Faced with a zombie apocalypse, dogs need to rescue “hoomans” from being eaten alive: this is the plot of the latest board game developed by worker co-operative Make Big Things.
Based in western Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois, the co-operative designed the board game based on the idea of co-operation.
Players take on the role of dog characters with different powers – Lupin (snuggle), Waine (be grumpy), Captain Woofster (hunt) and Miss Fuzzy Ears (protect).
Each time the zombies eat a human or get into Central Bark, players will have to move the Feral Tracker forward. Once it reaches ten, players forget what it means to feel the love of a human and start acting like wolves.
In order to win they need to work together to save six human and bring them back to the refuge place called Central Bark.
Worker member Hannah Shaffer, an independent game and web designer living in Massachusetts, said about the game: “Because we are a co-operative, we wanted the game to be co-operative. In Good Dog, Bad Zombie, everyone wins or loses together.”
Only by “co-operatively howling, barking, and herding” can players save enough human to win the game.
The game has five difficulty set-ups, which makes it suitable for people of all ages.
Good Dog, Bad Zombie is the fifth board game to be developed by the co-op and will be printed in the USA on sustainable materials by a worker owned manufacturer.
“Because we care about humans, too, we wanted a board game that would be ethically manufactured,” explained Ms Shaffer. The game was developed over three years, and the co-op launched a Kickstarter campaign this spring to raise funds for producing the game.
Make Big Things has also partnered with One Tail at a Time, a rescue shelter in Chicago and will be using some of the funding received from backers to purchase items for the dogs at the shelter.
