Skan Srisuwan and Kan Supabanpot

With clients such as Square Enix, Lucas Arts, Namco Bandai, Top Cow, and Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment, Studio HIVE is Thailand’s number one art outsourcing studio for concept art, comic book illustrations, and images for various branches of entertainment. Close to celebrating the company’s second year of existence, founders Skan Srisuwan and Kan Supabanpot have gathered an impressive track record of clients. Their next goal is to do the same with videogames with their first big game project being based on the well-known Ong Bak movie license.

Busy bees in Bangkok

Srisuwan and Supabanpot have been best friends for years and have always shared a passion for games and the industry that creates them. “We always knew we’d end up working together to create something beautiful,” Supabanpot admits. Before the dynamic duo founded Studio HIVE, Srisuwan was still working at another art studio, where he developed illustrations and designed for Square Enix’s game Front Mission Evolved. Supabanpot was busy founding the ThaiGamerNetwork to work with and support foreign game publishers and distributors in their efforts to promote video games in Thailand, and (because of the heavy piracy rates) stimulated the purchase of legal game copies.

When Srisuwan’s previous job encountered some changes, the event signaled the duo to start working together. They set up the company in 2010 and left for the Tokyo Game Show a couple of months later to talk to some of the biggest names in the game industry. Carrying a thesis project of some game design students that they had just hired, the duo bumped into the likes of gaming legend Hideo Kojima. Supabanpot notes:

We purposefully didn’t talk too much business with them, admits. But the Tokyo Game Show proved to us that meeting these high profile people isn’t that hard at all.

Thanks to the thesis project that the young group of developers had made before being hired by Studio HIVE, Srisuwan and Supabanpot were able to acquire a deal to develop the video game for the next installment of Ong Bak movie franchise, which is planned to be released sometime in 2013. At that time, Studio HIVE’s own art team was also hard at work to finish a new project for a graphic novel called Romeo & Juliet: The War from 1821 Comics and Marvel legend Stan Lee.

Supabanpot explains:

Our livelihood as the supplier of quality artwork and illustrations is providing us with a very profitable and stable source of revenue. That income isn’t wasted and is directly put back into our company in order to move forward and adapt.

Those revenue streams are also currently financing the finalization of their Ong Bak project, which a team of more than ten has been working on tirelessly since October of last year. The game is already in its final phase of being extensively polished.

with Stan Lee

A different approach

With a hefty amount of experience with only international clients, both gentlemen frown upon the traditional Thai business culture they’ve left behind. Supabanpot adds:

Our internationally oriented attitude is what makes us the best in Thailand and allows us to stand out. Our end goal is to slowly decrease our artistic efforts and shift towards game development in the near future. We never had a doubt about the direction we wanted to take.

Finding the right staff to set out into that new direction is hard with such an attitude. Under Srisuwan’s creative direction, the team at Studio HIVE now consists of some of the most elite artists in the country.

People who come to work with us start feeling the pressure to perform by themselves. They mostly create that pressure themselves, which causes some people to leave the studio on their own when they discovered they weren’t up to their tasks.

To earn a spot in Studio HIVE’s team doesn’t just require you to be a top notch artist, but also to have the passion for entertainment and to be able to not take yourself too seriously. “We strive to sustain a company culture that is focused on comradery and friendship,” Supabanpot adds. “If you don’t fit in there, you’re free to go.”

Now that Studio Hive’s reputation is growing and gaining more ground doing concept art for more game developers, including for mobile games, the stream of job applications from game professionals has also started pouring in:

That’s why our plan is to start focusing more on young game developers. We will select the most talented ones and also offer them various ways of further education under the studio’s care.

Doing what you love most

The confident attitude of Studio HIVE not only translates into a straight forward attitude, but also a spotless reputation and a collection of A-list clients. A quick overview of the studio’s portfolio makes it hard to question the capacities of creative director Srisuwan and his dedicated team of artists. But what’s the secret behind their success? According to Supabanpot:

“We only work on what we want. We don’t work on games for kids or casual games to rake in the money. We’re not big fans of how people try to make money by using games as advertising or educational tools. We choose our own projects based on how cool they are. After all, we’re running a young company and only want to create cool things. Working on well-paid, but especially very cool projects with clients such as Lucas Arts and Square Enix also makes our team incredibly happy and proud of their work.

Getting those high-profile gigs is also partially thanks to Studio HIVE’s own agent in the United States who, for a commission, helps the studio get connected with these big shots. It’s a pretty good deal for a young studio such as Studio HIVE. But with their reputation on the rise, the studio receives an increasing amount of these assignments.

As their art team is now very stable, most of the studios attention is focused on their Ong Bak game.

Dealing with the business side of things and the game being based on an existing well-known IP has proven to be much more difficult for us than I initially thought. We are very lucky that Ong Bak’s production company Sahamongkol Film international is very supportive. The most fun part for us was when we figured out the main concept of the
game from the treatment we received from Sahamongkol. We had to make sure the game would get along with their treatment, but we actually received a lot of creative freedom and space to come up with various of elements in this game by ourselves.

The success of the Ong Bak game will definitely be a determining factor in Studio Hive’s future as a game development studio, making it not only an ambitious first project for the young studio, but a relatively risky one.

We obviously have the goal to develop our own franchises one day, like we have always wanted. But are we ready for that yet? I’m not so sure about that.

Studio Hive’s work on the Ong Bak game will shed more light on that soon. The game itself has still not been revealed to the public and no information has been disclosed. It shouldn’t be a surprise to know that a well-defined art style and state-of-the-art visuals were one of the first elements in the game to be finished.

What we can share is that the Ong Bak game is full of detailed characters, lively and brightly colored environments and filled with influences from Thai culture and mythology. Studio HIVE is currently in the process of finishing the final touches on the project, but no details are yet available about when the game will be publicly presented or officially released.

Minh Le being interviewed

Right after his graduation, a young and passionate Minh ‘Gooseman’ Le joined Valve to continue his work on Counter-Strike related projects, after those had made him and his nickname legendary around the world. But after seeing his ideas being put on the shelf one too many times, Le decided it was time to leave and focus on his own projects instead. A couple of years later the first version of Tactical Intervention surfaced and rumors about Le’s newest project slowly started spreading. He continued to work on Tactical Intervention for the following years, programming his ideas in the Source engine on his own and occasionally showing it off to friends for feedback. The game has been in development for nine years now and might soon see the light of day.

I sat down with Le to look back at his journey and struggles as an indie game developer, balancing fan’s desires with his own vision, and how he remained motivated throughout the entire journey.

Going down the indie path

Developing Tactical Intervention has taken an impressive physical and financial toll on Le. Not only did he fund the the project initially, but even now Le spends nights at the Fix Korea office on a fold-out bed surrounded by fitness equipment.

At that time Minh had spent a little more than $1.5 million dollars of his own money on the project. “After I burned through that, I partnered with Fix Korea hoping to secure more funding,” Le says. He left his home in Canada and moved to Korea after meeting Fix Korea’s CEO Inho Choi, to whom he successfully pitched Tactical Intervention. “I really liked the game, but had no idea Minh was such a popular developer,” Choi admits.

Despite the hardship, Le seems to radiate more energy than ever. He explains:

Seeing the project come together and start to resemble the vision I had when I started it keeps me constantly motivated. Being able to play it with others is a big motivational tool as it lets me see what features are working. The fact that I’ve invested so much time and money in the project keeps me interested in finishing it too. I’ve accrued a huge debt over the last 7 years.

The personal struggle Le has faced, together with hard work of the small rag tag team of developers trying to turn his vision into the next FPS hit, gives the project a strong indie vibe. “I’d definitely say it’s an indie title,” Le concurs. “For the majority of the development we haven’t been properly funded. The initial four years were financed from my personal savings.”

Dogs and car chases

Looking up interviews with Le on Google brings forth several results and videos where he demonstrates Tactical Intervention’s features and mechanics. The featured car chase missions have gotten so much attention that it seems to have become the sole focus for many among the game’s online community. It’s something that brings Le both a feeling of happiness, and bit of a dilemma.

They now want more car-based missions. So I’m also looking into ways to make the non car chase missions more enjoyable. It’s like introducing two girls, one is super hot, and the other one is average looking. I want to make the average looking girl a bit more attractive.

Le and his team spent quite some time weighing the game community’s demand for content and their own design goals. “It’s going to be a fine balancing act I think,” Le agrees.

It’s important not to succumb too much to user demand as we may run the risk of diluting the game experience and straying away from the core mechanics which make it unique and enjoyable. Our publisher has been super great about working with us to keep the game fun and balanced at the cost of possibly making more money right off the bat.

I really wanted to improve the scenarios I thought were unsuccessful in Counter-Strike. As I felt that with a little bit of improvement game modes like the hostage scenario and the VIP escort could be significantly better.

This desire to do things better and challenge himself is the drive that currently still keeps Le completely dedicated to development of Tactical Intervention.

“It’s crucial to constantly test your game as early as possible,” he says.

Playtesting with a diverse group of players allows you to make corrections to the gameplay before you spend too much time polishing a feature that isn’t even good to begin with. Rapid prototyping allows developers to spot flaws in your game design early, thus saving precious development time. Unfortunately with the nature of TI’s development and various other factors we were limited in our testing environment which resulted in a sluggish development time.

The resulting data still kept the game from being officially released and has given Le a major list of bugs and fixes that he is still implementing and working on with his team.

Reinforcements have arrived

Ben Ben Kleber

Ben Kleber, currently responsible for level design and environment art at Fix Korea, joined Minh’s team in 2008.

I was 23, still in college, but they offered me the position of level designer for Tactical Intervention and I couldn’t refuse.

After a month of working on Tactical Intervention in Korea, Kleber continued working from home in Germany. On February 23 February 2012, he flew over again and has been working on TI full-time ever since.

Kleber’s proudest contribution is a map to be released in the game after the closed beta.

I’m just really looking forward to actually see people play it. That would make me very proud. The map is based on the Korean Gyeongbokgung palace I visited when I was here the last time. Everyone thinks it’s Japanese, but it’s Korean architecture.

Kleber’s most recent contribution, an airport-themed map for the game, is still under construction and is to be fully completed for testing soon. The next couple of months the entire team is remaining in crunch mode, gathering as much player feedback as possible and using every bit to fix any bug they find.

Tactical Intervention was planned to be released in spring of this year, but like many indie developers, Minh Le and his team have had their share of problems and the need to find funding to keep the project alive. “We’re shooting for a fall/winter release now,” Le says.

We spent the last few months restructuring the backend portion of our game, smoothing out our the server structure and lobby system. Ben [Kleber] and our second level designer have begun work on new levels and I’ve also had some time to work on a new level as well as some new graphics.

Tactical Intervention is now looking better than ever. As much as Le’s struggle to complete his vision strongly reflects that of a passionate indie developer, it is also keeping Tactical Intervention’s horde of dedicated fans base eagerly waiting for the game’s final release.

Playinter has also spent the last few months actively promoting the launch of the Thai version with a heavy online marketing campaign and through a growing Facebook community of players. Riot Games also heavily supported the localized launch of its game in Thailand, creating a special ‘Muay Thai’ skin for the popular in-game champion Lee Sin.

Battle of the MOBAs

Cholnara Niwatwong, project manager at Playinter, admits that it wasn’t easy to introduce League of Legends in Thailand, especially with also hosting its competitor Heroes of Newerth in the country. Cholnara tells us:

HoN is very famous and is stepping up to becoming the number one game in Thailand. Both being MOBA games, it’s quite the challenge to drive two competing games under one company policy.

Nevertheless, League of Legends’ popularity is on the rise.

That’s because of two important elements. The first is because we have a lot of Thai fans that were already playing on the North American server. Secondly, the design and characters in the game are much more detailed and colorful than other MOBA games, appealing to every gender and age at first sight.

Bringing your game home

Previously most League of Legends players in Thailand (including yours truly) have had to suffer through slow connection speeds and server drops, the language barrier of having to read and speak English to handle the game, and the requirement to use a credit card to make in-game payments while attempting to play League of Legends on its North American server. The recent open beta stage of the Thai version before launch therefore also already allowed players to transfer their existing North American accounts to the Thai server for free. An extensive Thai guide to transfer your account was also made available. Cholnara says:

Transferring accounts from one server to another can be a real problem. Riot Games needs some very precise data in order to prevent any mistakes from happening. Thai players have often sent incorrect data, because they haven’t actually looked into their accounts for over two years since they created it. However players have contacted us and our customer support staff has been able to significantly help them with fixing their accounts.

Taking the party to the players

In anticipation of the official launch on July 15th, the Thai League of Legends server offered various discounts on in-game items and champions. The opening also invited Thai LoL fans to attend the first-ever Game Xpo event at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok last weekend. Playinter’s Cholnara explains:

The TGX event just took place at the right time. That was just the opening ceremony for us. We invite everyone to see what we’re doing at other events with our competitions, prize pool and rewards. New players that will visit our booths in the future will receive a starter kit of champions, specials skins and boosts to help them level up faster. We’re especially glad to see how excited people get and how much fun they have at our competitions.

Playinter had a giant League of Legends booth at TGX that offered free items for fans of the game. It also hosted various competitions that invited new talent, challenged existing pro teams and even offered access to the second season of the Thailand LoL competition which are scheduled to take place in Vietnam. On a final note, Cholnara tells TiA:

We have plans to develop Thai e-sports through this game, because LoL already has great features to support competition. We want to support these kind of competitions as best as we can.

Though the total number of Thai LoL players can not be disclosed by the company, Cholnara confirms that over 100,000 users and counting have registered since the Thai version of the popular title was announced.

The Thai video game industry is on the rise! This has mostly come through the rise of different app stores and a growing interest from foreign investors in Thai game development talent, and more and more Thai game studios are being empowered to produce quality content for a global audience.

Some games are slowly getting a foothold in the international market, with an increasing number Thai game developers finding both the talent, resources, and the guts to aim for international releases of their games. We rounded up some of the most interesting video games made in the Asian nation that you should check out for yourself. Here they are!

1. Stylista (PC), from Sandbox Global

Though Sandbox Global has not yet started largely promoting its first social game, the fashion themed Stylista, user numbers are growing steadily and a Thai version is already up as well! Stylista is a social game that lets the player explore the world of fashion, art, and design. The game allows you dress up your avatar, travel to different destinations to shop for new clothes and design your own apartment. Sandbox Global has the ambitious goal of reaching one million users by the third quarter of 2012.

2. Cube Raider (iOS), from Gamesquare

You have to give it to the guys from Gamesquare for coming up with one of the more original 3D puzzle games available on iOS. The game blends a bit of action with a lot of puzzling in 3D cube worlds where you have to move boxes, fill holes, and sometimes fall off the side to get where you need to be. There’s also a free ‘Lite’ version for everybody to try.

3. Spot the Differences (Android), from Sanuk Games

Though ‘spot the differences’ might be a very well known concept, Sanuk’s Spot the Differences is one of the most polished and fun versions on the entire planet. And best of all, it’s free to play using Google Play. The Bangkok-based studio is mostly known for their outsourcing work that involves bringing popular mobile game titles to platforms such as the Playstation 3 and the Wii. Sanuk Games has worked on and released over 40 titles to date.

Sanuk also recently made the iOS version of Mastiff Games’s Major League Eating.

4. Biology Battle (PC & Xbox 360), from Novaleaf

Novaleaf, one of the most renowned game studios in Bangkok has been around for a while. Though most of its work, much like most other Thai game studios, revolves around taking on outsourcing jobs, it did enjoy a breakthrough hit with its game Biology Battle on the Xbox Live Indie Games service for the Xbox 360 and PC. Check out their video trailer here.

The game was initially planned to appear on the more established Xbox Live Arcade platform, but was refused for looking too much as another title. The game cost $100,000 dollars to make, which makes it the most high-budget XBLIG title to date.

5. A.R.E.S. (PC), from Extend Interactive

Their flagship title until recently being the Ares, a 2.5D side-scrolling, action platformer for the PC. The game received good reviews from big game websites like IGN (7.5/10) and PC Gamer US (7.9/10).

Extend Interactive is currently working on a new 2D puzzle platformer called So Many Me, which they are planning on releasing later this year. The game features a cute character called Filo and his band of misfit clones. Together they attempt to save a world that is being threatened by an ancient, malevolent evil. A sequel to A.R.E.S. has also been confirmed (see video).

6. Unblock me (iOS & Android), from Kiragames

Based out of Chiang Mai, the creators of Unblock Me free are at this moment making the most best-selling video games made in Thailand. The simple puzzle game offers a huge amount of fun, but is quite challenging from the get-go and requires some patience. The player has to attempt to get a small red block outside of a large square level by moving the blocks around it. Horizontal blocks only move from left to right and vertical blocks can only move up and down. Stick with it and become a puzzling master!

You can try out the free iOS version here and the Android version here.

In an old Singaporean office crammed with start-ups lies the humble shared space of the up-and-coming HTML5 social games start-up NonStop Games (nonstop-games.com), formerly known as Dollar Isle creator GamesMadeMe. Founded on the friendship and shared ambitions of the former Wooga head Henric Suuronen and ex-Nokia business development manager Juha Paananen, the studio is redefining how HTML5 is used to develop cross-platform, fun, and community-based social gaming experiences.

They’re currently working on their newest title Paint Stars (see screenshots below), whose community recently marked the production of over 500.000 drawings. I sat down with the duo to talk about creating the Instagram for painting, avoiding app store dependence, and using games as a web-link to make sharing your creations the easiest thing ever.

Friendship, CTO power, and start-up foundations

Friends since high school and gamers for life with a similar educational background, Suuronen and Paananen couldn’t wait to start a company together. The spark that initiated their first ideas for founding NonStop Games came with the rising popularity of browser-based games back in 2010. Paananen explains:

There came a time when browser-based games were slowly taking over client-based ones. We felt the same thing was soon going to happen in mobile phones and tablets.

NonStop Games’s main goal is to make its HTML5 software so fast that it almost feels like a native app. Suuronen notes:

That is the main sore spot in HTML5. You pushed the button, but it takes time to load and you don’t know what is happening at that time. That’s not very app-like. This is where we put a lot of effort, so you push a button and a color change tells you it was pressed. If it’s loading, there is always a load-bar. All these small things that make it feel responsive.

Instagram for painting

With the user numbers and sales of OMGPop’s hit dropping drastically, a drawing game might not appear to be the safest bet for any studio. But for Suuronen and Paananen, the concept introduced by that title felt strongly underdeveloped. The duo realized that the success of an app like Instagram and Draw Something doesn’t lie in the core activity of taking photos or painting. Suuronen argues:

It’s about things that you want to show off. Some people draw just for themselves, some just take photos for themselves, but most want to show what they’ve done and kind of build their online photographic or painting identity. Suddenly they get followers commenting and liking and loving their work. When I saw this drawing genre rise in popularity, I realized it can have exactly the same impact as Instagram. I’m painting and I want to get my friends to comment on it. I want to come back and see that I’ve got 20 new likes or 50 new comments. This is the real driver for me to draw more.

HTML5’s capabilities to work around any filtering system on school computers even got some schools in the US to already ban the popular Paint Stars from their computer labs.

The game’s exponential growth in user activity and engagement is easy to measure by looking back at only 4000 daily paintings from just one week before this interview was held. Suuronen says:

I don’t even dare to think about how much it will be in a week, in two weeks. I am most happy about our hypothesis of people wanting to comment and like each other’s paintings being true.

The number is now at nearly 30,000 pictures being painted daily and it is growing every day. A recent release and change in functionality doubled the daily amount in one day. “It is all about the details,” Suuronen adds.

The next challenge for Suuronen and Paananen is to discover how paintings can get to services other than Twitter and Facebook.

Who needs an app store?

A NonStop Games’ browser game that runs just as fast as a native app might not need to be inside an app store anymore. Better yet, users can always play an HTML5 game that is instantly fully updated after it is launched. Paananen explains:

We are not saying the app store is a bad channel, and we will be launching our games in the app stores too by wrapping them into a standard app. But being outside of app stores gives you a lot of advantages. You can just move faster. You don’t have to submit anything and wait for approval. Instead you can submit updates live anytime and there is no installation process. It helps things become much more instant, and viral too.

His partner Suuronen adds:

We already make money with different solutions, but it could be better. Facebook credits on mobile seem very good and each day it’s getting better for us. We’re using HTML5 because it’s a new technology with real user experience benefits. But as it is new technology means that it won’t be easy. We also have the opportunity to be among the first to get it right, which is definitely worth the extra effort.

I’m told that NonStop Games are currently preparing for the next step in their journey, which they will hopefully be able to announce later this summer. Paananen adds on a final note:

Man didn’t go to the moon because it was easy!