Journeys to the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment

ALEX SPENCER

Illustration konsume.me

Join me in imagining an envelope on a plinth. Now picture yourself breaking the wax seal, and unfolding the stiff card. “Name the most prominent, prolific game designer of the past decade. Your time starts now.” Knowing that the Taskmaster generally rewards unexpected answers, I dodge-roll around Hidetaka Miyazaki and towards a man who presents his design work to an audience of millions on a weekly basis: Alex Horne.

This at least adds up within my household. Horne, who has come up with the vast majority of the UK show’s 789 tasks (not counting those that are filmed but don’t make it to broadcast, or those created for the many, many spinoffs), is working in a very strange design space. After all, his intended playerbase – the five comedians taking part in each series – are outnumbered by viewers roughly 400,000:1. It’s a ratio that could be matched by the occasional streamer or esports competition, I suppose, but ultimately the appeal in those instances is that you could go and play the game yourself, albeit most likely more ineptly. Here, the only way you can play along is mentally. And, when tasks are working properly, we do. My wife or I will pause the TV, turn to the other, and ask: “How would you solve this one?”