If simple fitness won’t get you to run, maybe a ravenous horde of zombies will.
Running has become such a quotidian activity that most people forget why humans can do it in the first place: to get the hell away from predators. London-based developer Six to Start wants to remind people of that in their upcoming iOS game, Zombies, Run!. Rather than another zombie-killing game, Six to Start (which you may remember from the card-based ARG Perplex City) aims to create a fully interactive alternate-reality adventure game, where runners can ensure the survival of a human colony in an apocalyptic wasteland – but only if they get up off the couch and run for their lives.
The game mechanics sound pretty simple: all the player has to do is run. “You receive orders and hear the story told through radio messages and voice recordings between your own custom playlists,” the game’s Kickstarter page explains. “Missions last around 20-30 minutes in real time and there’ll be over 30 unique missions in Season 1.” As players run, they advance a seasonal story and pick up supplies that they can ration out when they return home. In-between missions (runs), players will discover puzzles, documents, websites, and other story tidbits to help them piece together a larger narrative.
If this sounds like a good idea to you, then it’s up to you to help Six to Start get the necessary funds together. Their Kickstarter page explains that they will fund the game out-of-pocket, but player contributions can help make the game better, from better testing to famous voice actors. Considering that one of their offers is $20 worth of Season 1 content for a $10 donation, this could be a chance for would-be runners and marathon veterans alike to save some scratch. After all, a little extra money could come in handy during a zombie uprising.
As any runner can tell you, good fitness is its own reward. That said, there’s nothing wrong with spicing up a run with an unobtrusive game, and it could be just the thing to get new runners out of the house and onto the streets. If nothing else, it will be good preparation for the inevitable real zombie apocalypse.
Source: Kickstarter
