Taskmaster creator Alex Horne has spoken to NME about the long-running TV show’s upcoming VR adaption, the “surprise” success of the franchise and the importance of rediscovering your inner child.
Announced last year, Taskmaster VR has been created by indie developer Scallywag Arcade and will feature voice acting from both the Taskmaster Greg Davies, and his assistant Horne.
“I was very involved, but I did very little,” Horne told NME. With two full Taskmaster series filmed a year, alongside an annual one-off New Year’s episode and a Junior version, Horne’s schedule is already pretty packed. “I live Taskmaster, but people are constantly approaching us with different ideas,” he explained. “We’ve done a board game and a set of Christmas Crackers. We’re hopefully doing a live-action, escape room-style experience as well. It would be easy to churn out rubbish, but we really pride ourselves on only doing good stuff.”
So when Scallywag approached Horne about a potential Taskmaster VR game, it was an instant yes. “VR is ideal for Taskmaster because you actually have to do the thing,” Horne said. “I’m not sure it would work as a conventional game but with this, players can actually experiment and explore.”
The team at Scallywag presented ideas for how the game could work and what tasks could be achieved, and Horne was keen to make it a reality. “It was just obvious they knew the show inside out,” said Horne, who also praised the game’s collaborative development process. “I’ve checked over the tasks to make sure they work and done all the voice stuff, but they’ve really done all the work,” says Horne. “There’s never been a moment where I’ve stepped in and told them how to do something, because they clearly know what they’re doing.”
Taskmaster VR is set in the iconic Taskmaster house and, like the show, sees players needing to complete a series of tasks to impress the titular Taskmaster. Horne said it was important the game was “bound in reality”, with players able to destroy and move various items, but not able to break the rules of physics to do so. “It’s better than doing it on TV because you don’t have to worry about camera angles, noise from overhead planes or being funny,” he said. Not having to clean up after every task is also a bonus. “I find it really liberating,” said Horne. “You really can explore every room in the house and just focus on completing the task. It’s sort of better than the TV show, but I don’t want to say that too loudly.”
As well as completing tasks, players can also create their own in Taskmaster VR’s Creative Mode. “As grownups, we always forget how good people are at coming up with games. I always loved going on holiday as a kid, and coming up with games in the car or if it was a rainy day. That’s part of our brains we should really encourage. I’m not worried about people realising how easy my job is, I just hope they enjoy it,” said Horne. “I’m hoping it encourages people to be imaginative.”
Horne went on to say he would “definitely” be keeping an eye on the game for inspiration. “I played it recently and it’s obvious the makers are on our wavelength. They get where things can be quirky, rather than wacky, and where you can add another layer to a task. It’s often the little details that make all the difference. I won’t be taking the actual tasks for the TV show, I’m really keen we don’t tread on each other’s toes, but there are certainly little tricks Scallywag has come up with that I’m annoyed I didn’t think about before. So, I will be borrowing things.”
Looking ahead, Horne hopes that the Taskmaster VR game will become a part of people’s lives. “It’s creative and interesting, rather than just mind numbing. You’re not staring at your phone and doom scrolling. I want it to be another aspect of your life that’s positive, rather than negative. I want it to encourage the right things, like creativity and having fun.”
It’s also an extension of Taskmaster’s commitment to inclusivity. “The first three series of Taskmaster featured six blokes and a woman. It was very traditional and not very inclusive, but we’ve been trying to do better,” says Horne. “The show is really good at showing it’s not just the sporty alpha males that do well, it highlights how different brains work.” Things like the upcoming Junior version, the official boardgame and the VR game are meant to further open those doors. “We want it to feel like it’s open to everyone. It’s not that we want to make loads of money, we just want people to use their brains and have a laugh.”
Within the gaming world, Taskmaster could easily lend its name to a 2D platformer where players have to collect rubber duck, or a horror set in the Taskmaster house, but Horne is currently only interested in the VR game. “I hope we can keep adding to it. Maybe we can eventually add a door that transports you to another place (like the location tasks from the main show). We did a task on the show earlier this week which was quite horror based, but other tasks are tender or sad. We try to not make the show too much of one thing, and it’s the same with this. Rather than a lot of different Taskmaster games, this will hopefully be a long-running thing that can’t really be completed.”
As well as the Channel 4 version of Taskmaster which is currently in its 17th series, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Sweden and Spain have launched their own versions of the show. Horne says the success of the franchise, which started as an Edinburgh Fringe show, is “constantly surprising”.
“I think our success is down to the playfulness. We try to release the comedians and make them be themselves. There’s no script and they never know what’s going to happen. We tell them ‘don’t try and be funny, just try and do the task’ so it’s about trusting that people will be entertained by that. Hopefully it’s the same with the game. We trust that gamers don’t need their hands held throughout. A lot of it will be very frustrating. You’ll open the task, and you won’t know how to do it, so you’ll have to work your way through it. It’s about people finding their inner child again.”
Taskmaster inspires a certain level of creativity from fans, something Horne finds “really humbling”. Taskmaster VR is the extreme end of that scale: “Scallywag has taken the idea and run with it, which is brilliant,” says Horne. “There’s nothing I like more than someone showing me the tasks they’ve come up with and filmed with friends or their family. I always watch them, because it’s always amazing and never boring. I think people are always surprised by how creative they can be.”
“I’ve been doing Taskmaster for 15 years now and I’m just still really excited by that,” Horne added. “I’m not bored of it yet, so hopefully others won’t be either.”
Taskmaster VR is set to launch later this year for Meta Quest and SteamVR.