Knightmare creator Tim Child interviewed by Challenge TV in 2013

Geek Week: Tim Child Comments

By David Goldstein

The creator of Knightmare shares some thoughts and news about the Geek Week episode.


The return of Knightmare for YouTube's Geek Week in August 2013 has been widely commented upon online.

As well as the familiar faces of Hugo Myatt (Treguard) and Mark Knight (Lord Fear) being involved with the new episode, Knightmare's creator Tim Child was back at the helm(et) too.

So what did he think of it? Here are some of his 'notes on the reprised Knightmare', shared via our forum.

On the newcomers to the cast

"I thought both new girls [Isy Suttie and Jessie Cave] were excellent."

On the team

"They coped faultlessly with most of the logic puzzles, and were cruising towards a point when we were planning to freeze time and give them an honourable draw, when they suddenly did something quite silly and killed off their dungeoneer.

"The credit for this goes to 'Slice Me Dice Me' [first seen in the Knightmare VR pilot], simply one of the best puzzles we've ever used in Knightmare, and one which also offers immense flexibility and genuine threat.

"This team of adults were so intimidated by the giant blades that they neglected to 'shuffle' Stuart to the edge of his 'safe' pallet, from which point the jump to the next causeway was practical."

Aerial POV shot of 'Slice Me Dice Me' from the Geek Week episode of Knightmare (2013). The challenge was first seen in the Knightmare VR pilot of 2004.
The team reach the Slice Me Dice Me challenge

On the new episode

Tim has also brought exciting news about the new Knightmare episode:

"A full edit of and including all the material shot and played in Norwich on July 24/25 will be made available in due course. This includes the Fountain of Energy - described by Theodora Snitch (but deleted), allowing leaks from the Fountain in Level One to fall into Levels Two and Three, providing emergency energy renewal.

"As a gamesmaster, it's particularly useful for one can place it in perilous positions, forcing the players to take the risk, or not. Look on the end credit screen of the YouTube version and you will see it previewed."

According to Tim, the re-cut is also set to include "quite a lot of excellent team interaction [that] had to be lost together with three more dungeon chambers, and quite a bit of Lord Fear, Lissard and Theodora Snitch delivering game information which related to parts of the game we were no longer able to see" due to the time constraints on the Geek Week edit.

The extended version is now available.

You Might Also Like...

Combat Room

The 'Combat Room', found in Level 2 during the first and second seasons of Knightmare.

This room is styled as the scene of a battle, complete with battle axes and bloodied floor. It often hosted an encounter with a guard.

How Knightmare Began

The level one dungeon bomb room.

Part 1 of Tim Child's official history of Knightmare revisits how it all began - from the original idea in 1985 to getting a first series in 1987.

Nick Collett, Mark Knight, Cliff Barry

Mark Knight, Nick Collett, and Cliff Barry

Nick Collett (TimeBusters and Knightmare VR), Cliff Barry (Lissard), and Mark Knight (Lord Fear) discuss the Knightmare Geek Week episode.

See Also