In the GameSpot interview with Alexander "The Man" Seropian, some of the background for the plot of Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse is revealed.

Edward Stubblefield is a Depression-era traveling salesman who was murdered. Decades later, sometime in the 1950s, an ambitious industrialist builds a model "city of the future" on Edward's grave, which causes him to rise as an undead Zombie on the city's opening day to try and turn the city's inhabitants into zombies.

In the game, you play the role of Stubbs the zombie, trying to eat the brains of humans and make them into your zombie allies.

Seropian says the concept arose from a desire to do an action game that was not a sci-fi shooter.