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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
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      <td width="62%" height="936" align="left" valign="top"> 
        <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 
          Jason &quot;<a href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You actually had two games 
          in development simultaneously, not to mention the engine, and you still 
          shipped on time. What's your secret? Whips? Chains? Cheezy poofs? </font></b></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The doors only work one way, 
          you walk in and can't leave (joke). The real reason is the people. We 
          have many talented people that work very hard to make sure we stay on 
          target. One thing that I feel proud to say is that Monolith has never 
          SLACKED OFF. We have made mistakes, yes, and from those we continue 
          to learn from - but - I can honestly look any gamer in the eye and tell 

          them that Monolith has given them a 110% effort on its products from 
          the very beginning! </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We have learned (and continue 
          to learn) many valuable lessons during our productions. From bugs, to 
          patches, to .plan files, etc., we have made many realizations and have 
          furthered our resolve to serve the game community the best we can. Monolith 
          is now a very experienced developer with the many scars to prove it. 
          We are taking the knowledge that we have gained and are using it to 
          make even better products, and even a more satisfying gaming experience. 
          Monolith has always appreciated the support it has received, and will 
          continue to work hard for the game community.</font></p>
        <p> </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Why was the name changed 
          to Shogo so far into the game's development? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Trademark issues.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are there any plans for 
          a Shogo sequel at the moment, or is that still up in the air? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">No comment. Super-top-secret. 
          What I can say is that we aren't working on anything at this time but 
          we plan to continue the <b>Shogo</b> universe.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Any plans for an in-house 
          mission pack? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nope.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Have we seen the last 
          of the Shogo patches, or are there still tweaks to be made? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are some small fixes 
          that are still being looked at. The high-ping problem that occurs on 
          a single modem is still being tracked down. For the most part, there 
          will be no more major patches.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Blood 2 has noticeably 
          less smooth internet play from Shogo...is this because of changes in 
          the game's engine that are specific to Blood 2, or is it just that you're 
          still working out the kinks? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Blood 2</b>, the game 
          rather then the engine itself, does many things different then <b>Shogo</b> 
          for multiplayer. We will continue to support <b>Blood 2</b> just as 
          we have with our other products. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What's new in the Blood 
          2 add-on pack? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Two new weapons: Combat Shotgun 
          and Flayer. New models: Male Cultists, Soul Drudge, Prophet and Female 
          Cultist. Levels: 6 new single player, 6 new multi-player. And much much 
          more!</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Has development started 
          on Blood 3 yet? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nope. GT Controls this.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are there any lines from 
          <i>Army of Darkness</i> that haven't been used in a Blood game yet? 
          :) </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Blood used lines from <i>Army 
          of Darkness</i>??? </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>You've mentioned before 
          that the possibility exists for a joint Shogo/Blood 2 mod where weapons 
          and models could be freely used between the games...any plans for a 
          Monolith-developed crossover level? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are many things that 
          can be done with <b>Shogo</b>/<b>Blood 2</b>. Monolith wishes to give 
          the opportunity to the users and mod community. This is why we decided 


          to release the source code of the games and the engine tools. There 
          are no plans for official mod releases from Monolith, but the <b>Blood 
          2</b> source will be released soon. Once it is released, it should be 
          fairly straightforward for anyone wanting to do the crossover. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually I believe I saw 
          something about this on the net (a Mod group doing a mod called "LithWars" 
          I think).</font></p>
        <p> </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How many LithTech licenses 
          are out there right now? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Most of our licensee announcements 
          are under an NDA, so I can't give you specifics on all the licenses. 
          I will confirm that there are at least 5 though (not counting what you 
          listed below). Please remember that we try to limit our number of licensees 
          to the maximum number of licensees we can support at any one time. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Care to comment on some 
          of them? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">No comments from me on them. 
          It's better to ask the developers themselves! We try to keep a lid on 
          this sort of thing. We take engine licensing as a very serious business 
          and treat it as such. It is important for us to respect our licensees 
          confidentiality. I WILL say that there is no shortage of interest.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What's planned for the 
          next version of the LithTech engine?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Heh heh heh! I can't tell 
          you that - YET! :) </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We will be giving a private 
          "back room" showing of LithTech 2.0 at E3. At that time we will unveil 
          to the invited press what our engine team has been busting its ass on 
          all this time. Seats are extremely limited to this event.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Is the engine modular? 
          Could these new features be worked into previously released games? (IE: 
          Shogo with true bump-mapping, etc.) </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The engine is highly modular 
          with a very advanced design. It is our goal to always make future additions 
          as backward compatible as possible.</font></p>
        <p> </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Regarding Sanity: this 
          game looks to be way out there, dude. What were you guys on when you 
          came up with the concept for this thing? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The design for <b>Sanity</b> 
          is very abstract along with the Monolith humor people have seen in our 
          past games. <b>Sanity</b> is the design work of Aaron St.John and the 
          rest of the <b>Sanity</b> team.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What was the genesis of 
          the project? Were you inspired by any particular game/movie/comic? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are many influences 
          for <b>Sanity</b>. An old board game called <b>WizWar</b> combined with 
          the style of Tim Burton's <i>Beetlejuice</i> would be the two biggest 
          influences. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What's the current planned 
          release date for Sanity? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Winter 1999 </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Since the game is LithTech, 
          will it be possible to use pieces from previously released games in 
          Sanity, or is the engine too modified? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes you could use some of 
          the content from other LithTech titles. However since we are doing many 
          new things with the game and engine you would need to make some changes 
          for things to work correctly. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The bizarre nature of 
          Sanity is pretty much a testament to how versatile the LithTech engine 
          actually is. Is it proving a major challenge to do the sort of interface 
          changes that you're implementing for the game, or is the engine designed 
          from the ground up to allow such modification? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Showing the controllable 
          top-down view perspective and the huge fully 3D talents really shows 
          the power of the engine. The other important factor is how quickly we 
          implemented these. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Got any unreleased screenshots 
          lying around? ;) </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yep, here you go: </font></p>
        <p align="center"><a href="sanity01.php"><img src="sanity_thumb.jpg" width="192" height="154" alt="click for fullsize image!" border="0"></a></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Thanks Jason! Check out 
          all the Monolith goodness at <a href="http://www.lith.com">http://www.lith.com</a>!</b></font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><i><font size="-1">- 
          Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman is the editor-in-chief here at <b>loonygames</b>. 
          He's really dang tired.</font></i></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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    <td> 
      <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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