Hello, Runners Five! From next week, we’ll be increasing the price of some subscriptions to new subscribers only.
As with previous price increases, if you’re an existing subscriber, you won’t see any price change providing you keep your subscription active (i.e. you don’t cancel and resubscribe). And if your subscription begins before next week, these increases will not affect you unless you allow your subscription to lapse without renewing it.
Abel Runner’s Club – Annual: Increasing to $39.99 USD from $34.99
Legacy Discount: Increasing to $19.99 USD from $7.99
We’re proud of making a game that makes exercising fun, and continually maintaining and improving it for almost a decade. We put our prices up only when we believe it’s necessary to make sure we can keep giving Zombies, Run! the attention it deserves, so that’s why this is our first price increase in two years. For non-USD currencies, the exact price change will vary.
Increasing the cost of new subscriptions allows us to increase the resources we can dedicate to improving Zombies, Run! and adding new kinds of gameplay and storytelling. It also lets us pay our staff fairly. We believe our new subscription prices are still great value, and highly competitive against comparable health and fitness apps – though there’s nothing quite like ZR out there!
You’ll find all the details you need above, along with pay ranges and how to apply!
About Six to Start
We make content for absolutely everyone
At Six to Start we believe in everyone’s right to exist and be seen. We tell diverse stories in our app with caring, idealistic characters that our players love. Our workplace reflects this mission with our commitment to equality, inclusion and mutual support. Here’s what some of our players say:
“I love this beautiful inclusive world you’ve created that you’ve allowed us to be a part of. Zombies, Run! has helped me through a lot of trying times and I don’t know what I’d be doing without y’all.”
“Zombies, Run is an exercise app, but its ALSO an incredible audio podcast where u are the main character. has lovable diverse cast of chars. and motivates you IRL to exercise at any pace you prefer! its literally the only thing thats ever made me exercise for fun and i love it.”
We are not a startup
We think “hustle” is code for overwork. From the way we plan projects onward, we do everything we can to ensure people work 40 hours a week even in release-heavy months. We also support part-time working and extra flexibility for meeting needs and challenges like caring for others, crisis and personal health.
We build better processes
We believe in creating thoughtful, sustainable processes that make our work easier, rather than relying on volume of effort to get the job done. We’re committed to constant self-scouting and continual improvement as a way of ensuring as stress-free and sustainable a work life as we’re able to create.
Are you a ZR 5K Training player? The National University of Singapore is conducting research on gamified apps and they need your help! Ten 1-Year Abel Runner’s Club vouchers are up for grabs (worth $35 USD each) as part of a random drawing of participants!
Read on for the survey details!
There has been significant interest in examining the potential health consequences of gamified therapeutics such as the Zombies, Run! 5k Training app. In fact, in line with WHO recommendations, video games are being prescribed as a recommended treatment for homebound existence brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Our goal is to understand user experiences pertinent in gaming to investigate how and when to elicit such experiences in gamified therapeutics. Your participation will help to improve the overall positive impact of these technologies.
You can contribute to these efforts in the following ways:
Participate in the survey.
Read the survey questions carefully.
Process all the given alternatives carefully.
Be honest and candid.
All responses will be kept confidential. It is your personal opinions that are important. Only your personal experience or knowledge is required to answer the questions.
All Runners 5 will know about the emails from Abel Township residents like Sam, Jody, and Janine after a mission. We love writing and designing these, and from today, you can revisit them at any time on ZombieLink! So if you’ve lost or deleted a “milestone email”, or you just want a better way of exploring them, look no further than their ZombieLink mission page.
Ever been on a mission from Abel Township and wondered when it was time to turn back home? Then you’ll love our new audio notifications, out now in our 9.3.0 update on Android and iPhone!
We’ve added four ways to hear about your progress while you’re running:
Rolling Pace: Pace for your most recent mile or kilometer
Overall Pace: Pace for your entire run so far
Remaining Progress: Amount of time or distance left until your mission is complete
Halfway Through: Triggers when you’re halfway through your set run duration, which for most runners will be when you’re halfway through a mission
These options will work slightly differently (or won’t apply) on different game modes – for example, Supply Missions, Interval Training, and Airdrop won’t play the “Halfway Through” announcement. But we hope you’ll find them useful while you’re out saving the world!
You can find all of these options in the More > Settings screen in the app, and they’re available to both free and paid subscribers.
Also in 9.3.0…
On Android:
You can now adjust run durations by 0.1 km/mile or 1 minute increments
We’ll remind you to sync to ZombieLink if you aren’t logged in
We hope you’re ready, Runner 5: Jack & Eugene’s World Tour is three times bigger than our normal virtual races, and their epic journey to Abel Township is starting Thursday 29th April! Here’s the full lineup for Part 1:
AMBIENT MODE 1 📻 An experimental new prelude… 29 April
TRAINING MISSION 1 👟 6 May
TRAINING MISSION 2 👟 13 May
5K + 10K RACE 🏁 20 May
You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And you’ll run!
All VIP members will get instant access to Jack & Eugene’s World Tour as soon as it’s out, along with all 11 past virtual races.
Upgrade to VIP today by tapping More > Membership in the app, or buy a gift code online from just $49.99!
A Special Message from Jack and Eugene
Hello from beautiful Alderney, Runner Five! How are you doing? I really hope this care package has arrived in one piece, and that it didn’t take too long to get to you. Never thought I’d have so much nostalgia for the post, of all things!
Gene and I are doing really well at the moment – we’ve finally got our space set up just the way we like, and it feels really good to be a bit more settled, even if it is weird having so much room to ourselves. Even though it was cramped and the generator was always half a second away from dying or catching fire, I have to admit, I think I’m always going to miss our studio at Abel. It was home for such a long time, you know?
Speaking of, we actually found one of your old mix tapes you made for Radio Abel back in the day, and I have to say, you’ve got some absolute bangers on here! It’s been really nice relistening to it and thinking of you guys.
I hope you’re doing well and staying safe, Five. Make sure Janine doesn’t work you too hard, yeah? We miss you.
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.
Join your favourite radio hosts, Jack & Eugene, on their epic journey to Abel Township. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll run! 9 missions. 3 races. 1 glorious adventure.
That’s right: Jack & Eugene’s World Tour is three times bigger than any of our previous virtual races, and will run throughout 2021! (and it won’t even be the only virtual race we run this year – but that’s a story for another time…)
The race is available to all VIP members, and if you haven’t signed up yet (or you want to treat your friends!), check out our new twin-pack and 6-month VIP membership gift options! You can also sign up to VIP in your app by tapping More > Membership.
Grab the J+E Pack…
Since this is our biggest race, it was only fitting that we make our biggest souvenir pack ever!
Whether you’re a first time caller or a long time listener to Radio Abel, you’ll love the gorgeous double-sided medal, all-new Affirmation Cards, temporary tattoo sheet (with shippo!), button badges, running bib, and so much more!
Sure, it might seem a bit odd for the boys to be assembling these, but self-care’s an essential part of survival, even during a zombie apocalypse…
Tell the world you’re definitely not a zombie with our fantastic tech shirts and tank-tops! Decorated with Jack and Eugene’s trademark ‘Radio Abel’ flair, you’ll be met with open arms by their fans and friends during your runs across the country.
And don’t miss our tote bag for all the tour merch you’ll collect, plus a mug for that early morning or late night Radio Abel listening!
Sign up or give the gift of VIP starting from just $49.99 – now available in twin packs and 6 month durations! It’s the best way to bring your crew on Jack & Eugene’s World Tour and show them what they’ve been missing with our 11 other virtual races!
Earlier this year we launched The Home Front, our free series of home bodyweight workouts for everyone around the world in lockdown. These workouts have been played hundreds of thousands of times and we’re incredibly proud of what we accomplished by repurposing the app’s “run engine” for new kinds of storytelling and exercises.
But we wanted to do even better – so with our 9.2 update, we’re introducing a brand new dedicated Home Workout mode!
Home Workout Mode preview
Home Workout mode lets you view all the exercises you’ll be performing, with clear step-by-step instructions and gorgeous illustrations by our artist, Kascha Sweeney. And these instructions aren’t just visible before you begin, but also during your workout!
Step Up exercise instructions during Jody’s Lock-in workout
Adding these instructions directly in the app gives us much more flexibility for future storytelling. In The Home Front, our characters had to give you exercise instructions out loud – this worked for Ministry broadcasts that told you how to work out indoors, but it wouldn’t work for different kinds of stories where there’s less reason for people to tell you how to exactly do a wall sit or mountain climbers!
So yes, that means we will be using Home Workout mode beyond the epic 35-part Home Front story. Stay tuned…!
Between releasing the Home Front Home Workouts, and our tenth Virtual Race, it’s hard to believe that our first round of New Adventures submissions only took place a year ago and we’re in the process of recording the last of them! We’ve come a long way since then and are currently working our way through our second round of submissions to find our next set of exciting stories.
With that underway, we are taking a look at the New Adventures that we’ve released over the last year!
Between the Lines
Between the Lines by Tom Crowley
A man with mysterious motives, a long abandoned house and a secret that bled into the ground itself. Put your headphones in and enjoy this thrilling audiobook ‘Never Alone’! But there may be more than meets the ear in this deadly tale, by Tom Crowley (Wooden Overcoats podcast).
Genre: Mystery, horror
Length: 1 Episode
A Study in Ichor
A Study in Ichor by the Zombies, Run! team
A stolen watch, a fleet-footed thief, and the project to build London’s underground railway lead to the discovery of a darker secret lurking in the city’s underbelly. You’d better keep your wits about you in this New Adventure from the Zombies, Run! team.
Genre: Horror, adventure
Length: 5 Episodes
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly by Jessica Wright Buha
Join crusading journalist Nellie Bly as she races to travel around the world in under 80 days. This five-part series by Jessica Wright Buha (Unwell podcast) will take you on a whistle stop tour of the globe in the late 1800s, as Nellie sets off from New York in an attempt to beat the time of Jules Verne’s famous novel.
Genre: Historical adventure
Length: 5 Episodes
Wreck Runner
Wreck Runner by Mur Lafferty and Alasdair Stuart
Welcome to SolFleet! As a member of a salvage crew, you explore the remains of spaceships, recover abandoned supplies, information, and sometimes people. But when a ship missing for a decade emerges from hiding, you might have bigger problems than meeting your salvage quota in this New Adventure from Mur Lafferty (EscapePod, Ditch Diggers, Six Wakes), and Alasdair Stuart (Escape Artists podcast).
Genre: Sci-fi, adventure
Length: 3 Episodes
Volcano Race
Volcano Race by Alex Acks
As a technical intern working to gather data on Mt. Archie, you expected the work to be hard – you didn’t expect it to be life threatening. When you pick up abnormal readings from the mountain, it’s clear that an eruption is imminent, and you’re in the blast radius, in this two-part New Adventure by Alex Acks (Superhero Workout, Hunger Makes the Wolf).
Genre: Action, science
Length: 2 Episodes (1 training mission + 10K race)
Dinosaur Dash
Dinosaur Dash by Andrea Phillips
A top secret research outpost beneath the ice has made an amazing discovery – living dinosaurs! But some of the research team have gone missing, and there’s evidence of sabotage. You’ll need to move quickly to save your people before the dinos get them, in this thrilling race from Andrea Phillips (The Walk, America Inc.)
Genre: Action, adventure
Length: 3 episodes (2 training missions +5K/10K race)
Little Red
Little Red by Corvyn Appleby
Dare you go into the woods at night? You’re a mercenary hired to protect one small girl visiting a relative, but there’s a monster on the loose, and grandmother’s house is so very far away. You’d better move quickly, because there are worse things than wolves waiting in the dark, in this creepy tale by Corvyn Appleby.
Genre: Horror, dark fantasy
Length: 1 Episode
Venus Rising
Venus Rising by Elliott Gresswell
Pandora Haze’s Venus colony is a marvel of engineering. But something has gone very wrong. With the colony out of contact for weeks, you are sent in as the rescue squad. Will you find the survivors there? Or is there something much worse waiting for you?
Genre: Sci-fi Horror
Length: 5 Episodes
Run Olympus Mons
Run Olympus Mons
Put on your space suit and travel across the surface as Mars as you climb the tallest mountain in the solar system – Olympus Mons. With your guide, scale cliffs and cross craters as you learn about the history and science of the red planet.
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 1 Episode
Rule Britannia
Rule Britannia by the Zombies, Run! team
A letter from the Roman Emperor could lead to peace between your camp, and the Pictish forces you’re at war with. But there’s a dark plan afoot, and worse things than enemy warriors in the world. Travel back to Roman Britain and encounter some familiar faces in this New Adventure from the Zombies, Run! team.
Genre: Action-adventure
Length: 5 Episodes
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon by Alex Acks
Created over the course of millions of years, the Grand Canyon is one of the wonders of the natural world. In this 5k or 10k mission by Alex Acks (Superhero Workout, Hunger Makes the Wolf), journey along the full 446km length of the Grand Canyon to explore its fascinating cultural and geological history.
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 2 Episodes (1 Training mission + 5K/10K race)
Matchmaker
Matchmaker by Emily Short
You have reached Silver Bells Matchmaking! For a consultation, press 1.
Can a matchmaking service using all the latest tech really find a perfect match? Antonia and Laura definitely think so, and have agreed to record a ringing endorsement for the company. But is wedded bliss truly on the horizon for the couple? Mistakes, missed connections, and meddling relatives, stand in the way of happiness in this romantic comedy by Emily Short (BBC Game Over, Sunless Sea).
Genre: Romantic comedy
Length: 1 Episode
Home Run
In conjunction with Internet League Blaseball, we present to you this special broadcast! Become Blaseball star Pendleton Hampers as you take on the pitcher’s mound and the horrors that lie beyond. Run the bases as if your life depended on it!
Genre: Blaseball, weird
Length: 1 Episode
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark, by Alex Acks
Join your ChronoRun time travel companion as you embark on a journey across North America and learn about the trials and tribulation of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the Pacific in this 2-part New Adventure by Alex Acks (Superhero Workout, Hunger Makes the Wolf).
Genre: Historical non-fiction
Length: 2 Episodes (1 Training Mission + 10K race)
Track the Ripper
Track the Ripper by Lulu Khadim
Team up with Detective Marsh and Sergeant Swift to catch Jack the Ripper before the next attack!
Genre: Historical drama
Length: 1 Episode
Journey to the Centre of the Eye
Journey to the Centre of the Eye in association with Fight for Sight
Shrink down to the size of a photon, and explore the inner workings of your eye and how every part works together to allow you to see!
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 1 Episode (10K race)
Run the Solar System
Run the Solar System with the British Science Association
From the heat of the sun, to the outermost icy planets, explore the breadth of our solar system. The race chronicles a journey from the Sun to Neptune, with a bonus astronaut training mission to prepare you for space!
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 2 Episodes (1 Training Mission + 10K race)
Run with the Ancestors
Run with the Ancestors with the British Science Association
Travel back in time one million years to explore the earliest days of humans in Britain. Explore a landscape dominated by mammoths and sabre-toothed cats, and learn about the changing fortunes of the people who first set foot on this land.
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 1 Episode (5K or 10K race)
Run to the Deep
Run to the Deep with the British Science Association
Explore the ocean, from the surface to depths of the abyss! Accompanied by explorer Pierre-Yves Cousteau, discover amazing seascapes and alien environments, and the creatures that live beneath the waves.
Zombies, Run! 