Loving Life

Life can flip in a single afternoon, and you spend years learning how to breathe in the new version of it. What a wonderful way to tell that story.

Felt more like reading a long text than playing a game. Couldn't stay interested.

Originally released in 2012, Loving Life is a non-fictional auto-biographical visual novel about Zhenghua Yang (Z) and the near-fatal incident which led to the founding of Serenity Forge. This is where it all began.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with the developer and was introduced to this game. I had learned of his story through his TedX Talk so I was curious to see how it was told through the visual novel medium. It is spectacularly well told from his perspective at the time. I love how it shows how the mundane and repetitiveness of life can all halt in a moment with you realizing how it could all be over in an instant. Thank you for the experience Z! I hope many more get to experience this story as well.

Loving Life is an unusually intimate visual novel that treats the medium as a way to preserve memories and explore how a life-threatening experience can completely rearrange a person's priorities. Rather than building its appeal around elaborate mechanics, lengthy progression systems, or difficult choices, it focuses on personal storytelling. The game is based on experiences from the life of Zhenghua Yang, also known as Z, and originated as an early project connected to Serenity Forge. The remastered edition is developed and published by Serenity Forge, giving players an opportunity to experience an important piece of the studio's history in a form better suited to modern computers. At the center of the story is an 18-year-old college student whose ordinary concerns are suddenly overwhelmed by a medical emergency. A severe nosebleed that continues for many hours eventually becomes a frightening confrontation with the possibility of death. What initially seems like a health crisis develops into something much more reflective, as the protagonist begins reconsidering his ambitions, relationships, responsibilities, and understanding of what makes life valuable. The autobiographical fo…

It was a well felt personal story game. Short enough to keep going until the end with a nice moral at the end.