Zombies, Run! is an iPhone fitness game and audio adventure I co-created with games studio Six to Start.
We funded the game on Kickstarter, and gained almost five times the funding we requested, which was our first sign we might have a hit on our hands. Since then we've regularly topped the rankings in iPhone Health and Fitness apps, we've been featured on NPR, in the New York Times, on Channel 4 News, and we've been shortlisted for five Develop awards.
I'm the co-creator and lead writer. In early April 2011, Adrian Hon the CEO of Six to Start (and all-round visionary, check out his History of the Future) and I sat down to talk about finally working on a project together. He's a keen runner, and had been thinking of making a running app to make running fun, and something where you wouldn't have to look at the screen while running - I brought up the idea of being chased by zombies and the concept was born.
Since we funded in October 2011, we've released seven seasons of this game. Seven. Seasons. Each of which is about the same length of a season of Game of Thrones. We're working on Season 8 as of the start of 2019. The zombies are still going strong - the game's been downloaded more than 3 million times and we're a market leader in the field of fitness games. We've spun the story out into a book, an audio drama for Audible, a boardgame and the Zombies, Run! story just keeps on rolling.
Stay safe out there, Runners Five.