Long Awaited Zombies, Run! App is Available (iOS)

----- Update 1 -----

So I'm afraid I return full of sweat and with sour news; the zombies wouldn't chase me (I must smell like them). As I mentioned in the first part of my review, location services must be turned on in order for the 'Zombie Chases' option to be enabled. I turned on the location services tongiht, then went to the Zombies, Run! settings and turned the chase mode on. After giving a brief 'don't get run over by cars' and windows-vista reminiscent 'are you sure?' prompts, I thought I was ready to go.

At this point, I am on Mission 5; with my iPhone in my elastic arm band (and invariably upside down from my perspective) I set off! The story audio ends and my music playlist starts up. A few minutes later, the first song ends and I have yet to cross any zombies. I turn my head in an awkward position to read my screen right-side-up and I noticed it is still recording my run in steps; the Accelerometer must still be on! I stop the mission and bring back up the mission menu. Sure enough the Accelerometer is on - GPS is required for the 'Zombie Chases' to work and it still has to be turned on manually even after Location Services and Zombie Chases are turned on.

I flipped GPS on, made sure zombie chases was set, the GPS option told me it got a fix on my position, and then I restarted the mission (though you can always choose to begin missions from the latest story audio you made it to). I never ran into (or heard I suppose) zombies outside of the ambient audio during story line parts. I'm not sure what gives, but when I finished my run, mission stats told me I never ran into any. If I were a real survivor, I'd be counting my blessings.

Some things to consider. I'm not terribly overweight, but I'm definitely out of shape. With the GPS mode on, your 'Pace' is shown in the upper right. Unfortunately my pace only showed up very infrequently; most of the time it only displayed a rather depressing dash. But if I ran just quick enough (which is not very fast), a number would appear briefly!

I think this means I needed to be running/jogging a certain speed in order for my pace to register. From what I read of the program, it uses your pace to determine how much faster you need to go to outrun pursuing zombies. By that token, I suppose it may be the case that if the program can't pick up on your pace it may just never make zombies chase you.

Le sigh.

I'll give it another go sometime this week and try this out again on another mission in case it was just something special about Mission 5. I can't say I've seen a place to voice my support issues with the game, but I'm email the crap out of anyone I can find to get an answer, but only after I give the program the benefit of the doubt and a second try.

Before I go, I do have one more minor complaint. It's been a bit irritating that the Steven Hawkings-esque 'You picked up a Bottle of Water' voice is barely audible over my music. I tried lowering my music volume via the iPhone Now Playing music menu, however lowers the story audio and computerized voice with it! It may be a limitation of the iPhone, but if at all possible those options should be separated out. Not that I ran into any zombies to test the issue, but I could easily see it being hard to hear the shambling, disease eating bastards on my tail.

Sad pandas in zombie town tonight, but we'll see what my next run brings to the table... er... road.

----- Original Post -----

Greetings folks!

James here, joining you today to share a 'first thoughts' review of the highly anticipated (for me) Zombies, Run! app. It is currently available only for iOS devices, but estimated to be available for Android this spring. I'm using a iPhone 3GS so I'm sure the 4 series will handle the game a bit better.

The app first starts up with a very quick tutorial basically letting you know that you basically play (aka exercise) as long as you want using headphones to listen to the story. During non-story audio bits, music randomly plays from what's available on your phone (or from a playlist of your choice). If you are being chased by zombies, you have to speed up. Items are automatically collected (or lost) as you run that can be used outside of missions to beef up Abel Township (your new survivor home).

Before you can play, you have to sign in via an account you create at the Zombies, Run! site (they provided a link to me via email a few days early for KickStarting the project).

Though the tutorial sounds simplistic enough, I recommend reading the 'Instructions' from the 'Settings' tab; there are a number of features contained there that the tutorial doesn't cover. Some of the main points include:

• Accelerometer (no zombie chases; default on my phone) vs GPS 
• full missions are typically 25-30 minutes long with about 5 story sections in each
• story clips happen between songs; longer songs may be paused and resumed for story bits
• zombie chases require you to speed up for one minute; if zombies catch up to you, ya lose an item

Here's a screenshot of the GUI about ten and half minutes into the first mission using the Accelerometer:

The top of the GUI displays the current mission. Just underneath are the steps recorded by the Accelerometer, how long I had been walking/jogging/running and my pace (N/A without GPS? will update on that later). The majority of the GUI displays which parts of the story have been reached (the radio wave-looking symbols) and the items I had collected along the way.

The steps were not a perfect indication of the number of steps I was taking at the time, but it was fairly consistent at least. I have no earthly clue what the times listed next to the story/items mean. It is not when they items were grabbed or going to be picked up nor was that an indication for parts of the story (that I could tell).

The audio clips for the story were pretty good. The voice acting was believable and the sound effects/ambiance weren't bad either. Quickly after the first clip was over, my music kicked in (Porcupine Tree's The Blind House, in case you were interested). As I was walking to the music though, I kept hearing faint vocals in the background. I thought maybe I was missing some story, but I learned later it was just a computerized voice telling me I had collected items.

The story kicked back in after the first song finished and just before I had to stop my walk shortly after the time listed above. Apparently I need to collect some first aid kits for the local Doc if I was going to earn my keep in the town.

The items you collect can be used on buildings in town, earning them experience points that can upgrade/level the buildings. From what I can tell, this changes their physical appearance, increases the town's population size, and eventually unlocks new missions. From how the site describes it, it sounds like the size of the town will eventually grow too. Guess time and running will tell!

I plan on doing an actual jog/run this evening with the GPS and Zombie Chase feature turned on to see how that goes. Will post more thoughts on the app after that.

Hope you've enjoyed this review; lemme know your thoughts or post your own in the comments! You can get your own copy of the game for iOS at the iTunes Store.



James out.

The ZBBC and G4 TV!

For those of you who follow us on Twitter, you might have noticed some tweets about how we were on G4's Attack of the Show the other night.

Yup, we're that awesome.

Kirk, Shannon, and James of the ZBBC, along with helpers Max and Patrick, covered the New Orleans Wizard Con Jan. 28 and 29 for AOTS Viewer Army segment. We worked hard, got a lot of good footage, and were paid off with one of the best Viewer Army segments yet. (Ok, that might be our personal bias there, but it is a really awesome segment.)

Best part, Krewe of the Living Dead and Zombie Waldo (James) take down publicity stunt made it in the clip. How awesome is that?

If you want to know more details about our personal adventures at Wizard Con, you can check out Shannon's blog where she talks all about it.

And finally, if you missed us on Live on G4, then you can check out our segement here.

Keep posted because we got some of our own footage from NOLA Wizard Con, which as soon as Editor Kirk has time, we'll be posting.

Limited Time Free Zombie Fairy Tales

Shannon here!

Cause I'm a fairy tale nut, I found this today on amazon. It's a free e-book edition of Gruesomely Grimm Zombie Tales. I have no idea if it's any good, but it's free, so what the hell? Thought I'd share this before it went away!

Zombie Game of the Month: Plants vs Zombies

Shannon here, and I'm presenting our 1st Zombie Game of the Month...

Plants vs Zombies!

If you have not played Plants vs Zombies by now, then you're missing out. If you have, and it's been a while, it's a game worth a revisit.

I was one of those people who heard about this game very early and thought, "That sounds fantastic!" Eagerly, I checked the game store shelves until it came out; occasionally hounding the Gamestop employee who would give me strange looks. The one day he answered me with, "What game are you looking for? Oh, that cheap-o computer game? It's over in that corner."

Even my boyfriend (now husband) shrugged it off. But when I finally found it, I bought it and excitedly went home to play levels 1-4 and stopped. Mostly because my husband got addicted and I watched him play the whole game through. Didn't change the fact that I still love it.

Now, it's been almost three years, and I'm still raving about it. Since I got an iPhone in October, I haven't had the need for any other game. Screw Angry Birds, I want my zombies and sunflowers!

Plants vs Zombies is a simple stratgey game. Plant various plants (which cost sun) to defend your house from the various hordes. It's surprisingly challenging, each level getting a little harder.

While the game is absolutely fun to play, it's design and humor are really what keep anyone playing. Be it from watermelon catapults to a zombie bobsled team. Plus, there's a whole bunch of mini-games to unlock and play.

I've been enjoying it more the 2nd play through, and felt that it had fallen to the wayside so it could use a little good press.

Plants vs Zombies is available for just about every platform out there and ranges between $9.99 and $19.99.

Shannon and the Zombie of the Month

Hey this is Shannon at the ZBBC!

We're hard at work over here and many different projects, including our ill-fated Zombie Carol Project (now coming Xmas 2012). And a special thanks to @zombilvr of twitter, who was the winner of the "Help me Write a Carol" contest. I will be doing something special just for you soon.

It's taken me a month to get it together, but I'm proud to present to you the ZBBC "Zombie of the Month" series. Every Thursday there will be a new, awesome zombie related feature:

1. Zombie Book of the Month

2. Zombie Movie of the Month

3. Zombie Game of the Month

4. Zombie Thing of the Month

I'm going to review said item, and tell you why you should go out a read/watch/play/buy said item.

SOPA/PIPA Blackout! Success?

Hey folks, James here. Today... Today is just... Wow, nothing short of amazing. The Internet really pulled together and made a difference (I hope) in regards to the SOPA/PIPA bills. This post is about the bills, the affect they could have on independent film makers like us, and what the blackout accomplished today.

First, the bill:

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) introduced in the House of Representatives in October 2011 while PIPA (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property or PROTECT IP Act) was introduced to the Senate in May 2011. Both are aimed at anit-piracy and copy right infringement action/litigation. However, both bills fall terribly short of their intended goals.

In a nutshell, the bills allow for court complaints to be filed against alleged offenders (entire online sites essentially). If found guilty of the offense, various content providers, promoters, payment processors and advertisers could/would be pressured/forced to sever their ties with offending sites. Most importantly, the bill could force DNS servers here in the US to stop resolving to those sites in the US and abroad.

Where the bills falls short is that it is very easy to circumvent this by using DNS servers or proxies outside of the US, which is fairly easy to setup even for the non-technical user (even if they don't understand how it all works). There's already been development for browser plugins to do just this. Your site get taken down in the US? Easy 'nough, switch your hosting provider to outside of the US (and yes, that would drive money out of the United States, bad ju ju in these economic times).

Here's an interesting article listing supporters and opposition of the bill. Supporters include the infamous RIAA and MPAA, large companies like Ford, Walt Disney, Nintendo, Sony, and the pharmaceutical industry. Opposing the bill is, well, the Internet apparently, numerous tech companies, various 'rights' defenders like EFF, ACLU and Demand Progress, online search companies, social media, and even a higher education institution called Educause. I'd like to point out that, in my experience, most individuals tasked with handling the handling and maintaining Internet architecture have also voiced their opinions against the bills.

Affect on Independent Film:

Ultimately, the bills would rely on court procedures. So let's say a The ZBBC makes a kickass zombie film and we post it to YouTube as well as our own site (as we do with our kick ass films). Now let's say another fictitious company called Wime Tarner releases a new movie or television show about zombies and somehow, the same line or plot idea gets used. Wime Tarner could then, in theory, open a case against The ZBBC for infringement (I suppose we could do it to them, but from what I learned of the world so far, a small fry vs a large behemoth rarely works out well for the underdog).

The way the bills are written, the burden of proof falls to the offender (The ZBBC) to prove themselves innocent... after allegations and court orders are made - basically presumed guilty until proven innocent. This means our site could be unreachable by potential visitors for however long it takes us to present our evidence. YouTube could be targeted in this endeavor, or we could be targeted directly, either way we are at the butt end.




Now you might be thinking, 'come on, how often is that gonna happen?'. Frequently enough if you think about how often DMCA notifications are served up. As it stands, government intervention into websites has been executed very poorly in the past. But my example is also limiting in that it relates to our direct posting of film, let's broaden the scope a bit.

The language of the bills themselves actually say that even facilitating the sharing of links to copyright infringing materials are fair game for complaints. So essentially every platform on the Internet that allows for comment systems could be at risk because anyone and post anything. Think about this; Wime Tarner could get on a small competitors site (the Internet is full of small competitors like us vying for your time and good graces), start posting links to some random torrent site hosting Tarner's material, and then file a complaint against their competitor for hosting links to infringing material. Though it may be true that a site could moderate all posts before hand, that is a very unrealistic expectation for community driven sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, news sites, the blogo-sphere and forums across the Internet.

Think that's all a bit far fetched? Please watch this entire video that really dissects the language of the bills and they do and don't allow for. If our current court and copy right system is any indication, make no mistake, this kind of law will be abused.


Today's Blackout:

So today, sites like Wikipedia, Reddit, TwitPic, and many more decided to go dark in order to draw attention to the fact that these bills could easily harm the open nature of the Internet. The sites then directed users to the contact forms of various senators, politicians, and petitions so users could express their concerns.

If my Facebook friends are any indication, there was minor irritation from a small minority on the issue but far more support. Then again, most of my friends are in the age group of a generation who understand that, while the fight against piracy is not without merit, it should not be at the expense of the Internet architecture which allows for active participation and production of creative works.

I'm of the opinion most major entertainment companies would prefer to make it to where the sharing and creation of entertainment was much harder, prompting more users to just sit back on their couches instead of doing something, but I also recognize that's an allegation I can't prove, just a hunch.

So has the blackout been a success? Yes, I'd say so. Since the blackout has happened, at least 13 senators have dropped support for PIPA (including co-sponsor Senator Marco Rubio) and at least 10 have dropped support for SOPA (including co-sponsor Representative Ben Quayle). That's pretty incredible considering organizations like Demand Progress and ACLU have been fighting this thing nearly since the bills' inceptions.

Hell, even Rupert Murdoch recognizes what the blackout accomplished. He apparently thinks the Internet 'terrorized' senators today into backing out on supporting the bills - heaven forbid the people get involved with their democracy. There's something comfortingly ironic about Murdoch complaining about abuse of powers...


Not out of the woods yet:

So readers, if you've come this far I hope you learned something useful. But the job isn't done yet, the bills still have another week to stew, even though today was a major blow to them.

If you haven't already, take the time to really educate yourself on the powers of the bills and the kind of impact they could have on the open Internet. I'm fairly confident that if you have a functioning brain, unlike our zombie counterparts, you can come to the conclusion that these bills, though possibly written with good intention, simply fall short of their intended goals and would hurt innovation via the Internet in the long haul.

You can use various contact forms to get in touch with your state senators or sign petitions from the likes of Demand Progress or Google. Now if only we had that kind of response for the NDAA, another bill I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with if you have any love for freedom or the US Constitution.

Scripts, Plugs and Cake

James here. I'm very happy to announce I took my first stab at writing a script for a zombie short and I'm really pleased with the results. Shooting is planned for end of March for this one for a number of reasons I can't quite disclose yet. The only teaser I can give out right now is that it involves zombies and drugs.

For what it's worth, it's really quite easy to break into writing screenplays for shorts. The basic version of Celtx was more than enough to get my 3 pages of script (roughly 3 minutes of film I'm told?) done quickly.

The ZBBC email account received a neat idea for a short involving an elderly couple, the zombie apocalypse, and a theater. I might use that as practice for another screenplay. Kind of addicting actually, this writing business.

For anyone into writing, our own talented writer Shannon (@secretly_samus) is really going to town on her own blog which focuses on more along the writing industry as whole well as reviews and more.

And on that note, it's my birthday - enough of this creative stuff. Time to get krunk!