Startups have been known to pivot all the time, but it isn’t often that you see this from Streamy-nominated web series. GOLD, the tabletop RPG playing comedy series is back today with GOLD: Night of the Zombie King, a mini-series that turns towards the dramatic side of the its gamer characters.
Creator David Nett wrote the NOTZK project alongside fellow GOLD stars Rick Robinson and Andrew R. Deutsch. The trio brought on new faces for the offshoot to join GOLD actor James Ellis Lane, scoring indie vets Jonathan Nail (SOLO), Stephanie Thorpe (After Judgment), Brian Majestic (SOLO) and a standout performance from Maxwell Glick (lonelygirl15).
After his team fails to qualify for the world RPG Championships, disillusioned captain Jamison “Jaz” Colier travels home to relive the glory days with his old friends for one nostalgic night of gaming. But when he arrives, he finds the ruins of the life he ran away from more than 15 years ago still need to be repaired before he can find peace, in his life and in the game.
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While officially they are calling this “a companion piece to GOLD,” it comes as a response to considerable feedback from the show’s audience who seem to have been clamoring to see a more serious side of the GOLD world. “We talked with the fans about what they’d like to see more of,” said Nett. “Andrew [Deutsch], Rick [Robinson] & I used that information to build a show around one of the minor characters from GOLD Season 1, which allows us to tell this amazing new story without disrupting the main GOLD storyline.”
The six-episode series premieres today, with a new episode out every week through their distributors of choice—blip.tv, iTunes and YouTube. By our count that does make it eligible for a Streamy this year by getting three episodes out in the calendar year.
“The internet is a big place so it’s hard to be certain, but we believe Zombie King might be the first real drama about the gamer culture,” added Nett. “While it stays true to the characters and world of GOLD, the tone is very different, which is an exciting experiment for us.”
