From a coma to the world of ZHAI
For this Fix Stories feature, one of the founders of The Orange Giant GDS shares how a motocross accident, a two-week coma, and the vivid world he remembers from it became the starting point for ZHAI.
After waking, he began sketching the landscapes and structures he remembered. Those sketches eventually became the foundation for the game. This is his story in his own words.
Read more first-person developer and creator stories in Fix Stories.
Want more stories directly from game developers?
Get more developer stories, interviews, reviews, indie coverage, and gaming news from Fix Gaming Channel.
Join Our Newsletter
Stay updated with the latest interviews, previews, and indie gaming news.
It started with an accident.
My critical condition following a motocross accident placed me in a coma for 2 weeks. I was not asleep and it was not a dream, it was a whole other world where I lived and breathed, much like this one.
It was earth-like and yet completely unfamiliar, vivid, detailed, fast-moving, and incredibly confusing.
I was constantly on the run, trying to understand where I was and figure out how to get back to what I knew. And somewhere in that world, I encountered an orange giant.
Then I woke up.
My coma world did not dissipate with my waking up from the coma. At first I could still see it in the background behind people as I spoke to them. Eventually , that went away and that’s when I started sketching. Those sketches developed into a map, with landscapes and structures.
I still have those.
From a memory to a game
You think of video games and movies as modes of escapism. They give us the opportunity to step away from our everyday lives to wander elsewhere.
But there is a distinct difference in experiencing both.
Watching a movie involves observing someone else’s imagination play out cinematically. Gaming, however, is interactive. In a game, you can actually enter this imagined world, explore it, make choices, get lost in it and experience it for yourself.
And I decided that’s what I wanted to do. Build a video game to offer people an escape and interaction with an alternate world. Much like my own experience- just sparing them the coma!
The original sketches eventually became the foundation for ZHAI. The game has evolved significantly since those first ideas, but interestingly, the original world map is still largely the same.
One of ZHAI’s rocky environments, filled with strange structures and an almost otherworldly atmosphere. Image: The Orange Giant.
When a personal experience becomes something bigger
An interesting aspect of developing ZHAI is the handover of my experience, from something very personal to me, to becoming a collaborative project.
Bringing together a team that formed the company The Orange Giant, everyone pitched in their own perspectives, skills and workmanship. And it became our game. And once we launch it, soon, it will belong to many others.
My experience was merely the inspiration. What the team created is so much more.
The Orange Giant
The transformative journey of ZHAI from sketches to a launchable video game meant sourcing the right talent to bring it to life. The Orange Giant being a start up idea meant that those talented individuals were also willing to take a chance on an ambitious idea.
Maher Chebli, our Game Director, an old friend, we go as far back as school days, and for as long as I’ve known him he’s the single biggest gaming nerd. It was a no-brainer asking him to join. He’ll tell you- he was torn between thinking this might be a prank as it was too good to be true. And yet, it didn’t take him long to resign his job at the local university and pursue his great passion for gaming.
A few months later, Kevin Grunder, our Commercial Manager, joined us. Kevin used to work as a ski school manager for a number of years before swapping the slopes for managing accounts within the defense sector.
One day, he accidentally brought in his gaming mouse into the office. His manager noticed it and upon inquiring discovered his passion for gaming and his knowledge of the industry. That conversation eventually led to The Orange Giant, and not long after we got in touch, and Kevin jumped ship.
Building a world worth getting lost in
When designing ZHAI, we didn’t aim to reinvent gaming simply for the sake of standing out.
We tapped into what matters to us, an immersive world, an unfolding story and gripping gameplay, to create something that moves people enough into wanting to stay within and eager to revisit.
“What makes this game worth remembering and worth getting lost in?” rather than “What is the safest commercial decision?”
ZHAI’s world stretches into colder environments, with snow-covered mountains and towering rock formations. Image: The Orange Giant.
ZHAI is no longer just my story
It would be easy to describe ZHAI simply as “the game that came from my coma experience.”
But I don’t think that tells the whole story anymore.
Today, ZHAI, the warrior and the game, has its own identity, its own world and its own story.
My experience gave us somewhere to begin, but the world we are building belongs to the game now. And hopefully, it will eventually lead to many more stories and adventures within that universe.
ZHAI prepares to release in December 2026.
What began as an experience I had while unconscious, a world I couldn’t explain, and an orange giant I couldn’t forget, has turned into something I can finally share with other people.
This time, they won’t just hear about the world.
They’ll be able to enter it.
Editor’s note: The submitted story states that ZHAI is preparing to release in December 2026. At the time of publication, the official Steam page lists its planned release date as “To be announced.” The contributor’s wording above has been preserved.
ZHAI
Release: To be announced
Genre: Third-person open-world action-adventure
Developer – Publisher: The Orange Giant GDS / The Orange Giant GDS
Platforms: PC (Windows) via Steam
Fix Gaming Channel: Fix Stories gives developers and creators room to tell the stories behind their work directly in their own words. The submitted story above has been preserved in the contributor’s voice and formatted for publication by Fix Gaming Channel.
Related Reading
Fix Stories: Why I Built a Grand Strategy Game I Could Actually Finish
Fix Stories: Hound Riders and the Fight to Stay Original
More Fix Stories From Developers and Creators
Story submitted by a founder of The Orange Giant GDS, developer of ZHAI.
Edited and published by Ronny Fiksdahl, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Fix Gaming Channel.
Send developer stories, creator stories, corrections, tips, or game pitches to contact@fixgamingchannel.com.
Support independent games coverage on Ko-fi.
