It started out as an urban legend about a Mexican vampire, and ended up becoming a nationally popular card game created by a team of East Coast gallery co-owners who just wanted to have a good time.

Mike Blevins, Cold Harbor AZ Gallery co-owner and inventor of the Ocho Vampiros card game, said he and his partner Luke July got into the card game business by complete accident.

Morgantown, WV residents Blevins and July are “obsessed” with Arizona, Blevins said, and opened a Pittsburgh-area art gallery that showcased landscape photography and Southwestern scenes.

Blevins said he and his friends visited Arizona frequently, and on one trip, they came up with an urban legend about human smugglers, or “vampires,” who smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S.

They put the legend on paper and it becam a popular email chain, Blevins said.

Eventually, the men decided to create Ocho Vampiros, a game based on the story, a press release stated.

They began selling and advertising the game online and Blevins said it quickly became very popular.

In its beginnings, the game’s nickname was the “Game of Illegals,” but since the recent Minute Man issue on the Mexican borders, they wanted to change the name to avoid getting involved in politics, Blevins said.

Blevins couldn’t share their exact sales, but he did report that sales have been highest in Seattle and New York. While the game has been nationally popular, sales have been recorded in all states in the U.S. except Mississippi, Blevins said.

The men created city-specific websites to attract audiences from around the country, Blevins said.

The site for Arizona, www.AZvampire.com, is directed towards students and residents and is a “tribute to (their) obsession with the state,” Blevins said.

Since the game was born from their love for Arizona, Blevins and July wanted to open an Arizona site to target residents and students, Blevins said.

Blevins said he and his partner just want to “sell a good time” and create an opportunity for people to enjoy themselves without going to a bar, Blevins said.