by EpaminondasThis year, the Tibia Wiki team interviewed Teyrata, member of game content team! In this interview she talks a bit about real life, its completed projects and upcoming works! Good read.
Tibia Wiki: Hauopa, Teyrata! We believe it’s your first interview for a fansite, thank you for accepting it and for finding some time to talk with Tibia Wiki!
Teyrata: My pleasure!
Tibia Wiki: So would you mind sharing some more info about you such as your name, age, hobbies, quirks, what did you study and so on.
Teyrata: Name: Daniela, aged 32. Quirks: I like to mix comic and antiquated expressions in my daily speech and to act out or paraphrase stuff I heard. Studied: Sciences of Theatre and Cultural Communication. Hobbies: Painting and writing, games, cinema and theatre, travelling, yoga.
Tibia Wiki: What does the name Teyrata mean?
Teyrata: No meaning in any existing language that I am aware of; if there is any meaning I would like to see attached to this name, it would be “Honeycrow”, which would have been her clan name.
Tibia Wiki: What did you do before joining CipSoft? How did you start working at the company?
Teyrata: At the end of my studies, it became clear to me I would like to work in the game industry even if I had not studied Game Design. Because I’m fluent in several European languages, I began working as a Community Manager for an MMO for a few years before applying for Content Design at Cipsoft.
Tibia Wiki: How, when and why did you notice your interest in games? Did you know Tibia before working at CipSoft?
Teyrata: My interest in games started early, thanks to my elder brother who let me play on his computer now and then, and I fell in love with the old LucasArts adventures, with Jump ‘n Runs and RPGs, and still am. I already knew Tibia from attending several game conventions; and when the job was posted, I applied, as this was an ideal opportunity to work on the dev side. And I got lucky.
Tibia Wiki: Nowadays, do you still play Tibia?
Teyrata: Yes, I do.
Tibia Wiki: If yes, can you tell us your level, vocation and favorite city?
Teyrata: That’s difficult, actually! I have different chars on a few worlds, and depending on my mood, today I might prefer to level my paladin, tomorrow go hunting hydras with my sorc, and next week maybe I’ll be underway questing and exploring as a druid… you get the picture. 😉 It’s similar for the cities and locations; I love exploring Tibia and I like the different flavours of the cities, islands, and dungeons – the tropical flair of Liberty Bay and Port Hope, the ambiance in Ab’Dendriel and decadent Venore, the fair city of Darashia… and I like to pass through Thais, Carlin and Edron, and Svargrond. It really depends on the day where I go (or where I had to cut off exploring and go to bed).
Tibia Wiki: In game, it’s possible separate your experience while a player from the professional way?
Teyrata: I’d say that’s a “yes and no”, because I always try to be aware of the original design intention behind a quest or monster while I play, and how they actually feel while I play them; so the player experience and analysing happens almost simultaneously. So yes, many times I can see what was “meant to work THIS way” and still see that “actually, it rather feels THAT way right now”.
Tibia Wiki: Which stories and mysteries of the Tibia do you like most and why? Which of them do you get more intrigued?
Teyrata: That’s also not easy to answer, because I like very different things for very different reasons, and there’s still so much to explore (with 17 years of Tibia, I have a lot of history to catch up on)! However, I enjoy talking with NPCs and find out about their quirky ways, or to discover little easter eggs hidden in a dungeon somewhere. I like stumbling upon allusions to pop culture and similar (turtles and green slime, cowabunga!).
Ingame, I discovered Beregar by surprise. I love moments such as this one. So if I had to choose a favourite mystery or quest, I could never decide. However, I can name one or two that stuck with me because of their special character: “Kissing A Pig” and the “Dreamer’s Challenge Quest” – I had much fun doing both, and loved the surreal ambiance of the Dream Realm.
Tibia Wiki: In your opinion, without considering bots, what are the biggest problems in Tibia? What has been done to correct these problems?
Teyrata: Without going into any particulars, I think that Tibia is a grown game, so it has a very complex character. Some potential problems come with that. We try to be aware of problems and fix them as soon as possible. Some changes need to come incrementally, though, or they depend on some more fundamental changes happening first, which then needs a lot of thorough planning before we can start on them. There are a lot of things we’re looking into and working on.
Tibia Wiki: As a player, what would you like to change/implement in Tibia? And as a content designer? Do you believe, in a near future, will be possible to do them?
Teyrata: There are some things of very different proportion that I would like to look into to see if they could be tweaked or changed; but I cannot go into any detail, as I can’t make any promises and don’t want to raise any expectations, so please bear with me. 🙂
Tibia Wiki: What was the most noob thing you ever did as a player? And as content designer?
Teyrata: As a player, I certainly did the classic thing: I died and then did not have a rope with me when I went into a dungeon, so I had to call a friend to rope me up. That’s one noob thing I remember, but I’ve certainly done more noob things like that. 🙂
As a content designer, I once forgot to separate a dragon lair from the next city because I didn’t know at that time that there was a dragon lair there and that you could lure the monsters that far. Fortunately, this flaw showed up on the test servers, so I had ample time to fix that before the content went live.
Tibia Wiki: Now we know a bit more about you, we would like to know about your assignments. What is the daily routine of a Tibia Content Designer? To be a good game content designer is necessary…?
Teyrata: Normally, it’s a mix of different tasks you have to do each day: fixing bugs, working out a concept for an update or revamp existing content, or balancing stuff. A typical morning starts with getting yourself a coffee and then going through your mails and notifications to see what’s the most important thing to do – a bug to fix, a deadline to meet for a concept or for new content to be delivered so it can be tested, a planning or feedback meeting to attend, etc. Then you go through your different tasks and try to complete them all.
Tibia Wiki: What are your sources of inspiration for content creation? What do you do when you feel “blocked”?
Teyrata: Well, it depends! If it’s a known theme, like for example necromancers, I like to draw on myths and other cultural heritage for background inspiration. I try to think of the new setting in Tibia and then write down ideas and flesh them out. Of course, checking up on what’s already in Tibia so as to keep in line with the lore is very important too, or Knightmare would have my guts for garters. If I feel stuck, I do other things that need doing or read up on other stuff so as to get my mind round the problem, and then continue to work on it.
Tibia Wiki: At CipSoft, did you participated or participate in any other projects than those related to Tibia? Tell us a bit about other projects, if they were successful or not and what did you learn with them.
Teyrata: At the moment, my sole focus is Tibia. I’ve only participated in another project once, conceptualising content functionalities for a colleague’s pitch, but the idea was not pursued past the conceptual stage. However, if there’s time, sometime in the future I might participate again in other projects.
Tibia Wiki: What was your first project in Tibia? What was the most motivated you? Any special one, that you can say “my baby”?
Teyrata: The first project in which I was involved was the Venore revamp, which was purely optical, no scripting involved. The first content where I consider myself a little more deeply involved was the Drefia revamp. But in general, everything I do is “my baby”, as I am a perfectionist and would like to get every detail exactly right, be it big or small. What motivates me is the story unfolding itself a little further through a mystery pursued or solved, things falling into place, and, ideally, the game becoming more fun through changes we made.
Tibia Wiki: What are the main challenges in developing content for a game that has existed since 1997 and has a loyal community?
Teyrata: As I said a little earlier, Tibia has a very intricate character. It’s a multifaceted game, and keeping the spirit, the feel of the game, while changing some of its looks or functionalities is a great challenge.
The expectations one player has can vary very much from those of another, because you can spend your time in Tibia very differently. So, it is a matter of fact that we can’t always please everybody the same way with the content we design. We strive to add stuff to the game that we think is fun to play for many players.
Tibia Wiki: Currently, how it is the division of tasks between the tibia content team? Which areas are you most directly involved?
Teyrata: I dabble in almost all of the tasks, it depends on what’s there to do. 🙂
Mapping, writing quests and NPCs, and bug fixing… I’m also getting more involved nowadays with balancing, to assist Count Tofifti with that.
Tibia Wiki: You work with the Graphic Artists daily, have you tried to draw a sprite?
Teyrata: Not yet, there is always so much else to do. But, that’s a fun idea! Usually, for a new monster sprite, I try to describe my idea of the monster as detailed as possible so that our artists have something to work with.
Tibia Wiki: Do you usually accompany Proposals Board? If yes, has any proposal that caught your attention?
Teyrata: I do read the proposal board myself regularly and also check the proposals our community managers forward internally. If a proposal catches my attention, I talk to my colleagues to see if we could perhaps implement it. Many times however, there are technical reasons why a cool proposal can’t be done the way it was thought up. Many content things in Tibia are technically connected to each other, so it’s difficult to fix or implement “just this one thing”, as it has repercussions on other stuff and might badly upset the current state of things or even something you would never have thought of that’s connected to it.
Also the priorisation of projects is important. So even if we would like to implement a proposal right away, because we like it a lot, we do need to have time for it.
Tibia Wiki: The Tibia Council was an idea widely accepted by the community. What did you think of the experience? There are plans to reactivate it in the short term?
Teyrata: I really enjoyed the constructive and direct feedback from the Council members, and we would like to do another Council round. But unfortunately, we are still so caught up in other important matters that there was no new Council round yet. I hope that we’ll be able to do another one sometime in the future (no promise, though).
Tibia Wiki: How is interacting with players during the Test Server? How do you deal with the criticism?
Teyrata: Test Servers are a great opportunity to receive first-hand player feedback, and it’s great to see your content being played, being live and alive. It’s normal then to find out that there are some bugs left and some things don’t work as intended. Criticism is a normal thing – it shows people care about Tibia, else they would not invest time in telling us off for what they dislike about it. 😉
If someone gets personal, I try to see their practical reason behind it, and which content feature would maybe need to be changed, and how.
Tibia Wiki: How was the recast a place with so many myths and secrets as Drefia? What are the main difficulties?
Teyrata: The main difficulty with every revamp is not damaging existing content. For example, you have to check for any special quests and quest rooms that should not become inaccessible by accident; and the ambiance of the place should not be totally altered. So we tried to expand Drefia’s hunting grounds around what already existed, to develop the place rather than change it; to give it the grand, ruined look it deserves from its history; and to show the necromantic cults have not been idle in the mean time!
Tibia Wiki: The new Drefia map is somewhat confusing, you never know where there is a wall or some part that you can’t walk into, was that intentional?
Teyrata: It was the intention to have a “caved-in”, ruined look for Drefia and for it to be a sandy, dangerous labyrinth full of deadly things. So it should indeed be challenging.
Tibia Wiki: We noted that the spawns of some of the new bosses with AI where placed in areas where is easy to find “bots”. Was this placement intentional? Can we expect more creatures with AI?
Teyrata: There’s no direct connection or intention there. Generally, bosses are set where they fit in from the setting and history of a place, and where their minions or other fitting monsters are to be found. And yes, you can expect more bosses with AI in the future.
Tibia Wiki: Roshamuul has a lore linked with the dreams and Eruaran has the look of an elf. And Ab’Dendriel and Drefia have also been revamped recently. Could we wait for any link between the lore of these places? Is there any possibility of recapturing the story of Teshial, Nightmare Knights, Brotherhood of Bones or even Falnus?
Teyrata: Generally speaking, everywhere in Tibia you have to look for clues as to the lore of the place and draw your own connections based on that. If giving out new clues to anything is planned, they simply come at a certain point. We would not spoil that beforehand then, I’m afraid. You’ll just have to wait and see if there will be any new clues available 🙂
Tibia Wiki: The implementation of quests that involve the repetition of many tasks and the points accumulation have been very constant. What’s the reason of this tendency? Can we wait for more content and the return of RPG quests?
Teyrata: We think tasks that you can do again and again should just be one way of passing your time in Tibia. They should not feel compulsory, but be optional. So if someone wants to repeat a task, they should be able to do it, but not feel forced to. Ideally, we want to build content that fits into a setting and is fun to be played, and also fun to be played again; but for each player, the definition of what’s fun differs, so there’s always the possibility of content not being as fun to some as we had hoped for. This does of course NOT mean that there won’t be any further RPG quests. 🙂
Tibia Wiki: For what do you assign the actual tendency of players doing quests only for the rewards and not for the challenge and lore developed?
Teyrata: I’m not really sure that there even is such a tendency. As mentioned before though, I believe there are different kinds of people who like to do different kinds of things in a game. That’s why there are also different types of quests for different kinds of players in Tibia. Some like to have a tangible reward like an item that they can use forthwith, while others prefer to explore or like to do a quest for the RPG feeling of it, or to battle epic monsters, etc. So naturally, quests are very different in their aspects to suit different tastes and game objectives. Also, other games we play shape our behaviour and expectations, too. So naturally, our own behaviour in games changes according to our experiences, too.
Tibia Wiki: Many players defend that Tibia was getting more and more easy, what do you think about it?
Teyrata: I’ve not played Tibia as long as those of the community qualified to comment on that. I think that generally, as games have evolved over the years, our habits and perceptions of playing change with them. You can get used to easier or harder games. So even harder games might feel easier with time. It also depends though on what you personally find challenging and fun about a game. You can seek a challenge or also just wish to pass the time pleasantly and quietly.
Tibia Wiki: Once you created a new hunting ground, which parameters are used to define the difficulty level and or “ideal” level to hunt on it?
Teyrata: I can’t really give you the hard parameters, sorry. Generally speaking, it all depends on the context of the area or lore. We look closely at the game, make our plans, try to see that what we build fits in, and then we test it and balance it.
Tibia Wiki: Sometime ago, the content team informed the following classification parameters of levels: low = <80/ mid = 80-180/ high= > 180. Was there any change on it? In what were these limits based to be kept/changed?
Teyrata: I don’t know the details of this matter, so I can’t really answer this. It is also just a rough division. Generally, we try to see that content fits into a certain range of levels, however, the playability of the content also depends on personal skills of a char, and how he fares with content in general.
Tibia Wiki: Do you think on holding in some way this quick rising of levels? Is it coming a moment to impose limits to the characters evolution?
Teyrata: That seems unlikely, as the missing level cap can be considered a Tibia-specific thing.
Tibia Wiki: Orcs, cycs and even dragons are not enough challenging to these “super chars”. Is there any project to review/balance the existent creatures? What’s your opinion about it?
Teyrata: We try to balance existing content where it is imbalanced, but rather than change the level range for existing monsters altogether which would put lower levels at a disadvantage, we prefer to create new content for higher levels, like for example Roshamuul.
Tibia Wiki: Along with the development of “super chars” have the growth in the number of players who prefer play alone. What do you think of this trend? There are more projects to encourage the team hunts?
Teyrata: From my personal perception, this seems to be a general trend in MMOs, though it was not originally intended. So you have to try to make playing possible even if people don’t find someone for a party. However, we do still want to encourage team hunting and will also continue to build content in that respect.
Tibia Wiki: There is a project to redesign the way of counting points of Killing in the Name of… tasks? Or of the specific spells to use at party? You don’t think changes would make the team hunts more interesting?
Teyrata: In the past, Grizzly Adams’ tasks have already been adapted, so it’s definitely not impossible something similar could take place again. However, I can’t say anything on that behalf so as not to raise any expectations. It’s always easier to spot a flaw than to provide a good amendment, so we’re always careful before changing something.
Tibia Wiki: Some spells and runes are no longer interesting and fell into disuse. There are plans to revise these spells/runes, or even creating content to return to favor its use?
Teyrata: Again, I cannot say, so as not to raise any expectations either way. Sorry.
Tibia Wiki: Apparently the identification of binary codes in Strange Symbols was not simply an “easter egg”. With this discovery, we can expect contents accessible to only a specific fraction of players?
Teyrata: Ah, I wouldn’t want to spoil the mystery. 🙂 You will have to find out yourselves what these binary codes are about.
Tibia Wiki: Players can also make sure that the clues and answers to some mystery, that exists or may exist, can be discovered within the game, using only the tools of the game?
Teyrata: Generally speaking, yes, most of the clues can be discovered ingame. Drawing on knowledge and experience from outside Tibia might help, though, to interpret the meaning of certain discoveries.
Tibia Wiki: After 17 years of existence, Tibia is a game with extensive and complex content. A player who starts his journey today will certainly have difficulties in understanding this entire universe. What tips would you give to someone who started playing today and was really interested in understanding the lore of Tibia? Achieving this understanding is still possible?
Teyrata: It certainly is a lot of lore, and it is difficult to be certain that you know really everything there is to know and found every clue. However, I’d say a good start is doing some of the quests around the Nightmare Knights and Azerus, talking to NPCs like King Tibianus or Pythius The Rotten; and you should get in touch with other lore and mystery hunters, for example by posting on the World Board and asking around ingame or check out some of our fansites.
Tibia Wiki: Some questions of our followers.
Ivax Kaveranne – Unitera: Has anyone talked to you or yourself ever played using a strange language of numbers?
Teyrata: Not yet! If you don’t count the bonelords shouting at me, that is. 🙂
Joey Camlost – Pacera: There is the possibility of an outfit that shows equipment being used in the inventory?
Teyrata: As everything is hand-drawn in Tibia, it would take much time and effort to depict every weapon choice possible, so I personally would consider that very unlikely.
Yansan Princess – Aurera: Regarding the rain… will have?
Teyrata: I’m sorry, no news on that matter.
Halldir de Lorien – Honera: Why not changed the name of the paladin to archers? Since in Tibia, Paladins are not really Paladins.
Teyrata: I’d say that depends on how you define a paladin; “archer” would maybe be a bit too narrow for what our Tibian paladin does, as he handles holy spells and can shield pretty decently.
Tibia Wiki: We appreciate the attention, time and goodwill with us. Finally, what the Brazilian players, especially the followers of Tibia Wiki can expect for Tibia in 2014?
Teyrata: More variety, new content and features, of course! Which we hope will be fun to play, both alone and in a party. There will probably be some new hints as to more ancient lore, and some completely new stuff.
