Taskmaster VR News

You asked for it (repeatedly, on a ton of channels, we see you!) so here it is - Taskmaster VR will support Steam Achievements!

The working title for this feature in game is "secret tasks" - so perhaps there will be a few surprises along the way as you strive for that 100%?

[h3]Join the Community![/h3]

What kind of achievements are you hoping to see in game? Join us on discord and start the conversation - your comments and requests form a massive part of our ongoing roadmap for both pre and post release, and its super important to us that we hear from you!

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Accessibility is a cornerstone of Scallywag Arcade’s approach to game design - it is important to us that our games can be played and enjoyed by as many people as possible, without ever making anyone feel as though they are getting a compromised play experience. This has been of particular importance when adapting Taskmaster for VR - a platform where individual accessibility and comfort needs can vary wildly between players in a way that might not happen with a traditional controller and screen!

We set out with the express goals of making Taskmaster playable no matter what your particular needs might be, or your home environment. All our tasks are benchmarked to be playable when seated and standing, as well as if you play stationary or at roomscale.

We also recognise that accessibility needs are a spectrum, and so we resolved to offer as many as we could to all players in as flexible a manner as possible. Let’s take a look at a list of some of the accessibility options you can use to tailor your Taskmaster experience…



[h3]Multiple Movement Options[/h3]
Whether you would prefer to move your own body, teleport around, or use a controller thumbstick for Continuous movement, our Tasks will work with all three. Our teleport setup allows for fine tuning of direction, and additional customisation options for each movement mode are available - including snap vs smooth turning, dominant hand selection, and the choice to use your head or your controller to dictate continuous forward movement axis. However you prefer to move in VR, we’re hopeful that we’ll support you.

[h3]Height Management and Adjustment[/h3]
For seated play, we have a height calibration tool that will help ensure you are comfortable and able to reach those all-important watermelons Alex keeps leaving around the place. The tool is also available in standing mode, in case you want to make some small adjustments to your in-game height.

[h3]Dynamic Crouch Toggle[/h3]
A simple one, but a small one - not everyone is able to crawl around on their hands and knees trying not to knock over towers of tin cans, so we have implemented a button press crouch.

[h3]Force Grab[/h3]
Will we get sued for this one? Let’s find out! If you’re finding that grabbing the things you need from certain heights or angles is difficult, players can increase the distance that they can grab interactive items by selecting their target and pulling it towards them. Some of the contestants could have used this on the show…

[h3]Colour Vision Deficiency Support By Design[/h3]
Our Tasks (and the game as a whole) have, wherever possible, taken into account various CVD conditions to ensure that your experience is minimally impacted without the need for specific filters or vision modes. The game uses a colour palette specifically chosen to help support this! There are certain popular Taskmaster items or set dressings that we have chosen to make small changes to as well - the Red Green, for example, is referred to as a “Red Circle” in Taskmaster VR - as we found in accessibility testing it was not clear to CVD users what item we were talking about, or that it got lost when placed on the grass in the garden. You can see this visual language throughout the game, where use of colour is supported with shapes, patterns and symbols to aid baseline readability.

[h3]Vignettes and Tunnelling[/h3]
Tunnelling is a technique where a vignette is used to reduce the player’s visibility when making particularly fast movements like turning or teleporting, as an anti-sickness measure. In a physics based game like Taskmaster where the player has a real presence in the world, this becomes even more important. Tunnelling in Taskmaster VR is activated on a feature by feature basis, and also offers an intensity slider so that you can tailor it for your specific needs!

[h3]Grip Toggle[/h3]
Another simple one, but powerful - you spend a lot of time grabbing stuff and waggling it around in Taskmaster. This setting allows you to either press and hold the Grip button to hold an item, releasing it to let go - or to use a single button press to “toggle” the state of an object from grab to release. This setting is mostly useful for anyone with any kind of motor challenges or chronic pain.

[h3]Menu Distances[/h3]
A floating menu can often be a hard thing to get right, so we ... allow you to adjust the distance at which it's displayed from your face. We’re also working on allowing you to adjust the size and scale too!

[h3]Audio and Subtitle Controls[/h3]
You can adjust and mute various aspects of the game individually - music, sound effects and dialogue. In addition, the game offers subtitles designed for readability and clarity - there are visual indicators of who is speaking, and the direction from which the speech is coming from!

[h3]Arachnophobia Mode[/h3]
This one was actually really easy for us to implement, as there are no spiders in the game at all. You’re welcome, world.



[h2]Accessibility By Design[/h2]
Why is accessibility so important to us? Firstly, we’re a diverse studio with a team from all walks of life, and we’re making the games that we’d like to see, without compromising the silliness and chaos of Taskmaster. As a studio, we work with a number of charities to champion awareness of Accessibility By Design, and to help share the incredible world of videogames without barriers - we’re patrons of both Special Effect and Safe In Our World - and we regularly invite them to our studio to check out all our fun toys, and to give us advice and guidance on how to build better games.

We’re always looking for new ways to improve our accessibility offerings in game, so we’d love to hear from the community what we can do to help you with mastering these tasks. Hit us up in the comments or on Discord!

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It’s time to introduce a man with the fashion sense and personality of a sausage that rolled under the fridge six weeks ago! He’s the Taskmaster’s assistant, personal trainer and - when necessary - therapy animal…it’s Little Alex Horne! A familiar face to fans of the show, Alex is ever present at your side as a (mostly) neutral observer. He’s passive, unflappable and pretty much up for absolutely anything that will please his boss. Alex is a much less bombastic character than that of the Taskmaster, and this is reflected in the design of his video game counterpart!



Alex is a constant presence in the game and the show, and so capturing and exaggerating his mannerisms, voice and general vibe was just as critical as it was for the Taskmaster himself. Alex has provided face capture, voice acting and mocap reference for his VR doppelganger, and will always be there for you with an incredibly helpful observation on just how poorly you are performing.



Stylistically, Alex and Greg need to complement each other - where Greg is an all-encompassing presence and form, Alex needed to be the opposite. You spend much more time with Alex than Greg - he needs to be a subtler entity, a companion and observer but not one that steals your attention and gets in your space the way Greg does. We’ve taken some artistic liberties to achieve this - going through a number of iterations in design to find our perfect interpretation of Alex!



Alex’s diminutive stature and submissive nature are brought out in his spindly legs, for example, and his real-world height (a fairly massive 6’ 2”!) has been reduced to something more in line with the show’s narrative. We also increased Greg’s height (to 7’ 7”, fact fans) to emphasise this further!

Just like on the telly, Alex was keen for us to parody and caricature some of his more distinctive features, including his hair, eyes and teeth - and these have been designed in a way to allow us some pretty expressive looks, while still staying true to the technological limitations and facial animation features.



The clipboard, the stopwatch, the wry looks and the witty comments - The Taskmaster’s Assistant wants you to succeed and will be an ever-present part of your TMVR experience.

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He’s mighty, he’s tall, and he’s dressed to impress - meet The Taskmaster! The titular titan is played by legendary comedian Greg Davies in both the TV show and Taskmaster VR, but how did we approach bringing his familiar face, voice and general gravitas into the virtual world?

First - a quick 101 on the role of The Taskmaster. The Taskmaster is the arbiter of your efforts to complete tasks and will reward you with points based on both the success of your attempts and…well, his own subjective whims and fancies. Think of him as the king and you as the court jester! Questioning his approach or the scoreboard won’t get you very far - that’s why he has an assistant for you to query and poke at with justifications for your unhinged actions instead.



Any fan of the show will know Greg Davies, beloved in the global comedy circuit for his no nonsense personality. He’s tall in stature and confident in voice, something we wanted to ensure came across in the game. VR is great for realising scale - most contestants will find that Greg is imposing enough while just sitting on his throne, let alone when standing up - and we wanted to ensure that we reflected (and slightly exaggerated) this!

Initially, our focus was on identifying who The Taskmaster truly is. Rather than honing in on Greg Davies the actor, we took inspiration from the persona he embodies in the Taskmaster TV show. We meticulously studied his appearance, personality and mannerisms - helped out in no small part by our voiceover and facial capture sessions, which gave us the opportunity to get up close and personal with the man himself!



We designed his height, shape, and overall silhouette to evoke a sense of intimidation and awe - but we also wanted to make sure that there's a slightly heroic edge to him! The Taskmaster is fully capable of benevolence after all - he isn’t the villain! Greg is slightly taller in Taskmaster VR than in real life - and its a lot of fun to stand on stage and have him towering over you!

At every stage of development, if was important to keep the design of Alex Horne in mind as well - they needed to complement each other. After all, they’re like a comedy Batman and Robin - contrasting characters that nevertheless feel like two parts of a whole.

One of the most important parts of Taskmaster is interacting with the hosts - you spend a lot of time up close and personal with them, so we needed to make sure that their facial expressions, animations and body language were as immersive as the hardware restrictions would allow! Greg’s thoughts and presence are often communicated through looks alone, so it was crucial to get this right.



We created loads of sculpted iterations of Greg's face, exploring how best to strike a balance between our bright, stylised aesthetic, capturing his character and providing the technical wotsits required for facial animation. Once we found the desired balance, we further refined it by determining which features to enhance or soften, including considerations like ageing and typical facial expressions reflecting his mood. We decided to emphasise the character's constant air of contempt towards contestants - the game is set in the fictional world of Taskmaster remember - while allowing for moments of elation, amusement, or anger.



Finally, once we had our character models in a good place, we consulted with Greg and Alex themselves! After workshopping, we ended up leaning more towards their current appearances than their depictions in earlier seasons - however, we did maintain a slight contrast by not making Alex's hair quite as grey as requested, in order to ensure a visual distinction from Greg!

Think you’re ready to impress? Take on his challenges (and some of Alex’s too) and task your heart out to win the best prize of all - a gold(ish) trophy modelled after his very own face.

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Out in the garden, nestled amongst white picket fences, is where you’ll find the Taskmaster Caravan - a mundane staple of the British Staycation that has nevertheless been the staging ground of some truly extraordinary goings-on. Almost as well-known as the famous faces who pass through it, the caravan is hands-down the cutest space in the house - assuming you find the faint smell of mildew “cute” - and is a firm fan favourite. There was absolutely no way we were leaving it out.



In Taskmaster VR, however, the caravan presented us with a problem that wasn’t immediately apparent during our research trips to the House - caravans are small, tightly enclosed spaces, and this one in particular is filled with a lot of stuff. Given the field of view and spacial perception available on most VR headsets, we found that we had to limit player time in this space to avoid overwhelming feelings of claustrophobia, discomfort and ennui. This means that while our tasks make use of the caravan, you won’t be required to spend long periods of gameplay in a space that goes against our core accessibility pillars. More on those in the coming weeks!

This doesn’t mean that fans of the show won’t get to explore this iconic location however! The Caravan is one of the most detailed locations we’ve built, and is full of all kinds of cool things - from family photos of Greg and Alex, to alluring stuffed animals, to the ever-popular crochet puppets you met in our reveal trailer.



The caravan is a lovely respite from the mess and stress of the house itself, giving players the opportunity to spend time in an entirely different stressful mess. It’s colourful, inviting and we can’t wait for you to explore it - just don’t bump your head on the way in, Alex hasn’t bothered to insure it for years.



Learn more about all the locations in Taskmaster VR on our Discord!

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