Designing for Delight: Playtesting Games That Are Meant to Be Watched
Description
In this episode of The Corner of Story and Game, we welcome back the endlessly creative Ryan Omega, who is a producer, performer, LARP designer, and now the mastermind behind Taskmaster LA. But this isn’t just a behind-the-scenes on a fan-made panel show. It’s a deep dive into what it means to design games for performance, and the unique role that playtesting for watchability plays in that process.
From crafting visually engaging challenges to navigating cast dynamics and live audience feedback, Ryan reveals how every layer of the Taskmaster LA experience was engineered not just to be fun, but to delight both players and viewers.
What can digital game designers, TTRPG GMs, and interactive storytellers learn from a live-audience-first approach? Quite a lot, it turns out.
We talk about:
Casting as a game design tool
Designing challenges with visual hooks
Managing emotional safety and creative risk
Why live audiences sharpen storytelling
What makes a moment rewatchable, and why that matters
Whether you’re building a game, producing a show, or crafting a session for your home table, this episode will give you a whole new lens for thinking about entertainment value as a design principle.
Ryan's Links:
📺 Watch Taskmaster LA and explore more from Ryan at Geek Public on YouTube.
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