b>Shogo</b> ourselves and we took it! 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Do you think self-publishing 
          is a viable option for a startup game developer, or are we a few years 
          away from that being a reality? (Or, of course, do you think it will 
          never be a reality at all.) </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here is how I see it: self-publishing 
          is a difficult thing to do and is very expensive. I would not recommend 
          it to everyone. Although it does open up more opportunities for your 
          company in general, those increased options come with much greater risk. 
          Fortunately, I think that as bandwidth goes up and ESD becomes more 
          commonplace startup developers will have more publishing options available 
          to them. From my point of view, technically, ANY startup developer could 
          self-publish, but having the necessary resources to do so is not an 
          easy thing to achieve (IMHO).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Does Monolith have any 
          plans to expand into consoles? Are there any ports of your games in 
          the works? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Monolith is filled with talented 
          people and great 3D technologies. I must say that the new console systems 
          look pretty interesting...Monolith may have some surprises in the future! 
          We will see...</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How about Mac/Linux/BeOs 
          ports? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Boy, you just want me to 
          give away all the good info huh...? No comment! What I will say is that 
          LithTech is an ever expanding 3D Game operating system (engine) and 
          Monolith is dedicated to maximizing its potential. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Why the decision to publish 
          other developer's work? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Monolith is the little guy 
          out there who was given a small chance to make it. We are doing the 
          best that we can on all fronts, and when an opportunity presents itself 
          for Monolith to aid/publish/promote another developers work (and it 
          makes financial sense for us) we will do it. Also it is important for 
          us as a new publisher to have a reasonable amount of products continuously 
          moving through our new channels/relationships. We will only do this 
          with kick ass titles that we feel we can best serve and promote. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b> Do you see Monolith becoming 
          the sort of giant publishing empire that GT Interactive, Activision 
          and others have become, or are your plans to always remain a smaller, 
          more independent publisher? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Right now it's not our plan 
          to be a huge publisher. We have found a comfortable position in being 
          a small publisher, self-publisher and just developer - BUT - you never 
          know what the future may hold!</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How many outside-developed 
          games will Monolith be publishing this year? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Looks like two this year. 
          <b>Septerra Core</b> and <b>Odium</b>. </font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Illustration &copy; 1999 Michael Krahulik. This interview is &copy; 1999 
        Jason Bergman &amp; Jason Hall. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it...or we'll give you a publishing deal with Microsoft. Muhahahahah. 
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