Making A Play For $300 Million

Its a rare occurrence when three childhood friends, now in their 20s, can happily relive their leaner years together. But, a lucky trio from Queens found a way to take a game they played in their youth, patent it and turn it into a business one with the potential to cut into a $300 million industry that, until now, was solely controlled by a single company.
Greg Schwartz, Shaun Mahar and Raffi Tasci are Forest Hills natives who created Ophidian 2350, a fantasy card game where players battle one another with maniacal warriors, vicious robots and femme fatales. The game, which will be distributed through Fleer International LP this August, has its origins in Mahars grandmothers basement, where the three congregated most days after school.
Their company, Ophidian Inc., has become the fulltime occupation for all three. Schwartz gave up a good job at Merrill Lynch, while Tasci put plans of becoming an English teacher on hold, and Mahar went straight to work on it from college. Each runs a particular part of the company. Schwartz handles the business end, while Mahar does the design and Tasci oversees operations.
"These guys have a real SpongeBob SquarePants idea," said Peter McAliney, a business professor at Baruch College, who predicts the trios company will have the same astronomical success as the highly rated childrens show on Nickoledeon. McAliney has mentored the three young men since Schwartz took a business class with him in 1999.
"Its really amazing," reflected Raffi Tasci, still shocked that their after-school musings have evolved into a full-blown company. "Its not like a business. We are doing something we all care about."
The three friends met their freshman year at Forest Hills High School. Similar interests in role-playing games drew them together. Throughout those years, they spent their afternoons playing fantasy games inhabited by elves, wizards and mythic monsters.
They started out on the classic role-playing game Dudgeons and Dragons and later moved onto Magic, a game created by Wizards Of The Coast in 1993. Magic is also a fantasy card game in which each card has a character, weapon or potion that could be used to attack another player. The two opponents take turns drawing their cards.
Eventually, the trio invented their own card game which, according to them, more realistically captured real-life battles and did not restrict players to one card draw at a time. In their game, players could have more than one consecutive turn. The creators referred to this device as "flow" which, according to a sign on the card, allows a player to continue an attack or to stop. Their game became the prototype for Ophidian 2350.
After high school, the three went off to college Mahar to Queens College, Tasci to Hunter College and Schwartz, after a brief stint in SUNY Buffalo, to Baruch. Aside from the occasional pick-up game, the model Ophidian 2350 was placed on the back burner, until the spring semester of senior year, when Schwartz had a class with McAliney, who taught the capstone course for business majors. Schwartz wanted to see if the game he and his friends had created could be sold.
He began by checking if the Wizards Of The Coasts patent, which had kept all other role-playing companies out of the $300-million fantasy card-game industry, would prevent their game from competing in the market. The eager, young business student read three books on the subject. "I learned all about patents," exclaimed Schwartz. "I could talk for hours on it." He then meticulously pored over the Wizards Of The Coasts patent, now owned by the billion-dollar toy company, Hasbro.
His efforts were rewarded and, though not yet guaranteed, could pay off quite handsomely for him and his friends.
Since the game he and his friends created allowed for more than one turn, the Wizards Of The Coast patent did not restrict them from registering their own. A lawyer agreed with Schwartzs conclusion. The threesome next sought the advice of Schwartzs professor to learn about obtaining investors and networking. Seeing how serious the three young men were, McAliney decided to join them as an advisor. Under his tutelage, Schwartz, Mahar and Tasci doggedly worked for the next two years developing their game and trying to sell it to different companies.
Nineteen months later, after first talking to McAliney, they had a patent. By December 2002, they received a distribution deal with Fleer, one of the top baseball card companies in the industry.
So far, the budding entrepreneurs have received an enthusiastic response from potential customers. The three creators have been following a guerilla-marketing style approach by venturing out across the country to various gaming conventions. Their game comes out this August and Fleer has them already working on an expansion set of cards. Talk has even begun about a possible television show and computer game.
Yet, even with the whirlwind success, the three friends still live in their homes in Forest Hills.
"They continue to work around their kitchen tables in their houses," admired McAliney, explaining that the young entrepreneurs built their business on intellectual property rather than outside venture money, keeping their budget modest.
Pondering his own story and Ophidian Inc.s upcoming battle against the fantasy card mogul Hasbro, Schwartz gave some words of advice to any young person with an idea: "I recommend to everyone, before you get stuck in a monotonous job, try and do something you really love."
James Fanelli can be reached at jfanelli@queenscourier.com