Where has he come from? Why has he decided to use A5 for his project? The mysterious Azrael Dark has agreed to answer the questions for this interview.

Q: I saw some of your screenshots and I must ask: how many guys are in your team?

A: One guy, me. As yet there is no JT development team. I'm still doing it alone.

Q: Can you tell us a few words about Josef's Tear's story?

A: The story line follows an 18th century priest in training. He is sent by his superiors to an unknown town after hearing reports of a little girl capable of performing miracles. Once there he soon realizes that the force behind the girl is not divine but something else. He tries to flee but he soon discover that an innocent child is still somewhere inside her body. In the end the priest succeeds; however the episode repeats itself once again, this time in the present day.

Q: What tool were you using before A5 and why have you decided to switch to A5?

A: In the beginning JT was designed on an engine called Embrace. Graphically this was a good engine but it's a closed source platform, forcing users to use predefined function scripts. You can't write a new camera system or a new interface or even program some new graphical effects. Obviously it was much too limited, so I switched the engine. Not wanting to develop a new engine myself I found an open source 3D engine called JET3D. It had great graphical and technical possibilities. I worked on JET3D for most of the two years of JT development time. However JET3D was a beta engine, with many essential components still missing. And without those functions JET3D was basically just a world editor with knobs on. JET3D original developer ran out of funds and had to sell the technology to another company, who initially promised to continue to develop the engine but has since lost interest. Finally I have decided to choose A5.

Q: Do you use high portal count levels? What number of portals do you recommend for a medium sized level?

A: Initially the Monastery level had a 15000 portal count. With the help of the guys at Conitec's forum, I finally managed to cut it down to 7500. If you've got a super high end system and you're sure your target audience also has a similarly high end system you can have a level with really high portal count and vice versa.

Q: What tools are you using for your textures, models and sounds?

A: For models I use MAX R3 for animation I used Character Studio R3. For skins and textures I use a combination of Deep Paint 3D, PhotoShop and Neopaint. And various other freeware utilities and applications - all of which I provide for free to everyone, posted on the main page at Darkcreations.cjb.net. As for sound, I know next to nothing about creating them. Fortunately I've enlisted a sound and music artist to the team I'm forming.

Q: Is JT a commercial project? What do you plan to do with it in the near future?

A: JT is targeted as a commercial project. It has attracted a small amount of commercially viable interest, particularly from Sierra. But it's still too early to take that as a fact. And not wanting to say too much, JT might still switch to another 3D Engine. If that happens the JT project will effectively be owned by that engine's creator.

Q: I'm sure that many A5 users would like to hear a few level design tips from you; can you share them with us?

A: The method I use is: I never create objects with large blocks. I use a lot of small brushes to build things, kind of like using bricks to build houses in real life. Also a good thing to do to create great looking houses is to actually build a frame (wooden frame) first, then fill the frame with small brushes (bricks). Never use CSG Subtract to create doors or windows, build those with brushes. Use detail brush or use my method, which is to create any irregular brush such as uneven grounds, bent poles, tilted houses, mounds and things in Worldcraft then import those into WED as prefab. Then ungroup to texture them and place those in your levels.

Q: What do you like and what needs to be added - in your opinion - to the engine in the future?

A: I like the fact that a total A5 beginner can produce environments like those in my shots in less then two months. And I also like WDL, since I can't acquire the SDK. What I would like to see is a total revision of MED. Skeletal animation utilities would be nice. As well as larger support of import format. Support for smoothing group and material level two-sided plane. I would also like an increase in lighting and shadow quality. However these points come from the perspective of a 'Extra Edition' user.

Q: So when can we expect to play a JT demo?

A: Well, a demo to potential commercial partners can be expected quite soon, but a public release demo will not be made available for quite some time unfortunately. Not until I've got some programmers, modelers, animators, texture artist and level designers. Right now I'm doing all of those things as well as handling PR.

Thank you.