5 Questions with Gerhard, Founder of Travian Games

After interviewing Brian, Product Owner of Travian: Legends, we decided to walk down memory lane once again with Gerhard Müller, one of the key figures that wrote the history of Travian: Legends as a game and Travian Games as a company.

If you don’t know him already, he is literally the one who came up with the game back in 2004 and one of the founders of Travian Games.

It’s safe to say that without him the Travian universe would not exist. And yes, it all started as a PHP hobby project and here we are, 15 years later, celebrating the game once again with its Annual Special, Codex Victoria.

Ready to hear about the past, the present and future of Travian?

Thank you for your time, Gerhard! 15 years is indeed a big exciting birthday to celebrate, especially in the gaming industry. Looking back, what are the accomplishments that make you the proudest in these 15 years of Travian?

Oh wow, of course there are many!

But here’s my top 3:

– Troop balancing: After 15 years the core gameplay and the troop balancing is still very close to the first release back in September 2004.
– Crop consumption: Troops need crop as supply and it gets very challenging to feed a huge army. But there is no hard limit on how many troops you can own.
– Wonder of the World: I like the fact that Travian is round-based and there is a winner (and a winning alliance) after each round.

The game started as a hobby project, but when did you first get the sense that Travian had the potential to become something bigger?

I think it was around March 2005 when Travian 2 just started and my older brother Siegfried joined the team after finishing his studies in Economics.

I was working full time on Game Design and writing code (PHP, CSS, HTML, MySQL). Siegfried managed and organized all non-technical topics.

Our 3rd founder Holger kept studying Computer Science, but he was working most nights to keep our servers running.

What’s the biggest positive change you have seen since the game was created?

I was actively working on Travian until August 2010. In this timeframe, I think the most important change was the introduction of Culture Points in Travian 2, thanks to our former player Dario (who is now Game Designer of our upcoming game Arkheim – Realms at War).

Before that, good players could settle new villages way too fast and it became almost impossible to rule such a huge empire with more than 100 villages. That definitely made a positive impact.

Which is the Tribe that represents you the most as a player in Travian: Legends?

That’s easy! I’m a Roman player most of the time.

One last question! Talking about the future of Travian, do you have a special wish for this big 15th Anniversary?

My biggest wish would be to play Travian: Legends on an official App. In 2006 we once had one for Nokia cellphones, but the timing wasn’t right. One Megabyte of traffic could cost up to 10 Euro and flat rates were not even available.

But can I ask for a second wish?

I would love to see a central account as the one we have in Travian Kingdoms! I don’t want to signup for each new round over and over again.

Happy 15th birthday Travian: Legends! Thank you and see you soon for another interview!

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