[Gazette Headline] Interview With Developer Batuba!

I had the honor to interview Batuba on behalf of the Gotham Gazette.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do for DCUO?

Hey there! My developer name is Batuba and I’ve been a systems designer for DCUO for nearly 2.5 years now. Before being a game designer, I worked primarily in the film industry as both a director and a producer for nearly 12 years. Here at Dimensional Ink, I’m mainly in charge of creating new artifacts and pushing out balance changes for the game (Tank changes, Finisher changes, and soon to come... *spoiler* DPS supercharge changes). From time to time I’m also tasked to design some events. For example, I recently designed the rewards in Teen Titan’s Time Capsule as well as Spring 2020 and Anniversary 2020. I also dabble here and there making cut scenes (all those scenes where players are doing amazing feats such as jumping off Green Lantern shields to knock out a golem, or where players give Zeus the smack down when he’s gotten out of line!) as well as assisting where I can in the balance of some of our elite content

Speaking of Artifacts, what is the process you guys go through when you make an artifact? Where do you get the ideas?

This is a tough one with no one answer really. I take inspiration from everywhere. I’ve been playing video games since 1988 and MMOs since Ultima Online and there are gameplay elements I find in different games that I might love, so I might see how it could potentially fit in our game (with our own twist of course!). Other times, I look at common abilities players use and I see in what ways I can change their rotation to allow new gameplay elements. This is why you might find me randomly on players’ Twitch streams; getting a feel of how players are approaching our content/systems. Lastly, players are an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge, so I spend a lot of time on the forums jotting down player ideas or changes they’d like to see and then sort which ones fit the vision of our game and how it could be implemented.

Power balancing. How much work does it take? What is the process?

This all depends on what is being balanced. Changing player abilities is not something to be done lightly and requires a lot of in-depth research on how the powerset plays and how specific abilities engage into that playstyle. This is generally why I balance things that are related to new artifacts I’m releasing. I do a ton of research and dig deep into our systems every time I make a new artifact (in order to make sure it won’t break anything... not always successful!). During this time, I sometimes run across balance issues I could potentially tackle while I’m in there without needing to spend a lot of additional resources.

You've seen players play with artifacts, find new metas, etc. Did it meet your expectations? is it what you wanted to happen with the artifacts originally?

It’s funny how what I perceive is an excellent artifact, players might have a completely different opinion on it. Not every artifact is designed to be a new meta. In fact, I purposely avoid that in order to allow players to feel good about the choices they’ve made. That is not to say that some new artifacts that come out don’t become meta... because... they sometimes do.

My goal is generally to provide players ways to enhance current gameplay or build new and viable gameplay options. I do find that sometimes players don’t initially grasp how much potential certain artifacts have until a while after it’s been released. Examples of this are Eye of Gemini and Claw of Aelkhund that received a lot of criticism during testing from the community then both became part of a meta over time once released.

From all the artifacts you made, which is your favorite and why?

That’s easy! Lasso of Truth is my favorite artifact. It’s definitely not “meta” but it’s just so much fun lassoing a target and watching all these additional lassos fly out, grab other adds and drag them together. Makes for a very easy time to make sure adds stand where you want them to be.

Is there anything you would like to work on for the game?

I definitely have a lot of interest in building NPC mechanics and different ways players might engage our content, however, this might be a step away from what I currently do. I’m also very invested into looking for ways to make better messaging to our players, whether it’s player abilities or NPC mechanics. I feel this could lead to more complex mechanics and player interactions.

What are your thoughts on new power sets?

I would love to eventually design a new power set, however there are issues I feel need to be addressed first. Some examples are that current powersets have very similar abilities, to which kind of homologizes our player options. To make a new powerset, I feel it would need to be different from what we currently have, which might require new UI features etc. Also, having a new powerset that is different from what we have might not really fit our combat structure right now. I think it might be a better use of our resources to add more flavor and depth to our current powersets to really make them unique from each other before we start making a new powerset.

 Lastly, if you could have any lore item from dc comics become an artifact, what would you pick?

100% I would want to make “God-killer” as an artifact. But I’m saving it for something extra cool that makes sense.

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Thank you Batuba so much for letting me interviewing you, and Mepps as well for making this happen. This sure does spark hope and excitement for the future of the game and gameplay in general.