Board game taps into zombie craze
Zpocalypse board game creators, from left, Julie Ahern-Hurston, Jeff and Theresa Gracia and Ricky Casdorph with their new zombie board game. (T&G Staff/STEVE LANAVA)
How do you kill a zombie?
Two years ago at Christmas, 32-year-old board game aficionado Jeff Gracia was in the mood to kill some zombies.
More specifically, he wanted to play a zombie game, but he couldn’t find a decent one. Mr. Gracia knew exactly what he had in mind: a role-playing survival board game with a great story line requiring problem-solving skills, management of resources and team cooperation.
So he rolled the dice and decided to create something new: Zpocalypse.
“I always liked zombie movies,” said Mr. Gracia, who works as an automation test engineer at his day job at Framingham-based Bose. “And board games are making a big resurgence.”
Mr. Gracia’s survival game is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Two to four players start in a basement fallout shelter that leads to base locations or through tunnels to sewer grates. Survivors are trying to make it day to day in a world torn apart by the walking dead.
His first step in creating Zpocalypse was to do research online, and he found GURPS, a guide for people who want to design role-playing games.
He wrote a story and outline, and searched for maps. Mr. Gracia discovered that Zack Parkes of New Jersey had already created a post-apocalyptic zombie world with illustrated maps. Mr. Gracia printed one of the maps to use as a “board” for his game and began playing the first — and very rough — version of his game.
“I admit,” Mr. Gracia said. “It wasn’t that great at first.”
But Mr. Gracia, who lives in Marlboro, decided that the game had enormous potential, so he assembled a team — starting with his wife, Theresa Gracia — to work on “Project Z.”
Over the next months, Mr. Gracia made several revisions, playing different versions of the game with his wife and close friends. Julie Ahern-Hurston of Hudson was one of first to play the game with the couple, and became enamored with the project. Soon after, Ms. Ahern-Hurston became the editor for the project and took on another role.
“I became known as the “Dark Duchess of Discipline,” Ms. Ahern-Hurston said. “If there are hard confrontations or tough decisions, I tend to take the lead.”
A big decision was made when Ms. Gracia suggested that they hire an artist to take the project to the next level.
“It was your idea,” Ms. Gracia said to her husband about the game. “And it was my idea to make it go somewhere.”
The next hurdle was to raise money for production.
“I did a lot of research on how to get a game manufactured,” Mr. Gracia said. “I found it was really expensive.”
Mr. Gracia turned to Kickstarter, an online resource for raising money from the general public. The goal was to raise $15,000. The group filmed their video proposal to submit to Kickstarter on March 9, 2011. Their video was posted until April 22, 2011. The public’s response was overwhelmingly positive, and $210,237 from 2,045 backers was pledged to the game in 45 days.
“We definitely tapped into something,” Mr. Gracia said. He turned to the Internet again and discovered artist Ricky Casdorph on Concept Art. Mr. Casdorph was living in Denver at the time, so the three had their first video conference in April 2011. Mr. Casdorph was immediately drawn to the project.
“Zombies are blowing up right now” Mr. Casdorph said. “Even Home Depot has a zombie aisle.”
Mr. Casdorph noted that AMC’s popular series “The Walking Dead” has returned for another season, and a Hollywood movie, “World War Z,” starring Brad Pitt is still being filmed. The movie involves the outbreak of deadly zombies.
Mr. Casdorph was on board. In fact, he moved to Marlboro from Colorado.
With financial backing and so much positive feedback, Mr. Gracia decided to market his game. The next step was to hire a Web developer. Mr. Parkes was hired as the technical director. Mr. Gracia formed GreenBrier LLC, and lawyer Nicholas Hurston came on board. The group was complete and they decided to meet in person for a Labor Day weekend marathon in 2011.
“Ricky flew in and Zach drove up,” Mr. Gracia said. “It was the first time we met in person. We played the game all weekend and worked through a lot of the kinks.”
Project Z was renamed Zpocalypse by the small team. Mr. Gracia consulted with David Tiertant of Burlington to run the numbers and serve as business adviser.
The enthusiastic group of collaborators celebrated with a zombie Thanksgiving to do the final test runs of the game.
Meanwhile, the group had been introducing Zpocalypse at board game conventions across the country. The game, which was created for ages 13 and up, seemed to be a hit with all ages,
At the conventions, Mr. Gracia learned of game guru Dan Yarrington of Manchester, N.H. Mr. Yarrington serves as the managing partner of Myriad Games, treasurer of the Professional Game Store Association and chief executive officer of Game Salute. Mr. Gracia contacted him because Mr. Yarrington specializes in marketing, distribution and warehousing of games, and placed an order for 5,000 games at the end of June.
The games will be for sale by the beginning of the year; and pre-orders are already rolling in.
Two years ago at Christmas, 32-year-old board game aficionado Jeff Gracia was in the mood to kill some zombies.
More specifically, he wanted to play a zombie game, but he couldn’t find a decent one. Mr. Gracia knew exactly what he had in mind: a role-playing survival board game with a great story line requiring problem-solving skills, management of resources and team cooperation.
So he rolled the dice and decided to create something new: Zpocalypse.
“I always liked zombie movies,” said Mr. Gracia, who works as an automation test engineer at his day job at Framingham-based Bose. “And board games are making a big resurgence.”
Mr. Gracia’s survival game is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Two to four players start in a basement fallout shelter that leads to base locations or through tunnels to sewer grates. Survivors are trying to make it day to day in a world torn apart by the walking dead.
His first step in creating Zpocalypse was to do research online, and he found GURPS, a guide for people who want to design role-playing games.
He wrote a story and outline, and searched for maps. Mr. Gracia discovered that Zack Parkes of New Jersey had already created a post-apocalyptic zombie world with illustrated maps. Mr. Gracia printed one of the maps to use as a “board” for his game and began playing the first — and very rough — version of his game.
“I admit,” Mr. Gracia said. “It wasn’t that great at first.”
But Mr. Gracia, who lives in Marlboro, decided that the game had enormous potential, so he assembled a team — starting with his wife, Theresa Gracia — to work on “Project Z.”
Over the next months, Mr. Gracia made several revisions, playing different versions of the game with his wife and close friends. Julie Ahern-Hurston of Hudson was one of first to play the game with the couple, and became enamored with the project. Soon after, Ms. Ahern-Hurston became the editor for the project and took on another role.
“I became known as the “Dark Duchess of Discipline,” Ms. Ahern-Hurston said. “If there are hard confrontations or tough decisions, I tend to take the lead.”
A big decision was made when Ms. Gracia suggested that they hire an artist to take the project to the next level.
“It was your idea,” Ms. Gracia said to her husband about the game. “And it was my idea to make it go somewhere.”
The next hurdle was to raise money for production.
“I did a lot of research on how to get a game manufactured,” Mr. Gracia said. “I found it was really expensive.”
Mr. Gracia turned to Kickstarter, an online resource for raising money from the general public. The goal was to raise $15,000. The group filmed their video proposal to submit to Kickstarter on March 9, 2011. Their video was posted until April 22, 2011. The public’s response was overwhelmingly positive, and $210,237 from 2,045 backers was pledged to the game in 45 days.
“We definitely tapped into something,” Mr. Gracia said. He turned to the Internet again and discovered artist Ricky Casdorph on Concept Art. Mr. Casdorph was living in Denver at the time, so the three had their first video conference in April 2011. Mr. Casdorph was immediately drawn to the project.
“Zombies are blowing up right now” Mr. Casdorph said. “Even Home Depot has a zombie aisle.”
Mr. Casdorph noted that AMC’s popular series “The Walking Dead” has returned for another season, and a Hollywood movie, “World War Z,” starring Brad Pitt is still being filmed. The movie involves the outbreak of deadly zombies.
Mr. Casdorph was on board. In fact, he moved to Marlboro from Colorado.
With financial backing and so much positive feedback, Mr. Gracia decided to market his game. The next step was to hire a Web developer. Mr. Parkes was hired as the technical director. Mr. Gracia formed GreenBrier LLC, and lawyer Nicholas Hurston came on board. The group was complete and they decided to meet in person for a Labor Day weekend marathon in 2011.
“Ricky flew in and Zach drove up,” Mr. Gracia said. “It was the first time we met in person. We played the game all weekend and worked through a lot of the kinks.”
Project Z was renamed Zpocalypse by the small team. Mr. Gracia consulted with David Tiertant of Burlington to run the numbers and serve as business adviser.
The enthusiastic group of collaborators celebrated with a zombie Thanksgiving to do the final test runs of the game.
Meanwhile, the group had been introducing Zpocalypse at board game conventions across the country. The game, which was created for ages 13 and up, seemed to be a hit with all ages,
At the conventions, Mr. Gracia learned of game guru Dan Yarrington of Manchester, N.H. Mr. Yarrington serves as the managing partner of Myriad Games, treasurer of the Professional Game Store Association and chief executive officer of Game Salute. Mr. Gracia contacted him because Mr. Yarrington specializes in marketing, distribution and warehousing of games, and placed an order for 5,000 games at the end of June.
The games will be for sale by the beginning of the year; and pre-orders are already rolling in.
~telegram.com
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