Adam Bohn admits he’s been obsessed with video games since the fifth grade.

Little did he know that obsession would one day lead him to found a multimillion dollar business that creates video games.

Bohn, 38, who was born in Altoona and attended Juniata Elementary School through first grade before moving out of the area, is CEO of Artix Entertainment LLC in Lutz, Fla.

“When I first played a game called ‘Castlevania,’ that is when the obsession really started,” Bohn said.

Bohn, whose extended family lives in Altoona, graduated from Moon High School in 1994 and from Penn State in 1998 with a degree in business.

He admits when he was in high school, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do careerwise.

“I had no idea what I was going to do, but I loved art. I was told there was no way to make a living out of it, but that is what I ended up doing,” Bohn said.

When he was at Penn State, Bohn “was into video creations.” He created an online guild, a community of players who play a game.

“We had over 2,000 members. People were from all over the world. Because of that, I met a lot of like-minded people,” Bohn said.

After graduating from Penn State, Bohn moved to California where he became a Web page developer during the dot-com boom.

“I was a Web mercenary. I worked on projects; I did what they needed. I would finish a project, smile, get paid and move on. I was always passionate about my work. I loved making things,” Bohn said.

Bohn then decided he wanted to work for himself.

“I didn’t want to work for others. I wanted to build something that I would be part of, something of my own. I said I am going to Florida and build a video game. I thought it was a wild pipe dream,” Bohn said.

In 2001, he created his first game called “AdventureQuest,” which was released in 2002.

“I was not trying to make money. I had to build a game just to say I built a game. I thought if I could get 100 people to play it three times, I could say I achieved my life goal and move on,” Bohn said.

Bohn didn’t think “AdventureQuest” was a very good game.

“I showed it to close friends. They thought it was one of the worst games they had ever seen, and no one would play it. I found my finger on the delete button, that I should give up and move on to something else. No one saw it coming. It was a terrible game, but it had a lot of heart,” Bohn said.

However, the game became wildly popular on the Internet with more than 40,000 new players signing up for it each day.

“It was a first of its kind and unique because we have updated it and grown it every week since it was created,” Bohn said.

Bohn founded Artix Entertain-ment, which creates and publishes free-download, browser-based role-playing games to more than 160 million registered players worldwide, in 2003.

Artix has grown to a $10 million-a-year business and employs a staff of 47.

Artix has created seven major games including the newer “AdventureQuest Worlds,” a multiplayer game that runs in a browser. Artix recently released “BattleGems,” a phone and tablet fantasy puzzle game, which was featured on the Apple App Store’s “Best New Games.”

Artix soon will be releasing “Dragons,” which is a game about hatching and raising baby dragons. It is a collaboration between Artix Entertainment and the creators of the Internet craze “Cookie Clicker.”

Although Bohn has not lived in Altoona for many years, he remembers spending a lot of time with his grandparents – Charlie and Amelda Bohn and Chuck and Joyce Thompson.

He calls his grandfathers his role models.

“My two grandfathers were the two hardest working men I have seen in my life. Grandpa Thompson worked two jobs. He worked two jobs nonstop. He was a well-chiseled man, what real men should be like,” Bohn said. “Grandpa Bohn was a hardworking man with a sense of humor. He ran Bohn’s Garage. He is a character.”

Bohn said he remembers spending time in the woods around Altoona as a child.

“My father was an outdoorsman and did a lot of fishing and hunting,” Bohn said. “I love the woods in Pennsylvania. I spent most of my childhood running around in them. That is why almost all of my games start in forests that look like back home.”

A part of his hometown is mentioned in several of his games.

In the games “AdventureQuest,” “DragonFable” and “AdventureQuest Worlds,” the character Artix was born in a haunted, undead-filled forest known as DoomWood. Before the undead invasion, DoomWood was known as Juniata Park. A single patch of Juniata Park’s beautiful woods remains safe and untouched in the center of Doomwood – guarded by a fairy who tells the tale of what happened.

“The staff, nor the players of the game ever raised an eyebrow at the game assuming it was another thing we just made up. Naming Artix’s real home town, Juniata, is an insider reference that only those of us from Toona-town would ever get,” Bohn said.

Bohn describes himself as honest, ambitious and creative. He said persistence has been the key to his success.

“It looks like an obsession to most people, but it is persistence,” Bohn said,

Bohn stays in touch with his cousin Jason Bohn, owner of Starfleet Productions in Altoona.

“He was like a brother to me; we are only three months apart,” Jason Bohn said. “Adam is a global thinker. He is definitely not an in-the-box thinker but stays inside his own box. He is an extrovert but an introvert. He has the ability to make anyone around him have a good time no matter where you are at. He can take a roomful of people he had never met and turn them into best friends and have the best time they ever had.”

Bohn is known by some as Artix, a paladin, a warrior of light who specializes in battling evil. Artix is a key figure in Bohn’s games.

In 2013, he appeared on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” TV show as a contestant.

“I attempted to run the course in armor, dressed as the character Artix,” Bohn said.

In November, he was married to Michelle Cheng. They planned the wedding with appearances from knights in shining armor, ninjas, Iron Man, Batman, WWE star Jimmy Hart and some feisty hotel bell-hops. The video of the wedding went viral and was also seen on news programs around the world.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 946-7467.