Video game developer Permbun Aimsupasit belongs to the select group of people who not only retain their childhood dreams but manage to turn them into a reality.

The 29-year-old Permbun, who still loves video games as much as he did in his childhood, is an executive at Advance Intelligence Modernity (AIM), a developer and distributor of mobile-phone games that he created.

While other children from his generation also enjoyed playing video games, Permbun was different in that he always had one question on his mind: why did all the games he played come from overseas?

This question was a large part of what inspired the young Permbun to pursue his dream and develop game software for Thais.

"I always thought that we should have games made by Thais. This thought encouraged me to pursue game development," he says.

Permbun gained his bachelor's degree in computer science from Khon Kaen University, during which time he received a number of awards related to software development, such as a prize at the 2001 National Software Contest organised by National Electronics and Computer Technology.

The awards jump-started Permbun's plans to start his own business, which eventually led to the establishment of AIM in 2003. Permbun's products have since won several local and international prizes.

A mobile-phone game called "Arena of Empire", which Permbun spent just two months creating, won the Innovation Application Popular Vote 2003 and the Entertainment Application Silver Award (Professional) at the Smart Innovation Awards 2003. "Arena of Empire" is an online strategy game in which players undertake the role of a king who must protect his kingdom and mobilise an army to fight other kingdoms.

But Permbun is best known in the game industry for his mobile-phone strategy game "King of Mobile", which won first prize in the Best Java Entertainment Application category at the International Java Masters Competition 2004 in Germany.

With several awards under his belt, the future for Permbun's business should have been rosy. But for a young engineer who knew little about business, things were never going to be easy. Although his products were well recognised, Permbun says the company rarely managed to sell them.

"We didn't know much about business, so it was difficult for us to do marketing well. As I come from an engineering background, I didn't know how to talk in business terms," he says.

These difficulties led Permbun to change himself. He realised that to survive in business he not only needed the best products, he also had to be able to market them.

Thanks to his company's strength in game development, Permbun managed to meet an investor willing to help his company strengthen its marketing. A year after it was established, AIM entered into a joint venture with Modernform Enterprise Computing, a local system integrator, that helped AIM move forward in doing business.

"It was time for a change in AIM," Permbun says. "From being a start-up company, we had to adjust ourselves to become a complete company with more systematic processes."

Permbun learnt more about business. He now not only oversees game development but also manages the company's overall direction and business plan.

"I engage more with management, this is something I have to do," he says.

Permbun still finds time to play games, but nowadays it's a different experience.

"Previously, I played for fun. But now I have to play for study so that I can generate new ideas for our games," he says.

To date, more than 30 of AIM's games have been sold both in and out of the country. The three-year-old company now maintains a marketing network in several countries including Singapore, China, Malaysia and Indonesia to help distribute its mobile-phone games. It plans to expand this market to cover Korea, Japan, Sweden, Scandinavia and England.

And that's not all. Permbun also hopes to make his company a game provider for international gaming consoles.

"We hope to jump up to be recognised on the world stage, as we believe that with our creativity and technical skill in software development, we can develop games for the world market," he says.

To fulfil this dream, Permbun has initiated a project to develop a game for the Nintendo video-game console, the Nintendo DS, which has sold more than 26 million units worldwide. He says the horror-themed game will use innovative new technology that will make players feel as if they are in a real horror situation.

"Development is underway and we hope that the game prototype will be complete by the middle of next year," he said.

AIM will then have to submit the game to Nintendo for approval.

"We still have to do more proposals on the game's commercial appeal. If it is approved, we will then be able to produce the game for the Nintendo DS console," he says.

Permbun expects that this process will take at least two years. But if it succeeds, his company will be a game provider for one of the world's leading video-game consoles, something far beyond his childhood dreams.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation