Welcome citizens! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? For most of this year, we were hard at work on Zombies, Run! 7.0, which launched a couple of months ago and included a full redesign that made it faster and easier to run. We also spent a lot of time updating and improving our systems to cater for GDPR.

Rather than spending a lot of time looking behind us, I want to talk about what’s coming up next in the Zombies, Run! world. But first, I want to say farewell to a few people at Six to Start who left the company since our last update – Lou Atherton, Brad Porter, Alex Benini, and Stephen Charman. They were all immensely helpful in the development and support of not just Zombies, Run! but our other apps including The Walk and Racelink, and we all wish them well in the future.

Technology

Zombies, Run! 7.0 saw an almost complete rewrite of the front-end of the app (the bit that you can see and interact with, rather than the back-end, which would include things like the “run engine” that schedules missions, clip playback, and chases), particularly on iPhone. This didn’t just make the app look prettier – it will also make it easier to add new features and improvements in the future.

One of the new features coming this year will be an all-new Statistics screen. It’s inspired by the clean design style we’ve used in the rest of the app, and adds a whole host of new information, including Personal Bests.

We’ll also be working to improve Accessibility on both iPhone and Android, particularly for visually-impaired players. On the iPhone, this will include major new features made possible by iOS 12’s new Siri Shortcuts, which we can’t wait to show you later this year.

Speaking of which, we’ll be updating all our apps to be fully compatible with iOS 12 and Android P (aka Android 9.0). This always involves more work than you’d expect, but it’s something that all app developers have to do to keep things running smoothly.

Finally, we’ll be reviewing our Apple Watch and Android Wear support. We know there are connectivity problems between Zombies, Run! on the Apple Watch and the iPhone, and we’re hopeful that WatchOS 5 might help with this.

Story

I’m really enjoying Season 7 so far – without spoiling anything, I think it’s one of our best, and occasionally I reflect on the fact that Naomi and her writers have been able to maintain such a high level of quality for seven years. Take that, TV shows! And there’s still a lot more twists and turns to come this season, since we’re not even halfway through yet.

Next month, our Halloween Virtual Race will be going on sale. If you like Jurassic Park and Westworld, then you’ll love this year’s story – and we’ll have some great new types of gear on sale, with brand new designs. Plus, we’re bringing back the ARG and website for this race!

Last but definitely not least, our Board Game will be getting a whole new set of side missions and stories, along with feature updates and bug fixes. We’re really pleased with how much people are enjoying the gameplay and story, and we think these updates will make the game even more fun and easier to play.

Beyond 2018

I’m really happy with this year’s release of Zombies, Run! 7.0. It’s not just a redesign – it makes the app easier to use for all players, new and old, and it fixed a lot of long-standing bugs. These improvements have been reflected in our buoyant player numbers and our steadily increasing subscriber base (which continues to be the very best way to support Zombies, Run!). And with the Accessibility and Statistics improvements we’re releasing later this year, all the core features of the game will be fully up-to-date and future-proof.

So, what comes next? We have big plans for 2019 that will bring major new features to the app, reaching areas we didn’t cover this year, and we’d like to give them all the time we have. There’s nothing to announce now, but stay tuned – and stay safe out there!

Hello Runners 5! It’s almost the end of the year, which makes it the perfect time to look at what we’ve done with Zombies, Run! since our last update in Spring, and what we’re planning for the first half of 2019.

I’m really happy with the improvements we’ve made to ZR recently. We added some big new features like Statistics & Personal Bests and support for Siri Shortcuts. We also spent time improving accessibility on both Android and iPhone, including much better support for VoiceOver assistance for the visually-impaired. We care a lot about making ZR accessible for as many people as possible, so we're really glad to be bringing you all such big improvements in these areas.

Our boardgame has continued to reach new audiences this year, and we were thrilled to see glowing reviews from Rahdo Runs Through and Big Boss Battle. We’re preparing to release the next big update for the boardgame app, which includes not only a number of bug fixes but also a tonne of exciting new content from our amazing guest writers, including Chocolat author Joanne Harris!

I know it’s practically a joke to read “bug fixes and performance improvements” in app updates, but we really did fix a lot of bugs in recent months! ZR still isn’t entirely crash-free but we’re seeing a huge improvement in stability and we’re committed to continuing that work.

So what’s happening next?

Technology

In the first half of 2019, we’ll be doing a lot of work behind the scenes to improve the performance of Zombies, Run! When we first created ZR, we made some assumptions about how many missions we might have, and let’s just say we’ve blown well past those assumptions. So we’re going to make ZR faster, especially on older phones, and that will also improve the stability of the app – fewer crashes and hiccups during runs! We’re also hoping to roll out a feature that will save in-progress run logs in case of crashes, battery problems, or accidental app closure.

Not every change will be behind the scenes, though. We’ll be improving the design of the app to make it easier and faster to customise your runs, and to help new players discover the many, many, many features that Zombies, Run! already has. Part of that will include improving subscription management and the way we explain how to use Zombies, Run!

Finally, we'll be spending a lot of our time on some secret developments that you'll hear more about in due time. We're really excited to tell you more!

Story

Season 8 will be coming this Spring from ZR co-creator and lead writer Naomi Alderman, and next month we’ll be revealing our Spring 2019 Virtual Race. If you like zombie movies and foreign films, you’re going to love this race!

That’s not all! We’ll be adding something entirely new to Zombies, Run! that everyone can enjoy – new runners and veterans…

Community

We’ve added some fantastic new merch to our official store this year, including new posters, mugs, T-shirts, and tote bags, and we’ll be keeping up the pace next year!

We’re also exploring the idea of holding official fan events in both the US and UK – potentially even a fan convention in London! We always love meeting fans and we’d like to reach out further, so watch this space for more details.

Later in 2019...

Our main source of income for Zombies, Run! is from subscriptions. We think this is a really healthy way of supporting development – as long as you continue to enjoy Zombies, Run!, we can continue to maintain and improve it with new stories and features for years to come. That’s why one of big goals this year is to give you more for your subscription, and you’ll start to see that pay off in the coming months.

Apple Music and Apple Watch are still on our to-do list, and we hope to use their new updates to improve our support for both of them in the future.

We’re all really grateful for your support throughout the years, and we can’t wait to see what you think of what’s coming next year!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Our last State of the Township was at the end of 2015 - of course, we’ve introduced plenty of new features since then (like improved Training Plans, ZombieLink Social, and more), not to mention our book, audio drama, and board game, but we haven’t talked about the bigger picture. Most of that is because we’ve been so busy!

So here’s a quick overview of what’s happened with Zombies, Run! and Six to Start since then. We’ve blown way past three million downloads of Zombies, Run!, and we’re still seeing healthy numbers of new Runners 5 every day. We’ve massively improved the reliability of the apps and ZombieLink; we’re seeing far fewer bugs, crashes, and support tickets than ever before.

And as we’ve expanded the Zombies, Run! universe into books and audio dramas and Virtual Races (now with over 13,000 entrants in total!), we’ve continued the story with Season 5, which has been a real blast to write and record.

Having said that, we haven't been able to do some of things we aimed to, like improving the base builder, implementing walk tracking and upgrading the 5k training app. There are two main reasons why we didn't hit these targets: staffing changes and needing to devote more time to behind the scenes work.

Firstly, some developers left Six to Start in the past year. These changes took place on good terms (they still come to our games nights!), but they did lead to some slowdown as new developers need time to learn the ropes. The good news on this front is that we have now doubled our development team compared to the end of 2015, which means we can do much more as we move forward.

Secondly, we’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes. For example, we spent a lot more time than expected on bringing Zombies, Run! on iOS to Swift 3 so that it can fully support iOS 10. We’ve been doing similar things on Android for Nougat. While the fruits of this labour may not be obvious, the time we've spent now will mean a more stable, longer lasting Zombies, Run! in the future.

That behind the scenes work also includes a brand new project that is separate – but related – to Zombies, Run! It’s too early to talk about what that is, but it draws on everything we’ve learned in the past few years and takes it further ahead. Even better, the time we spend on building it will also directly improve Zombies, Run! itself. Intriguing, eh? We’ll have more to announce next year!

Next on Zombies, Run!

With that all said, I can talk about imminent new features for Zombies, Run!, including:

A completely new Apple Watch app, ready for WatchOS 3, with new readouts, notifications, and settings

A Run Progress Bar for iPhone, showing you just how far you are through a story or race mission (similar to Android’s progress bar)

"Milestones” - they’re a bit like Achievements, but way more fun 

Further down the line, we have plans for a complete mobile-first redesign of ZombieLink, along with some very neat social features. 

Looking Ahead into 2017

If there’s a single message I want to give you in this update, it’s this: other apps may come and go, but Zombies, Run! is here to stay. It’s thanks to you that that’s possible: every one of the tens of thousands of Pro Members out there, along with every single person who buys a T-shirt, book, poster, board game, and hoodie.

You make it possible for us to maintain and improve our amazing, beautiful running game for years to come. We weren’t able to do everything we wanted in 2016, but we’ve regrouped and we’re stronger than ever. Bring on 2017.

- Adrian Hon, CEO and Lead Designer at Six to Start

2015 has been a tremendous year for Zombies, Run! - we released the fantastic Season 4, held our first Virtual Race with 2500 runners, and more than doubled our downloads to over two million. To top it all off, we made our apps better than ever with improved music playback, free Training Plans, Interval Training on Android, and Apple Watch support.

Not bad at all, we'd say! And now that we've squashed so many bugs thanks to our devs, QA, and beta-testing community, we're able to embark on developing even bigger features than before - like our Training Plans.

New on Android

Resumable race missions

Related downloads view

GPS tracking improvements

Mission Story clip playback

Set distance/time for missions (inc. avoid interrupting songs)

Training Plans

New on iPhone

Training Plans

Apple Watch support

Improved Codex

Secret Project (codename: Overwatch)

Next on Zombies, Run!

Here’s what we’re aiming to add or improve in the next two months - as ever, it’s an aspiration, not a promise! Development is unpredictable, so we do sometimes slip behind our roadmap a little way, but this is the plan for the next two months as it stands:

iPhone

Achievements

Apple Watch improvements

Training Plan improvements

Enhanced Statistics

Contextual post-run stats

Android

Achievements

Training Plan improvements

Enhanced Statistics

Run countdown

ZombieLink

Codex

5k run compatibility

GPX export

Our 2016 Plan

2015 saw us launch Season 4 and completely rebuild the app. We'll be honest - there were a lot of bugs to begin with, but today Zombies, Run! has never looked or performed better. We've reduced crashes, made the app easier to use, and added a ton of audio and running features. The app is in fantastic shape and the rebuild means it's much faster for us to develop new features.

For our main app, 2016 is all about gameplay. Among the areas we're interested in are the base builder, social/multiplayer features, and walk tracking.

Don't worry - we aren't going to wipe out your existing Abel Townships! Those will remain and simply get better. But we know a lot of players are motivated by improving their base and we think we can make that much more fun, particular if you do it with your friends.

Next year’s Virtual Races will get bigger and better, with more rewards and more excitement. We've been blown away by the demand for our Spring 2016 Virtual Race, and we’re planning to hold two or three over the course of 2016. 

In 2016, we'll also be completely rebuilding our 5k Training app, based on the brand new, battle-tested ZR engine. It's likely that for both ZR apps, we'll be requiring iOS 8 or higher; so if you have an iPhone 4s or above, you'll be fine!

There’s much more that we have in store, like our upcoming book for Penguin, but we aren’t ready to share everything quite yet...  

Four Years Young

ZR is almost four years old. That's like 40 internet years! In many ways, we aren't an upstart app any more - we have well over 2 million players, and hundreds of thousands of people run with us every month. These are numbers we only dreamed of when we launched.

But here's the thing. If you ask a random runner or gamer if they've heard of Zombies, Run!, they might say yes - but they probably won't have tried it. And if you ask a random stranger, chances are they won't even have heard about it.

Welcome, citizens! We’re delighted to have over two million Runners Five in Abel Township now - it’s humbling to see Zombies, Run! having an impact on so many people. 

We’re excited to share our roadmap for the next two months to all our new Runners,, along with our stalwart Pro Member supporters. It’s because of all your support that we can keep developing and improving Zombies, Run!, so we think it’s only fair to tell you how we’re planning to do it.

It’s been a good couple of months’ development for the game: we’ve been able to add almost all the features we promised back in August. Just as importantly, Zombies, Run! is more stable than ever: our latest iOS 4.1.8 update has 99.8% crash-free sessions, and Android 4.2.2 is at 99.4%. Thanks to Mo and Jeremy for their hard work!

Along with our diligent devs and QA, this improvement is also thanks to our iOS beta-testers, who help us quickly identify bugs while rapidly adding new features (particularly useful due to Apple’s 1+ week review time). We’re also launching a similar beta-testing group for Android.

New on Android

Interval training

Codex

Split time graphs

Android 6.0 

Virtual Race support

More frequent ZombieLink syncing

Massively reduced startup crashes, particularly for Moto G & E (Added)

New on iPhone

Set distance/time for story missions (Added)

Avoid interrupting songs (Added)

Auto-download next mission

Calorie tracking

Virtual Race support

More frequent ZombieLink syncing

New on Zombielink

Run map animated paths

Split time graphs

Virtual Race support

Added: Rofflenet (Virtual Race private forum)

Next on Zombies, Run!

Here’s what we’re aiming to add or improve in the next two months - as ever, it’s an aspiration, not a promise! Development is unpredictable, so we do sometimes slip behind our roadmap a little way, but this is the plan for the next two months as it stands:

iPhone

Training Plan

Apple Watch support

Improved Codex

Secret Project!

Android

Resumable race missions

Related downloads view

GPS tracking improvements

Mission Clip playback

Set distance/time for story missions

Avoid interrupting songs

Improved Base Builder

Training Plan

ZombieLink

Codex

Email updates

5k Training app support

Virtual Race and ZombieLink

The popularity of the Virtual Race really took us by surprise - who would have thought that Zombies, Run! players would like running in the real world, eh? As such, we ended up building more technical infrastructure than first we anticipated, which has slowed down development on ZombieLink in particular. 

Why particularly ZombieLink? That's because our web developer, Marcel, was tasked with setting up our payment and shipping gateway, along with the entire microsite for the Virtual Race and the new Rofflenet forum. That's a lot of work that needs to be rock-solid!

We appreciate this delay will feel annoying for those not participating in the Virtual Race, but the new features we’re developing, like a real-time world leaderboard, will eventually be seen by everyone.

Rofflenet Forum

One of the new features we developed for the Virtual Race was a private forum, Rofflenet. The community that’s developed there has been fantastic - members are swapping training tips and running stories, organising real world meetups, speculating about the story, and posting amazing cosplay pics. And people have been really helpful and kind with their feedback.

We intend to keep the Rofflenet forum live beyond the Virtual Race, in preparation for our 2016 Virtual Races (more on that later!). In time, we may invite all Pro Members to join as well, but that would require deeper integration with ZombieLink and more moderation resources. For now, we want to take things slow and steady so we can keep the quality of conversation really high and make sure we don’t take on more than we can handle.

FYI, we’re using the free Discourse forum, is a very powerful yet friendly piece of open-source software. We highly recommend it for your forum needs!

The World of Tomorrow

Now that we’ve brought Interval Training on Android and improved music playback on iOS, we feel like we’ve finally completed the first big phase of ZR4 development. So now it’s time to think about the future! Here are the things we’re thinking about for the next big phases of development:

Base Builder: Along with new buildings, we want to make the base gameplay more interesting and dynamic. This is going to be a long term goal that will span ZR4 and ZR5.

Achievements: Our new version of Achievements will live on the apps and be tied into Apple’s Game Center and Google Play Games, meaning they’ll be more social than before. While Achievements aren’t planned for the next two months, they’re still high on our list.  

Social/multiplayer: We’ve been thinking about this for the past four years - it’s a very tough problem in terms of game design and fitness motivation. It’s still high on our list of long-term goals and we’ll be thinking about it even harder next year

Zombies, Run! Expanded Universe: We’ve previously mentioned a book, which we’ll be talking about more very soon, and there are other things that are definitely happening. 

Hello to the 1.8 million players who’ve bought and downloaded Zombies, Run! It’s lovely to see so many new Season 1 fans posting on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, and being greeted with open arms by the Season 4 veterans. This post is mostly about our roadmap for the game in the next couple of months, but we never forget how important our community is. It’s your support, free and Pro members alike, that makes the game what it is.

Since our last State of the Township in June, we’ve added almost all of the features we aimed for, and even more beyond that. We’ve improved stability and reduced crashes considerably, but we know there’s more to do:

New on iOS

Edit and delete run logs 

Autosharing runs on Twitter and Facebook

Split time graph in run logs

VoiceOver improvements

Zombie chase improvements 

GPS accuracy improvements 

Fix: Crashes on iPhone 5 and 5s devices running iOS 7

Added: Run log edit accessibility improvements

Added: Mission Clip playback 

Added: Customisable Countdown 

Added: Related Downloads

Added: Full-Screen Annotated run maps

Added: Cleaner UI (especially for smaller devices)

New on Android

Edit and delete run logs

Share run logs

Zombie chase and mission clip timing fixes

Statistics improvements

Airdrop Mode!

Fix: Crashes during Race Missions

Added: Lollipop-optimised UI

Added: Move to external storage (SD card)

New on Zombielink

ZR3 to ZR4 user migration

Run maps

Edit and delete run logs

Added: Runkeeper sync

Added: Statistics

Next on Zombies, Run!

As ever, this is what we’re aiming for in the next two months. Development is unpredictable, etc.:

iOS

Auto-download next mission

Calorie tracking

Virtual Race support

ZombieLink syncing improvements

Music playback improvements

Secret Project!

Android

Split time graphs

Interval training

Android 6.0 compatibility

Virtual Race support

Codex

Mission Clip playback

ZombieLink syncing improvements

ZombieLink

Run map improvements

Split time graphs

Email updates

Codex

Virtual Race support

Audio Adverts

We recently began testing short audio adverts in Zombies, Run! We’re doing this so that even free users can help support development of the game, and we’re choosing them carefully so they’ll be a mix of our own ads, and from selected third parties. You’ll only hear them on missions that you have to unlock. So:

If you’re a Pro Member, you won’t hear audio ads from third parties, and we'd only ever play short messages before your run to tell you about really important things. And if you’re a Legacy Member, you’ll only hear third party ads on Season 4 missions.

Android and iOS Development

Ever since our Kickstarter four years ago, when we announced we’d be launching on iOS before Android, we’ve had a lot of questions about the differences between the two platforms. To be plain, a lot of people wonder why features usually come to Android later than iOS.

We know it’s frustrating to see features available to other people before they’re available to you, and we certainly empathise - over half of us here at Six to Start are Android users - so we wanted to explain why.

The most important reason is that development is harder on Android. This isn’t an experience unique to Zombies, Run! or Six to Start - many developers say the same thing, which is why apps and games like Instagram, Hyperlapse, Google Hangouts, Fallout Shelter, 80 Days, The Room, and Monument Valley are launched or updated on iOS first.

Why is development harder on Android? This Savvyapps blog post discusses issues like device fragmentation, maturity of development tools, and OS adoption rates; they estimate Android development takes 2-3 times longer than iOS. Whether or not those numbers are 'true’, we’ve observed that trend ourselves.

Of course, there are unique benefits in developing for Android, like the rapid speed of deployment (a few hours vs. the 7+ day Apple review period) and the relative openness of the platform. It’s also clear Google is making huge efforts to improve other areas such as OS adoption rates and fragmentation issues (via Google Play Services), and they’ve introduced a support hotline for select Android developers.

The truth is, if Zombies, Run! was a product that could be ‘finished’ and didn’t require any significant maintenance or new features, then feature parity is something we could aim for in the near-future. But we keep on coming up with new ideas and features, and that means the horizon of feature parity keeps slipping away, even as both our iOS and Android apps improve every week and month. 

In the month since we launched the new, free-to-play Zombies, Run!, we’ve welcomed almost half a million new Runners Five to Abel Township. We’re really pleased to have so many new players helping save the world and getting fit in the process!

Just as importantly, we’ve been working hard on fixing bugs and improving the stability of the apps. It’s been a rocky process, which we apologise for, but even two weeks after launch, stability had improved significantly. On iOS, the app is now more crash-free than it’s ever been:

The Android graph looks great as well, but we don’t have enough data for it to look interesting!

We’re also pleased that new features like auto-play next mission, recap and teaser clips, improved external music player support, and adjustable chase difficulty have been received so well, along with iOS features like Apple Health support, and Android features like the live mission progress tracker.

And just this week we released updates for both iOS and Android:

iOS 4.0.2

Mission Progress icons shown on mission list

Game Volume control relative to music

Skip Track button (also on lock screen and Control Center)

Improved run sharing screenshot and details, including Facebook

FIX: Incorrect material/supply cost for upgrading buildings and expanding the base

FIX: Game voice now defaults to English

Android 4.0.8

Mission Progress icons

Mission Length setting

Adjustable Zombie Chases

FIX: Distance units (km/miles) respected across the app

FIX: Missions with decisions work properly

FIX: Various Statistics screen crashes

FIX: Scripted zombie chases now triggering properly

We know there are features that you dearly miss, like the Codex on Android. Starting from today, we’ll be regularly updating you on the changes and improvements we’re planning with Zombies, Run!

Next on Zombies, Run!

It’s hard to give precise dates for new features because the development process (and Apple review) is unpredictable. With that in mind, here’s what’s coming in the next two months, in rough order:

iOS 

Edit and delete run logs

Autosharing run logs on Twitter and Facebook

FIX: Incorrect base display and syncing, e.g. buildings incorrectly showing as Level 1

Improved music and clip spacing to prevent game audio from interrupting music tracks

Split time graph in run logs

VoiceOver fixes and improvements

Zombie chase fixes and improvements

GPS accuracy improvements

Android

Edit and delete run logs

Share run logs

Split time graph in run logs

Zombie chases fixes and improvements

Mission clip timing fixes and improvements

FIX: Clips and missions not ‘completing’ properly

Improved Statistics screen

Airdrop missions

Codex

ZombieLink

FIX: ZR3 to ZR4 user migration

Run maps

Edit and delete run logs (with two-way syncing to apps)

Auto-sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and more

Statistics

Codex

Throughout all of this we’ll continue to release two new Season 4 missions every week, with a brief mid-season hiatus in July.

A Brief Word

Thanks so much to the thousands of you who’ve already bought memberships in the new app - your support allows us to maintain and improve Zombies, Run! for years to come. Here’s what it means to us:

Our apps — Zombies, Run!, ZR 5k Training, The Walk, Superhero Workout, Step Buy Step, and Dungeon Runner — are made by a core team of under 15 people. In comparison, both Runkeeper and MapMyRun employ over 50 people, and Runtastic employs over 100 people. So we’re small, but we punch above our weight — especially given that we have over 1.5 million players. We couldn’t do that without your encouragement and enthusiasm for what we make.

We work hard to make our games the best they can be, and we know you have high expectations. We wouldn’t want it any other way: we want Zombies, Run! to be the best running game in the world. 

But it takes a lot of time and effort to do this, because while Zombies, Run! includes great ‘content’, it’s not just content. It’s not just a collection of MP3 files; it’s a way of turning recorded audio into an interactive, real world experience. 

Sometimes this is more linear, with our thrilling story missions that mix chases and item pickups and radio audio with your music; or sometimes this is more dynamic, with our race or airdrop or interval training missions where you can customise your experience. 

Zombies, Run! also relies on ZombieLink to deliver and sync content. This allows us to make improvements over time, like our recap and teaser clips, not to mention our run logs and backup service. 

Zombies, Run! is unlike any other app, book, audio drama, game or film. It’s a living, breathing system that thrives because of you. And your support and feedback helps us to reimagine how running can become a real-life adventure story, through both artistic and technological means. 

Like Zombies, Run!, iOS and Android are evolving, living systems. New features and devices are introduced and old ones are removed, giving us plenty of work to keep up. Then there are the ‘basic’ new features that we feel are essential for any modern running app, like Apple Health integration and streaming music support, let alone bigger innovations like heart rate monitors, the Pebble, Android Wear, Google Fit, and Apple Watch.

This year’s update is unusual, even for us. We’re working through a lot of technical debt; that’s why some features are temporarily missing or delayed. But this is in service of making the game faster and more stable than it has even been.

Like the inhabitants of Abel, we’re not zombies. We’re human. We love making Zombies, Run! and we’re so proud of how many lives our game has changed. We appreciate all your feedback, and we take it all on board as we work hard to give you the best running experience out there.

We’re really excited about the future of Zombies, Run! in the coming months and years. We have exciting plans for new features for the apps and website, along with brand new experiences for wearables and new places to extend the Zombies, Run! universe.