A 35-year-old today is the head of a successful development studio. But 17 years ago, doctors only gave him a few hours to live. He reports what has kept him alive, among other things: games like World of Warcraft and League of Legends. That’s why he wanted to develop video games himself.
The 35-year-old Zhenghua Yang now leads the development studio and publisher Serenity Forge. Most people probably know his studio mainly for games like Slay the Princess or Doki Doki Literature Club, where the team acted as a publisher.
But in 2008, it did not seem likely that Yang would be the head of a successful developer and publisher. Because the doctors gave the then 18-year-old only a few hours to live. Yang survived, but only after spending two years repeatedly in the hospital. What helped him through the difficult time, he told in a conversation, were mainly video games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft.
Games have “basically saved my life”
In a conversation with Fortune magazine, Yang recounted that in 2008 he was admitted to the hospital with seemingly harmless nosebleeds. The doctors found that he was suffering from a critical deficiency of platelets and eventually told him he had only three hours to live.
But Yang survived this life-threatening crisis, also with the help of video games. He explained in the conversation:
Games like League of Legends weren’t really developed to help me, but in the end, they basically saved my life. What if I started to create games with the intention of helping people? What powers could that unleash?
Out of this idea, his own studio eventually emerged: Serenity Forge. Today, Yang’s team has released about 70 titles, including Lifeless Planet and Doki Doki Literature Club. Today, the studio reports an annual revenue between 10 and 15 million USD.
Failing and learning from it is important for aspiring founders
Does he have a tip for aspiring founders? Yes, to fail often and learn from it. Because the secret is not talent or timing, but learning to handle failures quickly and consciously. This is especially true in the competitive video game market, where thousands of games compete for the favor of users every year and only a few of them succeed.
Life can be complicated. When you start a business to achieve something, approach it as thoughtfully as possible and try to stay open to the realities of the world.
As an example, he mentioned Rovio Entertainment, which struggled for years with small mobile games until they finally achieved their big success, which almost everyone knows today: Angry Birds.
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