We’re looking for a small group of players who can help us test in these languages! If you’re fluent or highly proficient in French, Spanish, Korean, or Japanese, we’d love you to help us check if we’ve got everything right, and fix any problems before they go out to the wider public.
Interested? Email jen@sixtostart.com with “ZR Testing” and the language you speak in the subject (so if you speak Spanish, your subject line would be “ZR Testing – Spanish”)
We’re getting ready to roll out our latest iOS update to ZR, and we’d like your help make as it good as it can be by joining our beta testing group. It’s easy and fun and you get to check out all the latest features early – although because these are pre-release versions, there is a chance the app could be a little less stable than usual!
We’re keen to hear your feedback about anything unexpected you discover while using the beta version of the app – just email us at support@zombiesrungame.com with your phone model and app version!
恭喜发财 Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái! Wishing you prosperity and happiness! Ahead of the release of our latest New Adventure, The Great Zodiac Race, writer Kim Richards gives us a fascinating explanation of the Lunar New Year, and how it is celebrated widely beyond the Chinese traditions we are often more familiar with.
The Great Zodiac Race is out on Tuesday 25th January 2022. To play, get Zombies, Run! for free on iPhone and Android.
It’s near time to celebrate the first full moon of the year, and for many of those with East and Southeast Asian heritage, this is a time of feasting, family gatherings, sharing joy and reflecting on the year ahead. Growing up in a mixed Chinese-Malaysian and British household, Lunar New Year was the biggest celebration of the year for my family. The house would be scrubbed from top to bottom, then decked out in red and gold decorations. My family would gather on the night before LNY for our Reunion Feast, which began with Yee Sang (‘Prosperity Toss Salad’); a huge dish of different ingredients symbolising various blessings that we all mixed together while cheering ‘Lo hei! Happy New Year!’ This would be followed by a hearty communal steamboat and exchanging oranges (symbolic of gold and luck) and ‘ang paos’ – red packets of crisp new bank notes.
Thanks to the global pandemic, our celebrations have been non-existent for the last two years, so writing ‘The Great Zodiac Race’ has been a real joy for me, allowing me to share the fun of how the order of the Zodiac calendar was decided. The Zodiac calendar and Lunar New Year are intrinsically linked – with the former laying down the theme for how we celebrate the latter.
‘Yee Sang’ is a dish that everyone at the table mixes together, using chopsticks. The aim is to toss the ingredients as high as you can!
But wait! Why did I say Lunar New Year, and not Chinese New Year? Lunar New Year is not just a Chinese festival! It is celebrated all over East and Southeast Asia; Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines…each community having both similar and different customs to celebrate ringing in the new year. While I personally celebrate with Chinese-Malaysian traditions, it is more acceptable to refer to the wider holiday as Lunar New Year, so as not to alienate people from different ethnicities. With this in mind, I’ve written this adventure based on what I am experienced with; the Chinese version of the Great Zodiac Race.
There are several localised variations of the original folk tale, mostly revolving around what animals are native to different countries. For instance, in Malaysia, Rabbit is replaced with Mousedeer, while the Nepalese Zodiac exchanges Dragon for Eagle, and Korea swaps Sheep with Goat and Pig with Boar.
Our last family Reunion Dinner, where we traditionally have steamboat (also known as hotpot.)
The biggest variation comes with Cat. You see, Cat was invited to take part in the race that would define the Zodiac calendar; but you’ll notice that no domestic kitties grace the 12 year cycle. This is because, in some stories, Rat never passed on the race invitation, or didn’t wake Cat in time to go to the race. In other stories, Cat participated, but Rat pushed her into the river near the end of the race, hence why Cat hates both water and Rat. However, Cat does appear in the Vietnamese Zodiac, replacing Rabbit.
2021 was the Year of the Ox; a time for perseverance and endurance. 2022 is the Year of the Tiger, who is associated with strength, confidence and exorcising evil (in further myth, Tiger eats evil spirits who try to invade the Jade Emperor’s court). Here’s hoping that Tiger’s qualities follow us in the year ahead; we deserve it after the last two years! If you wish to share Tiger related well wishes, here’s a rather sweet Mandarin expression: ‘虎啸祥瑞Hǔ xiào xiáng ruì!’ – ‘Tiger roars and calls for an auspicious New Year!’
I hope you enjoy the race – if you want to feel extra festive while running, consider wearing red clothing and reward yourself with an orange afterwards! I wish you a wonderful and prosperous year ahead. Gōng xǐ fā cái!
The Great Zodiac Race will be released on Tuesday 25th January 2022. To play, get Zombies, Run! for free on iPhone and Android.
A story of love, friendship and a coming out party that almost didn’t happen. Ahead of the release of our latest New Adventure – Coming Up Leon – writer Yves Donlon discusses the process of coming out and why the family you choose is so important to the queer community.
Coming Up Leon will be released on Wednesday 31st March 2021. To play, get Zombies, Run! for free on iPhone and Android.
Hello! I’m Yves, the writer of Coming Up Leon, a brand new adventure from Six to Start. I’m so excited for players to experience this story!
Coming Up Leon is about coming out, which can sometimes be a difficult endeavour. Not everyone gets parties and balloons—which is one of the reasons I wanted to write about someone who does. I wanted this adventure to be comforting, especially for those in my community who’ve had the most difficult of coming-out experiences, and while there are some elements of queer struggle in Coming Up Leon, it’s mostly a story about queer joy.
In Coming Up Leon, you’ll join a group of LGBTQ+ folks in central London whose friend Leon has gone missing—just in time to (potentially) ruin his own coming-out party! Enter: you. Your job is to track Leon down and make sure nothing gets in the way of arranging the perfect surprise.
Leon’s coming-out party is his chance to celebrate that he recently told his parents that he is transgender. A celebration like this can be an opportunity to commemorate not only one major time when you told family or friends about your identity, but to celebrate every coming-out moment you’ve been through, no matter how big or small. Maybe this adventure will inspire you to throw your own coming-out party, for you or a friend—or to give yourself a gift to celebrate all those coming-out moments so many of us experience every day
While you search for Leon, you’re going to be working pretty closely with his friends. You’ll get to know Momo and Ryan, Leon’s flatmates and the chief organizers of this coming-out extravaganza. Together they’ll guide you through this adventure—and they promise to keep the bickering to a minimum (we’ll see how that goes). Then there’s Anthony,Leon’s very sweet long-distance boyfriend who might have made a mistake with his present—he’ll make no friends on the afternoon train with that unwieldy gift clattering around. And it’s no surprise they’d all do anything to give Leon the perfect day—he’s a sensitive guy witha penchant for poetry and a heart of gold. If only he was where he’s supposed to be!
And then there’s… you! The Runner in this adventure is the one who ties everything together. No matter how you identify, you’re welcome to become a part of this little group. After all, at its heart, this is really a story about the family we choose. These friends are pretty tight-knit, I think they’ll be happy to let you become a part of their story..
I’m so excited that this adventure will be coming to you on Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s a day Leon and his friends would be sure to celebrate, and I hope you can join them in applauding the trans community and hoping for safety, comfort, and support for all.
Coming Up Leon will be released on Wednesday 31st March 2021. To play, get Zombies, Run! for free on iPhone and Android.
The course of true love never did run smooth, but if you’re in the romance business, it better!
Available now in Zombies, Run!, Matchmaker is a story of just how tricky it is to find love in the modern world, written by Emily Short. This is the latest project to be released from our New Adventures Commissioning process, and we can’t wait to share our first romance story with you all!
Once you’ve played Matchmaker and have embraced the warm and fuzzies, check out this conversation between Emily and Six to Start head of production Matt Wieteska to hear a little bit more about the inspiration for Matchmaker, Emily’s writing background, and why her notebook is very, very important. Be warned – this interview contains full spoilers for Matchmaker.
Cast
E.M. Williams: Laura
EM grew up in the Midlands with their Jamaican father and Irish mother. Their studies and training began in Kent, spanned California, and culminated in London at RCSSD. Specialising in physical theatre, aerial circus, and ensemble.
They have provided voices for many Zombies, Run! characters including a malfunctioning AI interface, an irritatingly upbeat aerobics instructor, and an environmental scientist who is way out of their depth.
Theatre Credits Include: My Brilliant Friend (National Theatre); Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (West End – Harold Pinter Theatre); Dinosaur World Live (Regents Park Open Air); The Book of Dragons (York Theatre Royal); The Selfish Giant (Arcola Theatre); Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke (New Diorama & AIIA Theatre, Tokyo).
Harriet Madeley: Antonia
Harriet’s writing/performance work include: The Listening Room (Theatre Royal Stratford East, The Lowry, Theatre Clwyd, Northern Stage, BBC Radio 4), The Colours (Soho Theatre, 2021 tour), Echoes (commissioned by Public Health England for the HIV Innovation Fund) & The Other Tchaikovsky(BBC Radio 4).
Her theatre company Crowded Room (which she runs with Mark Knightley) are currently under commission from Battersea Arts Centre & the Co Creating Change network and were recently shortlisted for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award at the Barbican for 2030 (commissioned by Collusion).
A lost cavern in the Arctic, a missing research team, and a lot of hungry dinosaurs! our latest New Adventure is full of primordial peril.
Before you head out on the Engstrom Expedition make sure you read through our essential safety guide. With slippery rocks, sudden drops and creatures around every corner, the caverns are a dangerous place. Best be prepared!
Zombies, Run! 