User:Voslyn/Sandbox

Diving Dragon Games (DDG) is an independent gaming company based out of Athens Georgia. Diving Dragon Games was created by and is owned by Kalan Vazquez. DDG began work on their first game (title still under wraps) in 2004 but work quickly stalled as the company was significantly undermanned. In early 2008 Kalan teamed up with an artist Ian King and webmaster William Kemp, since then Diving Dragon Games has gained more traction as an independent game company with their first game release.

Diving Dragon Games began serious work on a new game called "Geek Fight" in May 2008. The idea for Geek Fight was first conceived in April 2008, and was released 5 months later on August 29th at Dragon*Con in Atlanta Georgia. The game received a positive response from players who playtested the game at the convention. Geek Fight has taken a unique approach for attracting sponsorship from independent companies. Each Geek Fight card has a space reserved for an advertisement or a sponsor making it cheaper on the developers and therefore cheaper for the players. In another effort to keep costs down, each card has the name of the artist who submitted the piece of artwork that is used on the card as well as the URL for that artists personal webpage.

DDG's flagship project, Geek Fight, is different from other games in that the cards are printed on card stock the size of a business card, and the game text is oriented horizontally as the text on a business card would be. Also, with the sponsorship block, each card is a business card for the sponsor company in addition to being a part of the Game. Thus coining the term Business Card Game (BCG). You can read more about Geek Fight on the Geek Fight Wikipedia page, or at the Diving Dragon Games website.

Diving Dragon Games got its first national mention on a National Public Radio show called "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me" in which the host Peter Sagal and the guest, news anchor Tom Brokaw, mentioned Geek Fight while quizzing Mr. Brokaw on nerd culture. The "Not My Job" segment of the show focused on the growth of the nerd culture in 2008 which was the year of Geek Fight's release.

Geek Fight

Geek Fight is an independently funded and independently created strategic card game from the minds at Diving Dragon Games. Geek Fight is a collectible card game where the players can play various nerdy and geeky "combatants" wielding "items" and using "skills" against one or more opponents to try and kill the opposing combatants and win the game. Geek Fight is humorous and uses humor to market the game and try to create interest in the nerd community.

Geek Fight was created by a small gaming company called Diving Dragon Games. The idea for Geek Fight came about when its creator Kalan Vazquez had the idea to place a small game on business cards for his personal blog "Under The Table Gaming" and then distribute the cards at the popular fantasy / sci-fi convention Dragon*con in Atlanta. Two of his friends, one of whom has since become webmaster and co-developer, had the idea to make it into a larger collectible card game which became Geek Fight. Their names are Ian King who is the artist, designer, and co-developer, and William Kemp who is the webmaster and co-developer. Dragon*Con ended up being the date of the official release, August 29th 2008. The Diving Dragon Games crew handed out free packs and hosted several small demonstration games at Dragon*Con giving away packs and promotional cards to anyone who participated.

The first set of the Geek Fight game takes place in a convention setting where typical convention characters, represented by the Geek Fight cards, do battle against one another. The first set was 42 cards (not including promo cards) and featured 3 different types of cards, "Combatants, Items, and Tactics." Combatants can use or equip Items to make themselves stronger in combat. They can also use tactics for a one-time game effect. The first set also had 2 different types of "Resources." Resources are produced by Combatants and they are used to pay for Items and Tactics. The two types of Resources are "Cash and Tokens." The second set, which has yet to be released at the time of this writing, promises to include a new resource type called "Tickets" and a new card type called "Skills." Skills are similar to Tactics except that Tactics can only be played during the active player's turn and Skills can be played at any time.

Geek Fight cards have the size and orientation of regular business cards giving the game a new game type, Business Card Game (BCG). Geek Fight has a small advertising block or sponsorship block on the right side of the card with sponsor website and information. Geek Fight also has an area for the name of the artist who contributed the artwork for the card as well as a place for the artists website information. According to the Diving Dragon Games website, the sponsor area allows the developers to keep costs down for the Geek Fight players. Sponsorship opportunities are available for interested companies, information for how to sponsor a card is located on the company's website.