Experience design and copycats

11 February 2026 In Dutch

In this episode we dig into experience design: what it actually is, why you don't design experiences but circumstances, and why that difference changes everything in escape rooms. We talk about the awards for Into the DarkVerse, about people who copy, and about the moment when you, as a maker, have to start thinking in scenarios instead of in your own logic. With detours to Ikea, a McDonald's trash can that's always just slightly in the wrong place, and the question of what's left when everything else falls away.

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What to expect

Why pineapple trees 2.0 remain a perfectly good metaphor, even though they don't exist
The three awards for Into the DarkVerse and what that recognition says about taking risks
Copycats versus inspiration: why copying the outside never touches the real work
What experience design is once you strip away the LinkedIn speak
Why you only design circumstances, and the experience comes to life inside the player
How Ikea buys your time and uses it to steer your behavior
The College of Extraordinary Experiences and why it isn't an escape room party
What You are the Story means at its core when everything else falls away
Designing puzzles from how it can go wrong, not from how it's supposed to go
Testing with groups: when it's useful and when it becomes an excuse
The McDonald's trash can problem as the perfect mini case study in bad design