The chilling second training mission for our horrifying Halloween 2019 Virtual Race is now available for all race entrants!

Hold on tight and don’t forget to scream in the Second Training Mission for the Halloween 2019 Virtual Race!

The first Virtual Race training mission is now available! Have a sneak peek behind the curtain of the Runaway Fairground in this video from the recording studio, featuring Jen Tan (Jody), and Tom Syms (Martin).

Don’t miss your chance to sign up! https://zombiesvirtualrace.com/

You’ve been all a-tingle ever since you got the flyer: this is your only chance to catch the Runaway Funfair. Shake off the zombies, and ignore the sounds of clownish cackling ringing in your ears –

– it’s time to ride your First Training Mission for the Halloween 2019 Virtual Race!

You’ve just arrived home after a hard run, evading the hordes of the undead and collecting vital supplies for Abel Township. There, in your inbox, is an email from Sam, congratulating you on a run well done!

Milestone emails are one of our favourite things to create for Zombies, Run! No matter how your mission went, it’s always nice to get home and find a bit of praise and encouragement. Sadly, we don’t really have a Sam Yao around to write those messages for us (I know! We’re sad about that too!), but we have talked to our super talented artist, Kas Sweeney, who’s given us an insight into how she goes about creating our milestone emails.

“Putting together our milestone emails is honestly one of my favourite things to do for the game- I love the thought of Runner Five receiving these fun messages from the characters of Abel Township celebrating whatever amazing accomplishment they’ve achieved after a run, or chatting about the events of the most recent episode.

My process for putting these together is pretty straight forward! I’ll usually start by reading through the scripts of the relevant season, and picking out certain events that might be fun to have a character react to in their milestone email to Runner Five. Once I’ve figured out which story beats I’d like to hit and the tone I’d like to go for, I’ll then decide on which character is writing this message to Runner Five, as obviously we want to make sure the character is actually around for the events of the story! Relistening to the performances of these episodes is a great way of helping me figure out a character’s voice, and what they might be going through. I’ll then draft a letter in the voice of the character in question, before sending it off for approval by the writers. I really enjoy writing Sam, and I’ll leap at any chance to write a milestone from Simon given he’s my favourite of all time and I’m incredibly predictable.

Once we’ve received the thumbs up, I’ll move onto design. The look of these milestone emails is usually informed by two things: which character is sending the message, and in what context the message is being received. For instance, a letter from Sam hastily scrawled on a crumpled up piece of notebook paper and left on Runner Five’s cot is probably going to look a little different to an official letter from Major De Santa! It can be a fun challenge figuring out other ways of communicating a character’s personality through something other than the contents of their message. In order to highlight the difference between characters, I have specific fonts for each character’s handwriting, as well as different types of paper these characters might have access to. If the letter mentions an item the sender is leaving for Runner Five (like this pillow left by Runner Seven,) we’ll include an illustration of that item.

It’s been really fun getting the opportunity to play with these characters that I love so much, and do a little writing from their points of view. It always makes me really happy to see people posting their milestone emails on social media, and how tickled they are!”

Working on Zombies, Run! we’re lucky to have a very dedicated, creative and overall lovely fanbase. We try to celebrate that whenever we can, so we’ve been talking to some of our fans. In the second of our fan interviews, we talk to prolific Rofflenet user, Steve C (otherwise known as The Cagg), about dream races and apocalypse plans!

What got you into Zombies, Run!?

I was 39 years old and more than a little overweight. Toward the end of the summer my young son developed an understanding of how to pedal a bicycle. At the time I wasn’t able to run more than one city block without stopping or getting winded. I realized that the little guy would likely want to learn how to ride a two wheeled bike in the spring, and that it would be my job to teach him and that this would involve quite a bit of running. 

I had heard about the app several years prior and had downloaded it but it sat on my phone unused for a very long time. The 5k training version of the app is where I started. I don’t think I would have known where to begin if not for the coaching provided there. I wanted to quit about a month in, and that’s where the real magic of Zombies, Run kept me moving. In the simplest terms, I couldn’t stop because I wanted to know how the story in the 8 week program ended. 

I started the standard or main version of the app shortly after, signed up for a virtual race, and got to meet some very interesting people in real life along the way. 

The boy learned to ride his bike in 8 days but I’m still running more than three years later. To date I’ve run four half marathons, a feat that I wouldn’t have thought possible at one point. This fall will mark my fourth year running for Abel Township. My wife and son now run with me. She’s using Zombies, Run too. I’m looking toward hopefully running the NYC Marathon in 2020. 

Could you tell us about your favourite place to run?

I live in a heavily urban part of the world so there are a multitude of parks and landmarks. My favorite spot is probably Flushing Meadows Corona Park which is fairly near my home. It was the site of two twentieth century World’s Fairs (1939 and 1964). You’d probably recognise the Unisphere globe from Men in Black. I really do like to run out in the woods when I can but I rarely get the opportunity lately.

That sounds like a great place to run! If you could run a race anywhere in the world  though, where would it be?

I’ve had the privilege of running some interesting races in the U.S. including obstacle courses, and one that takes place on an abandoned highway involving two long and extremely dark tunnels (head lamp required). 

There’s a race in Louisiana I’d like to run where the finisher medal is a full sized machete. Disney looks like a lot of fun. The Great Wall Marathon would be incredible (and would likely kill me) as would just about any race in Australia. I’ve wanted to see that land for a long time. 

If I had to choose one place in the world it would probably be a race that happens in Antarctica. It’s a location that few people ever get to see. Just reaching and standing on the continent would be an adventure, let alone completing a race there!

What is your top running tip?

Don’t look for something to motivate you. On days when you don’t want to run but you really should, accept that you have no motivation and go anyway.

What would you job at Abel Township be?

In real life I’m trained as a paramedic so I’d likely be helping the docs out in the clinic or running to nearby townships and settlements to reach places where you wouldn’t want to risk the docs.

And do you have your own Zombie Apocalypse plan?

This is a topic my friends and I have mulled over several times, usually in the evening over backyard barbecue or during some other geeky activity. The truth is that I work in emergency services in one of the largest cities in the world. If a zombie outbreak ever happens, and it’s not controlled quickly, I’d probably get a front row seat. Given the population density I think it’s likely that I won’t be one of the lucky few that make it out alive, although Runner Five has beaten the odds before.

What’s your favourite music to run to?

I usually use the internal player with a list of hard rock music. Lately I’m using the companion app to my satellite radio subscription which has several “workout” channels.

Thank you so much for talking with us! You can find Steve as a regular contributor on Rofflenet!