This is a guest post by Naomi Alderman, lead writer on Zombies, Run! 

The launch of Zombies, Run! 2 is just around the corner, which seems a great time to announce a new member of the writing time: Andrea, better known on Tumblr as thischarmingand has joined us for the writing of Season 2. Yes, Andrea writes Zombies, Run! fanfic. Yes, that’s how we found her and fell in love with her work. No, I don’t really understand why more shows/games/zombie-based-fitness apps don’t do this.

I’ve been a fan fiction enthusiast for a long time. In the (fairly) distant past, I wrote fanfic myself, and last year I made a documentary about fanfic for BBC Radio 4. Unlike some authors, I’ve always felt fanfic was a massive compliment rather than someone trying to steal my characters.

Since we launched last February, there’s been a steady stream of Zombies, Run! fan fiction. Jack and Eugene – the gorgeous creations of Matt Wieteska, the Zombies, Run! sound director – are firm favourites, and Runner 8, Maxine and cough Runner Five/Sam slash fiction crop up often. On long nights making the game, the love for Zombies, Run! on Tumblr has kept me motivated.

Last summer, Matt and I were chatting about the various fanfic writers out there. “There’s one whose work is incredible,” said I. “Yup,” said Matt, “thischarmingand.” I’d especially loved this piece – in which Andrea’s grasp of the characters’ voices was so pitch-perfect I felt like I’d written it myself. Except I’m not that funny.

Adrian and I agreed that Season 2 would be more than twice as long as Season 1 so it was clear that I needed more writers. And that someone who knew and loved the game and was incidentally able to write all the characters with perfect voices. I spent a couple of weeks wondering if I was allowed to offer Andrea a job, until I realised that, duh, I’m the lead writer and I get to decide what’s allowed.

So we emailed Andrea – known around the office as Fandrea, to distinguish her from friend-of-Six-to-Start-and-Naomi-Alderman Andrea Phillips. And after we managed to convince her that it wasn’t a practical joke, we got writing.

One question that occurred early on – would we have to stop Andrea from writing fanfic if we told her all the juicy plot developments in Season 2? In the end, we decided that we’d erect a Wall of Silence – and as long as Andrea was writing side missions not main-arc missions she could happily write away without knowing much about the tragic/hilarious/romantic/running-based Season 2 plot.  This approach seems to have worked surprisingly well – it’s brought a different feel to Andrea’s missions, which makes them a nice mix with the main storyline.

I asked Andrea herself to answer a few questions about the process, so we could hear how it went from her perspective.

• How did you first hear about ZR?

My best friend, who was a much earlier Tumblr adopter than I was, heard about the game when the original Kickstarter was getting passed around that site but had already been funded. She bought the game when it came out and pretty much immediately and started bugging me to buy Zombies, Run! so we could commiserate about it.

I ended up pulling the trigger on it when I moved cities last summer for work (long, boring story) and started roller skating on outdoor trails more often. Listening to music while skating wasn’t cutting it, especially since my music player at the time only held about a gig of stuff and was no longer syncing with my computer. Trust me when I say that an exercise playlist made up of, like, three upbeat David Bowie
songs gets old fast.

• What was your first piece of fanfic and what made you decide to write it?

Aaah, I went and looked it up and it’s kind of embarrassing how quickly I wrote fic. Within a week of starting the game, I knew I needed to write about the Radio Boyfriends (Jack and Eugene, to those of you who don’t hang out on Tumblr.) So that’s what the first one was about: wanderin’ around in the zombie wilds pre-Abel and talking about music. Typical Jack and Eugene stuff.

I really don’t know what it is about Radio Mode that grabbed me immediately. Maybe the banter? I’m a sucker for snappy dialogue. Oh, and that I’m obsessed with epic road trip stories, and those two are the perfect opportunity to write one of those (or, like 12. I’m probably up to 12 now).

Mostly, I just wanted to read more about these characters so, so badly, and no one was writing what I wanted. So, be the change you want to see, right?

• Definitely. That’s part of why I write in general – to make the stuff I wish existed. What was it like getting that “we’d like you to write for the game” email?

Well, “write for the game Tumblr ask” you mean. Which freaked me right out, when I pulled it up on my phone over a lunch break one day at work. I’m not even that used to getting Tumblr asks, period, never mind offers of writing work from the creator of one of my favourite games.

I was so surprised, actually, that I accidentally threw my phone at the guy sitting at the desk in front of me. (Luckily, he was an intern, so he was too scared of everyone to get mad.) Then I went outside and fell down in the parking lot several times while hissing “eeeeeee.” So. That probably says everything you need to know.

• Hee. I have to say, it was a pretty exciting moment getting in touch with you. I imagined how I’d have felt if Joss Whedon emailed me to say he wanted me to write for Buffy. And then I couldn’t imagine that anymore because my head was going to explode. So, other than falling down in parking lots, what’s been the best part of the writing-for-the-game process and what the most challenging?

I have a shortlist of things I cannot believe I got to do while writing for the game, but they’re all spoilers. Let’s just say the creative freedom you allowed me, as a random person you found on the internet, was phenomenal. Also, I really liked it that you laughed at nearly all of my jokes. Thanks for that, Naomi.

The most challenging thing is probably best summed up by something you said to me a month or two ago, which was that in an audio-based game “no one can see you point.” Also, god, Runner Five. Why have you got to be running all the time? Why can’t the game sometimes be Zombies, Sit Down and Take a Break for a Minute?

• Yes, I’ve often thought that myself. I am constantly annoyed with myself for not having come up with some idea early on which would involve Runner Five not running from time to time…  And is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

I’d like to say that Zombies, Run has about the best fandom I’ve ever wandered into. Your fans are a group of funny, creative, awesome people and one of the best things about buying this game was getting to internet-meet a bunch of them. Much as I love the game, without them I can’t imagine I would have gotten so crazily invested or written nearly as much fic. So this whole gig is probably their faults, at least a little.

• And that being the case, we thank our fans too!

In all, there are ten Fandrea-written missions in Season 2 – they have her trademark wit and exciting plotlines, they fit into the Zombies, Run! universe like a (n undead) hand in a (biohazard) glove and I’m incredibly proud of them. I’m proud of the whole thing, actually. I think you’re going to love it. Oh, and Sam says hi. In a shy way. Because he can’t tell you how he really feels. 

Like some kind of zombie plague, Zombies, Run! has been popping up all over the place recently. Between our panel at SXSW, Tomb Raider/Grey’s Anatomy actress Camilla Luddington name dropping us on Conan, and other appearances across the internet, wherever you turn, we’re there. Just in case you missed any, here’s a round-up of everything that’s happened recently:

SXSW Panel

If you weren’t able to make it to our SXSW panel in Austin, Teaxs, we’ve got the full audio of the talk available to download. While you’ll miss out on seeing their lovely faces, you’ll still be able to enjoy hearing CEO Adrian Hon, Director Matt Wieteska, Lead Developer Alex Macmillan and Lead Writer and Co-Creator Naomi Alderman talk about what makes the game so successful and how immersive storytelling is the future of fitness games.

(and if you fancy going for the full meta-experience, why not listen while playing Zombies, Run!? You can grab the audio track right here from Soundcloud)

Conan O’Brien

The first of two shout outs given by Camilla Luddington, the voice actress for Lara Croft in the new Tomb Raider game. Clearly she’s a pretty big fan of Zombies, Run! as she talked about us on Conan recently. It just so happens, we’re pretty big fans of her’s (and Tomb Raider’s), too. Abel has never had an archaeologist visitor before, but we’re certainly open to the idea…

http://teamcoco.com/embed/v/49608

Nerdist podcast

Again, Camilla Luddington mentions us in an interview on the Nerdist podcast. We’ve not even asked her to do this, we swear! Check out the full interview over at the Nerdist website.

Loading Bar

Remember the London-based Loading Bar crowd-funding campaign? They’ve found a potential venue in the heart of Soho and organised an open day to test the waters. A few Six to Starters were in attendance to check out the unique game-influenced cocktails and play a few rounds of Micro Machines on the SNES. The best part? The resident artist, Cosmic Images, was filling the walls with game-related artwork throughout the day.

Including, as you may have already spotted, the Zombies, Run! logo. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Link, Batman and Lara Croft(‘s scary, toothy sister).

HackCollege’s Gamification of Fitness

We were included in HackCollege’s Gamification of Fitness round up video. Worth checking out, over at the HackCollege website.

Zombies, Run! 2 status

Development on Zombies, Run! 2 is going really well. We’ve just started another batch of voice recording and we’re well on track for our April 16th release date on both iOS and Android devices. Even despite half the team gallivanting off to Austin to attend SXSW!

ZombieLink downtime

In order to prepare ZombieLink for Zombies, Run! 2 we’ll be taking the servers offline for hopefully no more than a couple of hours, starting at 11am GMT on Thursday, 21st March.

During this time, you won’t be able to upload or download any run data or base data to or from your device. Don’t worry though – once our servers are back up, any runs performed during this time will sync with no problems.

The ZombieLink website will also be down, so you will be unable to login or view any run records online. We’ll be tweeting live updates during the process, so keep an eye on @zombiesrungame to know exactly when the website will be up or down.

“When is Zombies, Run! 2 coming out?”, we hear you cry. “Spring! It’ll be out in the spring!”, we yell back. “What does that even mean?”, you retort. And also “but I live in Australia!”, from some of you.

Today we’re going to do away with all confusion: Zombies, Run! 2 has a firm release date and it is April 16th. As announced yesterday, this date is for both iOS and Android.

Don’t forget, Zombies, Run! 2 will be a free upgrade for current players of Zombies, Run! Along with all of Season 1, the game will come with seven free missions to begin with, including four Season 2 missions and three sidequests. We’ll begin releasing three additional missions every week starting from late April/early May, and as soon as we’ve nailed down the details for this, we’ll let you know!

So, if you’re looking to replay (or finish!) Zombies, Run! before the release of Zombies, Run! 2, now’s a great time to start. You have 47 days!

iOS users: Zombies, Run! 2 will require iOS 6+. In practice, this won’t affect anyone except for iPod Touch 3rd gen users – everyone else who’s already playing ZR will be fine!

Android users: Zombies, Run! 2 will require Android 4.0+

Fear not, Android fans! We promised you an update on the development of the Android version of Zombies, Run! 2 and here it is:

We are right on track to deliver both the Android and iOS versions of Zombies, Run! 2 on the same day. That’s right – no more waiting!

This also means that weekly mission releases will also be available simultaneously across both platforms, so no matter what device you have, you’ll never be behind on the story. We’re also planning on both versions having core feature parity, unlike with the original Zombies, Run! In other words, Android and iOS players will have the same gameplay experience.

Screenshots shown in this post are from an early development build of Zombies, Run! 2 for Android devices. Just to prove that we’re not lying – it really is in development and is taking shape!

Back when we developed the first version of Zombies, Run!, we released on iOS first with the Android version coming a few months later. This was mainly because we had far more backers and pre-sales from people on iOS than on Android. Like most games companies, we only had a limited number of developers so we had to pick one platform to launch on first, so it was a straightforward decision to make.

For Zombies, Run! 2, however, it’s very important to us that we treat Android the same as iOS. We really appreciate the support we’ve had from our Android players and from the Google Play Store team, and we’re confident that Android sales of Zombies, Run! will continue to catch up with iOS.

Currently, we’re developing for Android 4.0+ devices only. This not only allows us to develop the game much faster but it also means we can reach a higher level of polish and performance – something that we couldn’t do if we supported older versions.

We know this will disappoint some of you, but our user stats show that only a small percentage of our Android players are still running versions earlier than 4.0. It’s possible we will be able to back-port the game for Android 2.3, but this will not be possible for launch.

It’s worth saying that the nature of game development means that it’s always possible that problems may crop up that will prevent a simultaneous release, but whatever happens, we want the wait between the iOS and Android releases to be as short as possible.

So, as soon as we have a concrete release date (singular!) or anything changes in this area, we’ll be sure to let you guys know!

Zombies, Run! 2 is really starting to take shape now, so we want to present you with our very first look at the game’s new interface.

Please note, these screens show an app that is still very much in development; you will see placeholder text and graphics that will be different in the final version of the game.

This is the Zombies, Run! 2 Home Screen. We’ll keep you notified of any in-game updates, along with any newly released missions, via this screen. That welcome banner may or may not make it into the final game, but we are definitely planning on implementing a user system so you can have multiple players on a single device.

As you can see, the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen is similar to that found in the original Zombies, Run!, except that it looks much cooler. However, because we’re fitting so much new stuff into this game, the button furthest on the right will open a new screen which houses the Codex, Run Logs, Settings and a bunch of other miscellany. No screenshot of that, because it’s largely a list of words, which isn’t very exciting to look at.

Instead, let’s take a look at the Missions Screen.

This too has been revamped and, we hope you’ll agree, looks much prettier. These ‘mission cards’ will expand when touched to show more information along with a download button and your normal mission options. Swiping across the screen will change the page, so that you can access Season 2 missions, Radio missions and more… (we’re showing you a list of Season 1 missions because we don’t want to reveal the titles of Season 2 missions just yet!)

Next, let’s take a look at the Base Builder. This is the real meat of the Zombies, Run! 2 visual interface and is the area in which we’ve made the biggest and most visible improvements.

So, here it is! This is Abel Township. Or, at least, this is my Abel Township. Yours will probably look very different, thanks to the ability to place your own buildings wherever you like within the Township walls. Running out of space? Spend some supplies on expanding your walls outwards.

At the top of the screen you can see a bar containing your base’s stats. From left to right, you can see current population/max population, defence level, morale level and the number of collected supplies and materials you currently own.

Want to add a new building? Just press the New Building button. Pretty sure we couldn’t have made this stuff any easier. You’ll be confronted with the following screen, but probably with a few additional buildings and amenities thrown in for good measure. This is just a basic list to show give you an idea of what it will look like. Don’t be surprised if any requirements and/or costs are different in the final game.

Placing your new building in your base is simply a case of dragging and dropping it into the world.

Clicking on a building will show you more detailed information. Again, I must reiterate that there is a lot of placeholder content in the game right now. That flavour text? That definitely won’t be in the final game.

It’s here that you’ll be able to upgrade your buildings. Each building has a set of requirements that need to be met before you can go ahead and upgrade. You can also demolish the building to regain some supplies, or invest in add-ons. We’ll be talking more about add-ons at a later date.

Yes, these are iOS screens, but don’t worry Android users! We’re working hard on the Android version and it’s looking great. We’ll have more information on this very soon.

We hope you like what you see in these first screenshots of Zombies, Run! 2! We’ve a little way to go before we’re finished, but hopefully this has got you a little more hyped for the game’s release in the Spring.

Hello, Alex Macmillan* from the development team here. Babu, Luis, George and I are currently working full pelt to bring you Zombies, Run! 2 on both iOS and Android as close to one-another as possible. (We’ll have more information about the Android version of Zombies, Run! 2 very soon!)

*There are two Alexs at Six to Start now, Alex Primavesi joined us recently to work on a new project with the support of the UK Department of Health.

One thing we’re particularly excited to share about Zombies, Run! 2 is that we are making the game 100% VoiceOver enabled and thus fully accessible for as many players as possible on iOS.

VoiceOver is Apple’s screen-reader technology for iOS. When you turn VoiceOver on it describes whatever your finger is touching using a computer-generated voice. If your finger is over a button, you can double-tap to activate the button. To scroll a list, you use two fingers.

Our sight-impaired players

We were surprised when we found out how many blind and sight-impaired people had bought and become fans of  Zombies, Run! Many contacted us with the same particular problem — that while our players had no trouble playing through the missions (after all, it’s all audio!) — there was no way for our VoiceOver-using players to upgrade Abel Township. This is something we wanted to fix for Zombies, Run! 2 as a matter of priority.

Here comes the technical bit. If you can feel your eyes glazing over faster than a car windscreen in freezing fog, I won’t be offended if you skip the next section.

The technical bit!

To display Abel Township in all of it’s high resolution glory and to enable the visual effects (which we have many of more in ZR2! than the original game), we needed a graphics engine. We chose the most popular engine available for iPhone, cocos2d. The engine does the hard work of loading Abel Township’s buildings into the phone’s graphics memory and then rendering them onto the screen of the phone in under sixteen milliseconds (so that we can do it sixty times a second for a butter-smooth experience).

However, the gotcha is that Apple’s VoiceOver technology can only describe parts of the interface that are made from Apple’s user interface components – things like text labels, buttons, lists and alerts.

Because we’re using a game engine, VoiceOver has no way of describing what’s on screen. Additionally, because VoiceOver changes the way touching and dragging works it’s impossible to pick up and allocate supplies, or pan and zoom the base.

How we’re addressing accessibility in ZR2

In Zombies, Run! 2 on iOS we have built two separate interfaces for managing your base — one uses the same tech as ZR1 but is optimised so that we can show more buildings, a detailed environment, and many more visual effects. We’ve got much better at optimising graphics in ZR2 — the game starts faster, and we’re seeing smooth performance on the iPhone 3GS, right up to the iPhone 5, and on Android with LibGDX as well.

The second interface — the “schematic view” — shows your base using only Apple’s user interface components. It’s like a top-down strategic view of your base. And because it’s made using only “native” UI components, it works perfectly with VoiceOver.

All players can access both interfaces.

There are a couple of things that I’m proud of with our approach.

1) Aiming to make the game VoiceOver compatible allowed us to start testing earlier. Managing the base in Zombies, Run! 2 is a complicated affair – you have to make sure your base can support it’s growing population, and keep people happy at the same time as managing your base’s defences. We want this to be fun and rewarding, and we wanted to start refining these mechanics as soon as possible.

Prototyping with the “schematic view” meant Adrian (our CEO) could start managing bases and balancing the gameplay without programming a 2D game engine, or waiting for first drafts of the building artwork from our graphic artists Estée and Michael.

2) Regardless of whether you use the graphics view or the schematic view, you’re playing the same game. Initially we thought that the accessible version of the base builder might simply show a list of buildings in your base, rather than a map.

But that created a problem – how do we convey to the user that they can’t build a building because they’ve run out of space? And even if there is enough space, how do we explain that the building is the wrong shape for it? We considered throwing out the “space management” aspect of the accessible base builder entirely.

Ultimately we realised this was stupid. Why should we make the game simpler just because the interface needs to be accessible? Why should we deprive people the fun of cramming their buildings together into the most efficient possible layout? We discarded the list idea and implemented a proper map instead.

A game for everybody

Given that Zombies, Run! is at its heart an aural experience, it is one of our highest priorities to make the game fully accessible to all of our players, be they sighted or visually impaired. We are delighted that this will be possible on iOS from day one, and are working hard to bring the same accessibility to Android as soon as possible.

Did you enjoy this closer look at the development process for Zombies, Run! 2? Would you like to know more? Let me know what you think at alex@sixtostart.com.

We’re back with another look behind the scenes of Zombies, Run! 2. This time we’re focused on the actors and what exactly goes on inside that new sound booth of ours. It’s hard to show voice actors at their finest without, you know, hearing their voices, so we’ve put together a few videos showing just a snippet of the recording sessions from before Christmas. 

We’ve tried to make sure that these videos are as spoiler-free as possible. There are no large plot spoilers, but obviously watching them will result in hearing portions of dialogue (and a touch of singing) ahead of the game’s release. You’ve been warned!

First up, we have a scene featuring Archie (who you should recognise from the New Canton Race Missions) and Nadia, the New Canton radio operator. That weird guy hiding in the corner is our director, Matt Wieteska. If he looks tired in any of these videos, it’s because he spent almost a full month practically living in this tiny dark room in order to bring you the very best performances our actors could give us.

Next up, a scene featuring everyone’s favourite radio operator, Sam Yao. Archie’s back, along with Doctor Maxine Myers and new character Jamie. There may or may not be a puppy involved… and this one does have an actual spoiler for a (little) part of the plot so if you’re concerned about remaining pristinely unspoiled, stay away.

Now something a little special. What happens when Sam Yao, Janine and Jody (Runner 4) are asked to wrap a tune around a set of song lyrics? Watch and find out…

And here’s the final scene featuring your new (least) favourite song – Text Me Up. Annoyingly catchy, isn’t it?

Finally, here’s a video of Richard, our Sound Engineer, creating some foley (sound effects) for hungry zombies chewing at human flesh. Spoiler: Zombies, Run! 2 will have zombies in it! This one is not for the faint hearted, or sentient oranges.

That’s all for now, but we hope you’ve enjoyed this peek behind the scenes. The actors will be back to record the second half of Zombies, Run! Season 2 in the next few months, so we’ll be sure to take a bunch more footage for you, if it’s something that you’d like to see. Let us know!

Welcome to a brand new year – one we’re pretty sure is going to contain the long-heralded zombie apocalypse (don’t say we didn’t warn you).

And to help you get in training for the upcoming final apocalypse and rout of mankind – Zombies, Run! 2 is on its way. We’ll have announcements and new things to show you every week between now and the launch in the spring and we’re starting with a big one.

Zombies, Run! 2 is going to be big – a lot bigger than the original game, with over 60 new missions – and we’re going to be delivering them in a new way. Instead of throwing all that content at you in one – admittedly amazing – lump, our plan is to release three new missions every week, split between main story-arc missions and side quests.

We hope this will make the experience even more awesome – not only will it encourage all our loyal Runner 5s to get out on the trail regularly, it also means that the entire Zombies, Run! community will be able to experience the leading edge of the story together. We have over 300,000 users now, so we’re looking forward to seeing all the discussion, analysis and speculation that this episodic delivery will make possible! (And we’re planning an official podcast to help it along.)  

Zombies, Run! 2 will be a free update for existing players – and it’ll come with seven new missions for free at launch. If you’re eager for more Zombies, Run! episodes, you’ll be able to purchase a Season Pass, to get all new content as soon as it’s available.

We’ll be announcing more details about Season Passes before launch, but don’t worry – they won’t cost more than you paid for the original game, and you’ll still be able to purchase missions individually. Even better, some extra missions will be available for free for a limited time after they’re released! Of course, Season Pass holders will be able to grab and replay any previously released mission at any time, so don’t worry if you’re late to the party.

We’ve been hearing your requests for more content, and we’re committed to keeping you zombie-ready at all times, so we hope you’re prepared for new Zombies, Run! missions to run with every week.

Zombies, Run! 2 is coming.

After the success of Zombies, Run! – the world’s bestselling smartphone fitness game – we couldn’t leave our fans without a reason to keep on running. We’ve been working hard on creating a brand new season of the game, and we’re ready to open the door just a crack to let some information out. We can’t open the door too wide just yet – after all, the dead are inside.

Wait, what? Is this Season Two?

Yes! Zombies, Run! 2 continues the adventure we began in Season One – and we’re adding some exciting new features to the experience, including:

• The story’s even more tense, the risks even greater, and the rewards higher – if things go right you, Runner 5, might just save the world. But you’ll have to run a long way to get there: Season Two is more than twice as long as Season One, with over 60 missions in total. Not only that, some missions will change dynamically based on when you run, the state of your base, and some other super-secret variables.

• We’re introducing additional gameplay to our base-builder, to make it more fun and much more sophisticated. You’ll be able to tailor Abel Township to your own design – but if you want to be zombie-ready you’ll have to keep everyone happy and well-defended!

• We’re introducing location-based missions – one of our most-requested features ever – in a new airdrop mode.

• We’ve redesigned the user interface so Zombies, Run! 2 will be much faster, easier, and more to use and navigate – not just on iOS but also Android!

Don’t worry, we’re not changing all the things you loved about Zombies, Run! As Runner 5, Abel Township still needs your help, though the stakes are now much higher, the drama more intense, and you might have to doubt the loyalty of people you’ve considered your friends. You’ll find out more about the mystery behind the zombie plague, and you’ll learn that the events of Zombies, Run! were just the precursor – Zombies, Run! 2 is where it gets serious.

Zombies, Run! 2 will be an update to the current app, and we have some bold plans for the way we will be delivering new content to you – which will include a mixture of free and paid missions – and we’ll be talking more about that in the New Year.

Zombies, Run! 2 will be coming to iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android in Spring 2013.

Keep checking the Zombies, Run! Blog over the coming months, as we have a huge amount of Zombies, Run! 2 information to share with you. Get ready, because in 2013, we’re going to take you on an epic adventure.

Psst… If you’re waiting on news about Zombies, Run! 5k Training on Android – don’t despair! We have some good news coming for you very shortly…