I am a national organizer of the Humans vs. Zombies game, as well as the Chief Brand Officer and a founding member of Gnarwhal Studios Inc., the company my friends and I started to manage the Humans vs. Zombies game.

As one of the national organizers of the Humans vs. Zombies game, my responsibilities include the design and maintenance of our online community of tens of thousands of players.

Impact and Reception

The International Herald Tribune called Humans vs. Zombies “the antidote for the ailments of a generation.” Data from the game has been used in models for Foreign Policy magazine. Steven Colbert named the game the “number one threat to America.”

We have been invited to competitive gaming festivals such as Come Out and Play, where we won the “Players’ Choice” award and were recognized for our game design and organizational ability.

The game has received positive coverage from:

• NPR
• The Boston Globe
• The Associated Press
• The Washington Post
• USA Today
• The Globe and Mail
• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• SlashDot
• Fox News

The Humans vs. Zombies Brand

Humans vs. Zombies needs a strong brand that captures the sense of community that the game creates, reminds people that it is safe and family-friendly, and pays homage to the gritty zombie genre that attracts new players.

I do all of our print and digital design in-house, which gives us fine-grain control over our branding, and has helped to increase awareness of the game and grow the Humans vs. Zombies community.

Humans vs. Zombies Website

We rapidly outgrew five different versions of our website as the Humans vs. Zombies game exploded in popularity.

 

Our current site is able to scale to meet the demands of a growing community. It has a modular designs so that we can add or remove items as necessary.

The fifth generation of our site uses WordPress with some AJAX fanciness which can scale to the size of our growing community.

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes on this site – integration with SMF forums, applications from the Google Maps API, a web store, JavaScript, dynamic content, and user-generated pages and posts.

Humans vs. Zombies Merchandise

As Humans vs. Zombies has grown in popularity, there has been increased demand for merchandise and other HvZ brand extensions.

 

Humans vs. Zombies Print Materials

As we start to take our game on the road, we have to rapidly develop and produce print materials that explain the game and let people join in. Here is an example of a brochure we created for the Come Out and Play festival:

 

Public Relations and Rapid Response

Occasionally, schools will ban or restrict play of Humans vs. Zombies. Part of maintaining the Humans vs. Zombies brand is to challenge these decisions. We work with students and organizers on the ground to overturn these bans or reach a compromise with school administrations.

Sometimes, in order to communicate to uncooperative schools just how important the Humans vs. Zombies game is to its players, we ask our community of hundreds of thousands of players to get involved. To facilitate this, I designed the HvZ Action software, which I built at no cost in-house with our lead developer, Justin Quick.

This software allows us to quickly add phone and email advocacy campaigns with custom talking points and invite players to send a message to the school in question. As players write their messages to schools, the software uses keyword recognition to determine if players have discussed the important talking points. If they haven’t, they are politely reminded to mention all of the relevant issues, and given the option to send their message anyway if they want.

This design enables our community to take instantly satisfying action on behalf of a game they love while staying respectfully on message.

The HvZ Community

Our community of players is quirky, engaged, and fun. They give us important feedback on every decision we make, and are active participants in spreading the game and keeping it legal.

We maintain an active forum for players to discuss everything HvZ related, and make an effort to stay in dialogue with them on a daily basis. Recently, some outstanding forums members have come forward to help us moderate discussions and organize posts.

Based on several years worth of forum posts, we started to assemble a guide for starting a game of HvZ. The guide was written by Adam Longwill and myself, and I designed it:

Giving this much attention to the community of players continues to surprise and reward us. When we began building the new version of the HvZ SOURCE software that helps players organize their games, we needed quick cash to start development. We partnered with Kickstarter, and used their grassroots fundraising software to collect over $2,000 in donations from our players in under a month:

Our networks allowed us to get the word out and explain why we needed the money, but it was our special relationship with our community that led them to support us.

Video

In 2007, I created the “Humans vs. Zombies Documentary” which followed the fourth-ever game, played at Goucher College. The documentary spread virally, and was featured on Comcast OnDemand.

Designs were printed and used nationally in the field, at events such as these:

“Pro-Family, Pro-Obama” sign at a Michelle Obama event.

…as well as at the Democratic National Convention, where the Palm Beach Post noted:

As [Congressman Robert Wexler] spoke, many in the Florida delegation held up signs saying ‘Pro-Israel. Pro-Obama.’

Faith merchandise was sold on the Barack Obama online store, and was covered by CNN and the Drudge Report:

After the election, I donated some of the merchandise I created to be sold at an auction to benefit the Anti-Defamation League:

To my amusement, there continues to be a market online for merchandise I designed:

Designs

 

In other HvZ-related news, my 2007 documentary on the Humans vs. Zombies game at Goucher College has been picked up by Stupid Videos and made available to all customers of Comcast Cable.

In your “On Demand” window, go down to “Cutting Edge,” then find the “StupidVideos,” and you will see Humans vs. Zombies parts I and II filed under, “Sketch Comedy.”

You can see the full documentary on Vimeo:

Humans vs. Zombies from HvZ Source on Vimeo.

Enjoy… and, oh… as soon as there is an alternative, you should probobly consider dropping Comcast. Their service is awful.

After lots of meetings (and plastering the campus in rally signs), we successfully lobbied to overturn the policy in one week. Click on photos for more information.

 

I created a website, GoucherHousing.com, to give actionable options to students who wished to help. Over 300 students used the site to send e-mails to our administration, and many requested materials like signs and fliers, so that they could help advocate our cause while staying respectfully on-message.

 

The gender-neutral housing pilot program was expanded to two buildings:

I served as campaign manager, developed branding, and created logos and letterhead for each candidate that reinforced the campaign brand. I designed and printed all campaign materials within an extremely narrow budget, and wrote all public communications from the campaign.

We used new media such as social networking services and targeted online advertising to reach students, as well as large eye-catching posters and hundreds of branded “Playbook for Student Action” booklets which we encouraged students to sign and pass on. By the end of the campaign, some booklets had changed hands over a dozen times, and had collected as many signatures.

Campaign Platform and Messaging

INCLUSIVE GOVERNMENT
Government should bring people together. Next year, we will fight hard to open up SGA to every student on campus and support new clubs. We want to hear from you – on our posters, you will find our personal e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers.

100% VOTER TURNOUT
The 2008 election will be the defining event of our time in college, and we intend to commit to 100% voter turnout. We will personally contact every student on campus, help them to register and get them a ballot.

SMART ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS
Today our generation is called upon to lead the world in sustainable living, and we intend to answer this call. We will aggressively support smart, sustainable projects like GCAG, Earth Works, and the Ag Co-Op, and we will work to help establish the sustainable living house on campus.

J-BOARD REFORM
Goucher students should never have to prove their innocence – we are all innocent until proven guilty. We will fight to reform J-Board to make a more fair and transparent organization, and we will support the J-Board Advocates as they defend students.

LATE NIGHT FOOD
Working with Bon Appetit, we will start a hot dog stand on the Van Meter Highway from midnight to 3am on weekend nights with vegan and kosher options, creating student jobs and quick, tasty food.

TELEVISION STATION
In response to student demand, we will bring back the Goucher television station on channel 11. We will broadcast live sports games, and provide 24-hour movie and television service.

TAILGATE IN ’08
We’re going to turn students on to sports by making games more fun to go to. Red meat, beer, loud music, lots of yelling, and beer. Next year, we’re getting rowdy for Goucher the American way.

Campaign Posters

 

UPDATE: You can see the finished documentary at http://www.HVZSource.com