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Hello, Satudo. As this is your very first interview for our community, could you introduce yourself a little bit further? Who is really hiding under your nickname?

Satudo: Sure, thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Michael, and I am 47 years old. I currently live in Regensburg, Bavaria, and I grew up in the surrounding area. In terms of my interests and hobbies, I enjoy watching science fiction movies and TV shows, for example, all kind of Star Wars and Star Trek shows. I have also always been interested in gaming and computers. As you can see, I am a pretty ordinary guy.
How did you become a professional game tester? What do you enjoy most about this role and what are the pitfalls of having such a job?

Satudo: Originally, I came from a completely different industry. I reoriented myself in 2006 and completed training as an IT systems electronics technician. During this time, I came across the topic of software testing, which I found very interesting. In 2008, I started testing software for a large laptop manufacturer. Every now and then, I thought about applying to Cipsoft - working in the games industry was a pretty cool idea. Then, in 2016, the time had come - I applied for an open job position, got accepted, and I started working for CipSoft. I have not regretted working here even for a second.

What I enjoy most is the feeling of having discovered a bug. Every 'bug find' gives you the feeling of having done your work correctly. And if it is a serious bug - all the better to have found it. Also, you get to be creative: software testing often requires testers to find creative solutions to test certain scenarios or bugs. Besides all the technical implementations (server optimizations, etc.), it is always a welcome change to test new content. It's a lot of fun to test the quests, and I admire the creativity of our content designers.

As the complexity of a software system naturally increases, so does the level of difficulty. This doesn't always have to be negative - but it is definitely challenging. Tibia is now 25 years old and offers numerous features and functions. It took quite a bit of work in the beginning to get an overview. But I wouldn't call it a pitfall - rather a challenge.

And now, what do you dislike about your role?

Satudo: I really love every aspect of my work. Be it testing itself or setting up test environments, for example. What I like less are reactions from other people outside the game industry when I tell them what I do for a living. :p When I say "game tester", they very often say "Oh, you must play computer games all day". It's not quite that simple; there's a big difference between testing games and playing games. But that's complaining on a high level. I love my job!

What are your daily tasks at CipSoft?

Satudo: My daily work starts by checking if there are any open bug reports waiting for me that need to be verified. If so, I look at the issue and try to reproduce the bug described. If that is possible, the report is then passed on with a reproduction guide that I create, for an assessment.

Verifying bug reports is only part of my daily work. When planned features are implemented (e.g., the "Wheel of Destiny" that was just introduced with this year's winter update), I first set up the test environment containing the new feature. Then I work through the requirements documents that were created by the developers. From these, I derive concrete test cases. I also consider what else could have been affected as a result of implementing the feature. Then I start testing, and once I find a bug, I create a bug report that, after a programmer fixes it, ends up coming back to me. I then look at the fix and also check for regressions.

Depending on the size of the implemented feature, we also work in groups on the test.
Does your past experience help you with your actual role somehow?

Satudo: I originally worked in mechanical engineering. At some point, I decided to turn my hobby into a profession. Even as a child, I was interested in computers and especially computer games (my first computer was a Commodore 64, at that time with a tape recorder instead of a floppy. :)). So I did an apprenticeship to become an IT systems electronics engineer.

The work experience I gained at that time is of little help in my current job. The activities are too different for that. But the change showed me that it's never too late to pursue your passion on a professional level.

Can you tell us the story about your first bug report or the one you are most proud of? And what was the biggest failure you ever experienced during your work at CipSoft?

Satudo: It took me a little while to find my first bug.

In the beginning, my job was mainly getting to know Tibia and all its functions. I just looked up the first internal ticket that I have created to be able to answer this question. It was a rather unspectacular but no less annoying bug for the player: "No reaction of the NPC 'Melfor' to the keyword 'Mission'". That was the very first bug I found. :)

One of the strangest bugs that I remember occurring in live Tibia is that players managed to equip multiple items in the character's head slot.

During feature development or when content is expanded, it is normal that sometimes serious errors can occur, which are then hopefully caught during the test. Serious means, for example, that the game server crashes when you do certain things.

There are also even smaller errors, however, that, if they go live, can have a big effect. Once a new island was created with all its content and quests. The island was really lovingly designed, and the quests were sophisticated and entertaining. Unfortunately, the access from the mainland to this island did not work. Not a single player could have entered this beautiful island. Such mistakes can happen in the course of development. Fixing this bug was also extremely easy. Besides, it only confirms the need for software testing.

What makes one proud, however, is the finding of bugs that are not obvious to find because they only occur in cases that are edged in a certain way and go beyond a typical use of new content or features. Especially if they would then also have a large damaging effect for players.

What kind of test interfaces (e.g., spells, commands, or tools) are you armed with during your tests, and which one is your favorite? Can you use any of them in a productive environment?

Satudo: To test, we use various god spells, and our accounts and characters are equipped with all sorts of rights on our test systems. I only use these on the internal test systems, and also during external tests on the external test systems. As a tester, there is almost no reason to be on the productive systems with the testing characters.

One of my favorite rights is of course invulnerability - imagine you have to test a boss fight for functionality and you are not invulnerable - almost impossible. :)

But we can also teleport to any place, set our characters' quest values (i.e., simulate the quest progress as needed), create monsters on the map, and change gender or vocation. All this makes it easier or even possible to execute some test cases. Log outputs from the client or the server also make it easier to find errors.

We use Jira as a bug tracking tool. To build and deploy our test environments, we use, e.g., Jenkins and Rundeck.

Then there is an in-house "Creator" - a tool that is mainly used by the content team to create new content, including all its rules, new items, landmasses, and monsters, for example. In testing, we can use this tool to find errors, too. However, that does not replace testing during server runtime.
And which boss was your favorite?

Satudo: I liked the mechanics of Lloyd. It was fun to put this boss through its paces. By the way, this was also the first boss I ever tested.

Do you develop pipelines on your own, or is this the responsibility of DevOps? Are there any other responsibilities or possibilities in your job? If so, what do you like working on most, besides testing Tibia itself?

Satudo: Setting up the various test environments is done by us, i.e., the test team itself. This means that we receive the code to be tested, compile it, and set up the test system. Config adjustments and database changes are often necessary here as well. Of course, we use tools that make our work easier, e.g., Jenkins or Rundeck. However, these tools are maintained by our technical department or the programming department, not by us testers. Smaller Bash or Python scripts, which help to make things easier, we do write ourselves. Setting up and maintaining test environments is a welcome change from testing.

Do any of you take part in planning meetings to implement early testing, if possible? Do you have any successes in this area that you can tell us more about?

Satudo: We attend many of the review meetings or later in acceptance meetings to bring in our objections and suggestions about testability or even our assessment of risks when implementing a new feature. Here sometimes decisions for tweaks like new god rights, for example, are made and then get implemented that will make testing easier for us. That happens prior to us testing then.

Only when the development process is complete do we start testing. Then, of course, in the course of testing, there are still bug fixes, which we then test for correct fixing and for regressions.

Who in the test team is the best when it comes to playing Tibia?

Satudo: For me, it's Shooken. Of all the members of the test team, he is the one who spends the most time in Tibia.

How did you celebrate last year's World Tester's Day?

Satudo: We treated ourselves to a well-deserved cup of coffee and a piece of cake. :)

Do you prefer using physical or virtual machines to test Windows, Linux, and macOS clients?

Satudo: I cannot give a blanket answer here. Depending on the test case, both physical machines and virtual machines can be helpful. Physical machines can be useful for testing how the software behaves on real hardware. Virtual machines are useful when you want to reproduce a specific configuration.

Did you try to play Tibia on any platform other than a PC, e.g., Steam Deck? Do you consider one of them worthy of official support?

Satudo: Personally, I have only played Tibia on Windows computers. I think that Steam Deck is not very common in our target market, so I would say no, it's probably not worth it. It's better to use our resources on developing the game further, to implement new features or improve existing ones. But this is my personal opinion. I'm not in a position to make such decisions for Tibia.

In 2019, Bolfrim said that you don't automate your tests. Has anything changed in this matter over the past few years? The idea of having your own test automation framework for Tibia, especially for regression testing, sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Satudo: Oh, yes, that does indeed sound very exciting. We evaluate the topic on a regular basis. But it has turned out so far that automating tests is not practical for us.

What was the most difficult feature for you to test? How did you manage to make it?

Satudo: The most difficult tests are those that require a lot of effort to get the system into a certain starting position, e.g., tests that involve merging Tibia worlds. If this has to be tested in a combination with other functions, e.g. character trades and additionally the scene of a game server crash with the act of restoring this game world then, testing becomes quite complex.

In addition, things like server performance optimizations are difficult to test too. We don't only have to check whether the server performs better after the change, but also whether regressions have occurred as a result.

Here it is sometimes difficult to estimate on which functions the change could have had an impact.

A few months ago, it was possible to transfer items from the mainland to Rookgaard again. It was a hot topic, and it ended with the deletion of the second-highest level on Rookgaard at that time. Did you work on that bug?

Satudo: I noticed that there was a bug like this, of course. Sometimes you hear conversations about such things from colleagues too. However, I was not involved in this specific scenario.

How can we, as players, help you improve Tibia? What should be included in a good bug report? When does the report get to you?

Satudo: Bug reports usually end up first with the customer support team. They create an internal ticket from the in-game bug report for the test team. Then we verify it, write down how to reproduce it, and give it to product management for an assessment of how severe the bug is, and then it gets to the developers for fixing.

A good bug report includes the following:

• A detailed description of the problem, including the steps leading to its occurrence. The more detailed the steps are, the easier it is to trace and reproduce the problem.
• Information about the environment in which the problem occurs, including the operating system, browser, hardware, and software versions, can also help narrow down the problem, of course, the type of bug that is reported also matters here. If after a boss fight the boss doesn't drop any loot, the environment on which the client is running is rather irrelevant.
• Screenshots or videos that illustrate the problem are also very helpful. Also, screenshots of the minimap are often helpful to localize a problem.

An expert bug report includes not only the actual "erroneous" behavior but also the expected behavior.

Can a bug report be the reason to punish the reporter? If you know the reproduction of a critical bug, there is a risk that you have already abused it and/or spread it around...

Satudo: I would say no. If it is not obvious that a player exploits a bug several times to his own advantage, he will certainly not be punished. No one should be afraid of being punished for finding a bug. Especially not if he reported it to us. Of course he should not spread the knowledge about the bug and exploit it.

So, folks, report your finds, but don't abuse them!

How do you rank the winter update (2022) in terms of bugs addressed during the test server?

Satudo: The code quality of the Winter Release 2022 was very good. Compared to other releases, there were actually fewer bugs, both in the content and in the newly implemented features.

Is it still possible to receive The Famous Golden Bug? Who can actually get one?

Satudo: Of course, this trophy still exists. It is awarded after external tests. Everyone who either regularly delivers a high-quality number of bug reports or also reports critical bugs has the chance to receive this coveted trophy.

What are your favorite complaints from the Tibian community about your job?

Satudo: My favorite complaints... hm... there often is the claim that we don't test Tibia at all. That's obviously false, but it shows how important our job is. Bugs are irritating for everybody.

What kind of knowledge or experience would you recommend earning to have a chance to get hired by CipSoft as a game tester? Does CipSoft hire fully remote employees or is relocation required?

Satudo: Ideally, you have completed a degree in computer science or a comparable education. It is helpful if you already have experience in software testing and are familiar with test procedures.

Furthermore, you should have a good grasp and be willing to constantly develop yourself further. The ability to think analytically is also very important. A good sense for errors and weaknesses is also very helpful. In addition, you should have a "destructive behavior" character trait and enjoy breaking software! :)

Good German language skills are important, too, as the business language within the company is German.

In order to be hired by CipSoft, you should be willing to live in the vicinity of Regensburg. Completely remote jobs are usually not granted.

How do you like playing or testing Tibia with the sound on? Do you find it possible to introduce one even more unexpected feature in the next few years?

Satudo: Since sound is part of Tibia now, it is often necessary to test something with the in-game sound turned on. Thank God that Tibia's sound is something that I enjoy hearing. I'm currently not aware of anything in the pipeline that would be such a big hit or surprise as the implementation of sound, however. I'm not involved in the planning of new features or new content. I'm certain, though, that there will surely be unexpected features in the future, too. How big these will be or in what way players will perceive them, I can't really say.

What would you change in Tibia if it were up to you?

Satudo: Personally, I would simplify the onboarding process for new players. Tibia is a very complex game, and for new players, this can be challenging.

What are your professional and personal goals for 2023?

Satudo: On a professional level, I would like to improve my testing skills and knowledge to stay up-to-date with the latest testing techniques and technologies. I also want to find more bugs and defects to improve the quality of Tibia.

On a personal level, I would like to pay more attention to a good work-life balance. I would also like to build on the good relationship I already have with my work colleagues.

That was already the last question. We want to thank you for revealing the secrets of your job! If you'd like to share anything more with the community, the stage is yours.

Satudo: I would like to thank you for the opportunity to give you a small insight into software testing here at Cipsoft. I would like to encourage you to keep playing Tibia attentively, and if you encounter a bug, do not hesitate to report it! Write detailed bug reports that allow us to reproduce what has happened to you, and send us screenshots. This will make our job easier!