This interview has been done exclusively for Rookie.com.pl, according to one of the privileges of promoted Tibia fansite specified by Fansite Programme. Copying the material without the explicit consent of the administrator is forbidden.

Hello, Knightmare! We're very glad you found some time to talk with us about your experiences related to Tibia's development. We're sure that there are some users that aren't familiar with any of the previous interviews with you, so we'd love to hear a bit about yourself. What is your role at CipSoft and who are you outside of the work environment? Or maybe something new and exciting happened in your life lately that you'd like to share?

Knightmare: I'm a game content designer at Cipsoft. My colleagues and I create stories, in-game books, quests, lore, NPCs, maps, and boss fights, for example. Outside of Cipsoft I’m roughly the same person - just more lazy! I try hard to avoid interesting things in my life. Isn't it an alleged Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times"? ;)
What kind of degree did you finish and did it play a major role in you getting your job at CipSoft? What are your current tasks as the game developer?

Knightmare: I was studying economics when I got the job offer from CipSoft. So on behalf of you good Tibians I decided to change my plans for life. ;) It was quite a leap of faith back in those times, but it has been working out well for over 15 years now - well, at least for me. From you Tibians point of view, this might differ. ;)

Do you play any video games? Do you find inspiration in them or try to recreate some of the ideas in Tibia?

Knightmare: I play way too much video games. Admittedly, actually working on games has changed the perspective though. You often play through something and think along the lines "how would I do this, with the options Tibia has available". So inspiration comes more from fitting systems together. The outcome usually vastly differs from the original sources of inspiration. Some of the most amazing things in games can be broken down to the creative use of systems that are already there.

Like a word-by-word translation of a foreign text would yield subpar results, you usually can't translate systems from other games one by one without them feeling clunky and forced. You have to understand the essence and intention of mechanics to use them adequately. If done right, you can use some simple mechanics in the background to create something new and still fit into the environment of a certain game.

Which vocation is the closest to your heart? Do you think there will come a time when a new vocation will be added to the game, such as the Necromancer? Or maybe the never-changing amount of vocations became a symbol of the game and new vocations won't be added because of that?

Knightmare: I often tend to jack-of-all-trades characters so in Tibia that might be the paladin. In other games I prefer often stealthy characters. Deciding about new vocations is not up to me. I personally see some potential in adding a new vocation, but also many complications. All old content would have to be reviewed, and balancing would be problematic, too. I don't envy anyone whose task it would be to balance any new vocation with the existing ones.

Even before a new vocation could be thought of, so many other things would have to be considered. Would it work independently, or should it be paired with an existing one? The pairing would maybe help in combination with item restrictions, old existing content, and quests, for example. So - should there be then 4 new vocations at once? Will they use different mechanics or just different spells? If they use special weapon types or items, will old rewards be adjusted or not? And in the end, it would boil down to the question: Are all the effort that would have to be put into planning and the implementation and all the risks that go with an implementation like that, be justified by the overall reception of the new vocation or vocations?

The good thing is, it is not me who would have to decide all those things. This falls clearly into the hands and responsibilities of higher powers and that leaves me in the comfortable position to say "I could have told 'ye!" if we would ever decide to implement new vocations, no matter if it worked out well or bad. ;)

Tibia is home to multiple mysteries and puzzles, many of which were designed by you. Let's imagine that a movie would be made, presenting events from the game's lore. Do you think that would be possible?

Knightmare: Interesting thought... Since movies to games worked so tremendously well in the past I don't see why it wouldn't work well with Tibia too ;) - On a more serious note, I think a Tibia novel could maybe be feasible to some extent, but a movie is an entirely different kind of beast. Of course, you could think about a script that might be used as a movie but how it plays out, in the end, is the crucial question here. In general, the world of Tibia would provide a background on which a story could be based. In the end it would be the story and the filming itself that would decide the quality. But that's true for all backgrounds from games and even books.
Bringing actual Tibia gameplay to the screen though... it's hard to imagine a movie that boils down on some people quaffing potion after potion within seconds while they pull out rune after rune out of their pockets to shoot them at some monsters - let alone the scene with a bunch of guys trapping someone in a corner and beat him until they get his precious loot... That might communicate the wrong signals to the impressable minds of moviegoers! ;)

Additionally it's likely that the idea of a Tibia movie is about 100 years too late. In these days, who would watch some silent movie? ;)

Let's talk about the beginner islands. Do you follow Rookgaard's rankings? What's your opinion about player Leaver reaching level 200 on Rookgaard? Do you recognize any of the Rookstayer's names?

Knightmare: I don't follow any rankings. The idea of people enjoying Rookgaard for what it is is not a competitive one. I'm glad people still like the environment and pacing of Rookgaard. Levels don't necessarily represent the enjoyment everyone gets out of playing. Some enjoy helping others or just socializing. Those people don't necessarily level that much at all. If there'd be a ranking of enjoyment levels, I might have looked them up! ;)

For many years you don't lose your items after death on Rookgaard. As we know, it was added to protect new players. In your opinion, why was such protection needed if Rookgaard can be completed in a quarter?

Knightmare: Real new players have a different pace and might have a less enjoyable experience in the case of character death. To a proficient player, death is way more easily avoidable than to a complete newcomer. While a player that is familiar with the game knows what to avoid and what is dangerous and what isn't, a new player easily dies in a situation that feels like it's not his fault, which leads to frustration. That being said, those things are nothing that we in the content team, would decide.

Do you think adding Santa Claus to Rookgaard and Dawnport would be a good idea? Were there plans to do so in the past?

Knightmare: I can't remember any such plans. Out of my head, I can't tell for sure if it could cause any problems. In general, it might be an unwanted and confusing distraction for real new players. But aside from this, I can see little harm in the implementation - well, apart from the time it would take to check for any conflicts, deciding on the placement and the testing would take. That time could also be used for other, more urgent matters.
Many players would surely want to know how and for what purpose was Rookgaard split into sections by the bush and tree walls?

Knightmare: I think the idea was basically to get a better difficulty progression and player pathing. Luring might have been another reason. But with so many changes and so many hands working on Rookgard over all those years and even changes in mechanics, some of this might have become lost or obscured.

Were you taking part in designing Dawnport? Traversing the new beginner's island you can find many references to Rookgaard. Why do you think a new beginner's island had to be added?

Knightmare: I had only little input in Dawnport - though I think the name was one of my suggestions, I don't clearly recall. I vaguely remember helping out by adding an area with trolls and some treasure. Aside from that, I think I did only some minor fixing and tweaking. Dawnport was implemented with the intention of giving players something that was more of a tutorial instead of a prologue that was available on Rookgaard.
Even the small Rookaard tutorial wasn't there in the beginning. In the early days, you were just thrown into the temple initially with no explanation at all. To help new players, the tutorial section was added and several things were changed on the island. But still, it seemingly did not do well in teaching and thus keeping new players in Tibia. Even further down the road, the choosing of vocations out of the blue was a problem too. So, much later the isle of destiny was added to ease the transition from Rookgaard to the main continent. That did not really fix the problem, however.

Dawnport was meant to address such problems and to provide faster access to the vocations that are core to the Tibia gameplay. Though you could argue that the classic approach or the "modern" version serves better as an introduction, in the end, it was crucial to retain new players.

Spike Sword or Sword of Fury? Also, do you remember and can you share who implemented the mechanism to make the sword disappear?

Knightmare: Does it "disappear"? Who can tell what happens to the sword? However, it was me who implemented the sword and the related functions in the game. And of course, it's the sword of fury.

In your opinion, why did Avar Tar leave the Sword of Fury on that little island?

Knightmare: Well Avar Tar only knows why he did what he did - you should take anything NPCs say with a grain of salt. They might have hidden agendas and might not always tell the (whole) truth.

Could you share what was the idea behind Maze of Fury? Was Maze of Fury initially designed to be a part of some quest? Is there a possibility to see Maze of Fury being implemented in the future?

Knightmare: The maze is implemented the way it was meant to be and there is no need to add anything. It is everything it was ever meant to be and that's the idea of the maze, doing what it does and functioning the way it was meant to.

What was the biggest challenge when designing Rookgaard? PrincessWoona: Were you ever thinking about expanding Rookgaard? How many ideas did you have for the island that weren't implemented? Would you like to share the best ones that didn't make it?

Knightmare: The original Rookgaard was meant to provide some step-by-step progression in equipment and enemies. The original concept used as few environment objects as possible. There was not that much environment available in those days. The self-restriction was meant to give players a sense of astonishment and wonder, as soon they left the isle and met the bigger, much more colorful, and the diverse world around them. With more and more environment available. This idea was later discarded in favor of a more fancy look even from the start. Later Dawnport took it even a few steps further.
So the initial challenge was to provide an interesting location with limited resources. Monsters were slightly adjusted in strength and the loot was streamlined for the Rookgaard progression. With no quest system in place a couple of optional proto-quests were implemented, though due to the restriction of this time, they never were the main focus. Later versions added more true quests to provide some guidance on what to do.

Rookgard was expanded twice, as far as I remember. The first expansion came out rather quickly and included some more land in the west if my memory serves me right. Later the premium part was added (though it's possible the premium and the other expansion were released at once).

From there, the focus was on the main continent and its expansions. Given that the island was sufficiently big enough to sustain its player base and other expansions were more urgent, there were no plans to expand Rookgaard.

After over 15 years it's actually quite difficult to remember what ideas never made it into the game. It's likely I had bigger ideas for quests but had to pass on them because the quest system was not implemented and some quest stuff was just not feasible to be implemented. With limited progression and monsters at hand, there was little that could have been done. Of course, certain minotaur and orc dungeons could have been expanded, but it did not feel like it was necessary for Rookgaard to provide a playing field that could sustain the usual amount of leveling players.

At the spawn points of special monsters on Dawnport (Ghoul, Minotaur Guard, etc.) there is a spawning animation happening, but the monster never actually spawns. What we were told is that this is intended. In your opinion, what would that behavior mean in-game?

Knightmare: I have honestly no idea. It's nothing that I added and I have no idea what might cause such behavior.

Let's leave the game topics for a moment. Tell us please, are you interested in a sport?

Knightmare: You should probably have stuck to the games. I'm hardly aware that there is something like sport. My only connection to the sport is drunken fans that use the same train as me now and then.

(Next question has been asked conditionally - if Knightmare is interested in sports. Knightmare decided to answer the question anyway.)

If so, what do you think was the reason behind Bayern losing to Liverpool in the Champions League? What is your opinion about Robert Lewandowski?

Knightmare: Well, I guess they ran out of potions or didn't read the wiki about strategies...? And I'm sadly unfamiliar with what loot a Lewandowski might drop.

What kind of music do you listen to? What songs can you recommend to our readers? Maybe you'll become a part of a nice playlist to listen to while playing.

Knightmare: I'm one of the rare people who don't care much about music at all. I rather hear some documentation or comedy show in the background, than "just" music. It's just too boring to me, even while playing games.

Back to the game, which part of the Tibian map was your debut project? Generally, how hard is it to create maps for Tibia? What are the traits of a good mapper?

Knightmare: The very first thing I did was to pimp the NPCs in Thais who had really not much to say at all. Mapwise I think the first thing I did with a rather barebones and unwieldy tool, was to create Kazordoon. Later, when other projects were abandoned by their "would-be creators", I took over some of them. First, I finished Ab'Dendriel. Only a few underground areas had been finished by the original creator. Then I added NPCs to Carlin, where most of the city had indeed been finished already when I took over. At some point, I created the Plains of Havoc, Rookgaard, and Edron, but I really can't tell anymore which came first.

Creating a map has become progressively easier over the years. Where systems were clunky and prone to crashes and mistakes, the tools vastly improved. Where you once had to improvise with a set number of objects, it's possible to request a number of special objects nowadays. I wouldn't say it's easy or trivial to create a map, but it's considerably more comfortable than it used to be. Still, you have to keep many things in mind and certain restrictions and the Tibia perspective can cause trouble, delays, and redesigns. With the great number of objects, the new challenge is, to know what objects are there and where to find them, especially if you don’t remember their exact names in the game files.

What are considered "good traits of a mapper" lies in the eyes of the beholder and his or her expectations. Though some might argue that diligence and carefulness are imperative, I'd rather say, what a mapper foremost needs are imagination and improvisation. If you can picture a place and tell a little story in that picture you have half won. If you run into any problems that might compromise your vision, you have to be flexible and perhaps find other ways to get the result that you want.

Another thing that might be handy is the "playability view". In the end, a map, as pleasing as it might look, is there to be played upon. In the long run, a practical map in an MMO probably always tops a good-looking one. So sometimes you have to adapt your map to usability.

Rookie.com.pl is a polish fansite, which is why we wanted to ask you - have you ever been to Poland? If yes, how did you like your stay?

Knightmare: As the most boring person in this world, I also don't travel that much at all. Even in modern times when mobile phones provide you with some kind of automap, I still prefer to have virtual avatars to do all that traveling and jumping around, while I lazily remain seated. So I rarely have left Germany and have therefore never visited Poland, I'm afraid.

Why are NPC dialogue options sometimes deleted? For example, Dallheim used to say that he slashed Cyclops to pieces using his Spike Sword. Nowadays it's not possible to hear that line from him.

Knightmare: I'm not sure what happened in this case. It's possible that it was reported as a bug and someone at some time decided just to delete it. Aside from the deletion of outdated dialog, this should be rare though.

Which form of NPC trading do you like more: "hi sell hatchet yes" or "hi trade"?

Knightmare: I think in the long run the trade dialogue is the better option. The old option was just there due to a lack of flexibility in the code.

Do you think Tibia is inviting for players that never tried it out?

Knightmare: It's hard to tell. You can have this perspective only once in your life and for me, that was when Tibia was very different. The new player experience was tackled with repeatedly in the past and I guess it came to a point where it's hard to improve vastly. Whether a system in itself works for you personally or not is a very individual thing. I guess most players in our days find their way into the game through friends and family. Being coached by an experienced player is probably the best start you can have.

Which game event is your favorite?

Knightmare: That changes from time to time. If events are enjoyable you don't need to put labels on them.

Why was the Secret Sheep Level removed from the game?

Knightmare: There had been a possibility of abuse and it was only a flavor area. So instead of a time-consuming redesign, it was entirely scrapped.
Dark Gladir: How plausible would it be to add a graphics editor to the game's Store?

Knightmare: That is sadly nothing I can answer with certainty, but to me, it seems a rather complicated thing.

We're heading towards the end, so it's time for some quick questions! Try to answer as fast as possible. Ready?

Knightmare: Yes

Xiaomi or Huawei?

Knightmare: How about a real PC instead of a mobile? A mobile phone for me just has to work, so I really don't care which one I get. I'm content with the sponsored ones that come with a contract renewal here.

Dwayne Johnson or The Rock?

Knightmare: I enjoyed him more as a wrestler than an actor, so The Rock.

Tibia or Panzer League?

Knightmare: Tibia - if we ever run out of update ideas, we'll get the panzers anyway.

Knightmare or Nightmare?

Knightmare: Selfishly I choose Knightmare.

Amber or Ferumbras?

Knightmare: I guess Fermubras is not the funniest person to hang around with so Amber (or mostly anyone else) would be my pick.

Ghoul or Minotaur Mage?

Knightmare: As a low-level character I found Ghouls more manageable. As a roommate on the other hand the mage would cause less stench.

May Crunor ... you?

Knightmare: May Crunor be with you.

How to get the Sword of Fury on Rookgaard?!

Knightmare: Waiting until someone spoils it on the wiki obviously.

To finish up, we'd like to look into the future. What kind of Tibia can we expect to find there? This was the last of our questions, so we would like to thank you for the interview. If you want, you can tell our readers whatever you'd like.

Knightmare: There are many things for you in-store. Big and small. Many stories will be continued. New friends and enemies and areas to explore.

In general the things we plan to do contentwise are decided roughly one or two updates ahead, though I can spoil that there is a grander scheme where things will progress to. When which story part progresses, however, is subject to change. Sometimes restrictions have us pushing things into the future until time or resources are available.

The very next update will bring some more substance to a looming threat that was only teased to the attentive players but has been built up over a long time. In general, there are several big threats that progress and have to be dealt with and the climax of a storyline will usually lead to something new. So there will be no happily ever after for the adventurers in Tibia anytime soon.