Outbreak: Undead wins an ENnie

Elliott MillerAug 18, 2011

Hunters Books won a Judges Choice award for their Zombie Role Playing Game Outbreak: Undead at this past Gen Con. If you haven’t heard it, you need to check out Jeff’s interview with Ivan Van Norman from Hunters Books. The gaming community chose to recognize the game, and here is the press release from them about winning the award:

ZOMBIES ATTACK THE ENNIES

Hunters Books receives “Judge’s Choice” at the 2011 ‘ENnie’ awards at GenCon Indy

Indianapolis, IN, 8-11-11 – Heads turned a few weeks ago when a first-year game development company Hunters Books received “Judge’s Choice” at the ‘ENnies’ awards for their title “Outbreak: Undead”, a Zombie Survival Role Playing Game, while at GenCon. The game was selected above hundreds of others by Wil Upchurch; one of the five ENnies judges and respected game developer. “We were shocked,” said lead developer Christopher De La Rosa, “We knew we had a great book, albeit a first edition of our first product, so needless to say, we were blown away when we heard the news about the award; especially considering the caliber of the other winners and their publishers.”

The ENnies started in 2001 and has since given away over 120 awards. All the while, the awards have grown into fame as the premiere authority in recognizing professionals in the gaming and role playing industry. “We always viewed it as the ‘Oscars’ of games,” said Robert Watts, editor and developer at Hunters Books. “All the more reason we were honored to be selected by one of the judges.”

The “Judge’s Choice” award is given by each individual judge when they want to acknowledge a product, but cannot come to a universal consensus among other judges. The judges then have to choose from over hundreds of different submissions and pick their favorite to give their award.

Hunters Books as a result had a great turnout at GenCon 2011, only three copies of the game remained on the Studio 2 shelves by the end of the day Sunday. Hunters Books will be releasing 3 new products in the next year. One 2012 release is a space module they are titling “Outbreak: Deep Space”, which will allow players to run their Outbreak: Undead campaigns in the perilous arenas of outer space and alien worlds, with a unique approach to technology, characters use, as well as new ‘zombie organisms’. A second release set to be available September 2011 is their new wilderness survival expansion and zombie animal bestiary, “Outbreak: Wild Kingdom”.