Popular gaming character Lara Croft. So how did we become a global geek capital? Brisbane's thriving gaming culture has given birth to now-international digital games studios like Wildfire, Hoodlum, 3 Blokes and Krome Studios. One of the biggest selling and most popular iPhone games of all time came from indie Brisbane gaming house Halfbrick. Fruit Ninja sold more than one million copies after 74 days on sale. "Brisbane seems to be a hub of core gamers and gaming culture. There is the business and technology aspect to everything we do, but above all else we like to have fun and make fun games," Halfbrick's Phil Larsen said.

More than 18 games developers call Queensland's capital home, with Brisbane's digi-cred given a major boost in 2003 when US heavyweight THQ, maker of the Warhammer computer and console games, chose the city as its Australian base. Sonic the Hedgehog creator and video game veteran Sega also set up shop in Brisbane in 2007. "The community has proven itself to be supportive of local developers and conventions, so with the global market and digital distribution options available there's no reason why potential entrepreneurs wouldn't choose Brisbane, as opposed to larger cities when they would have a harder time standing out," Mr Larsen said. Krome's Cameron Davis asserts that Australia's major gaming hub is "definitely Brisbane by a large margin", although he said it has always had a healthy rivalry with Melbourne. "It's a really good community around Brisbane ... there is a large talent pool," he said from his Fortitude Valley office. "I am looking out my window right now and I can point to two or three other gaming companies within one or two blocks."

Krome is the brains behind international success story Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, and is one of the largest independent game developers in the world. Australia's gaming industry started life in Melbourne, according to Mr Davis, but the focus has since switched to the Queensland capital. "I think the events come from the companies being here and the companies come from the culture here," he said. "For some reason Brisbane has been able to get people together – perhaps because it's a smaller city so there's less of an area to work around, or there are less people and so it's easier to get people together." He's right there – Brisbane has been very good at pulling a crowd.

Australia's first Gen Con saw around 10,000 gaming enthusiasts from around the country flock to Brisbane. Next month, the city will host its second Animania Anime convention and although this week's GenConOz, the world's largest travelling games convention, was cancelled for financial reasons, Aussie gamers have banded together to fill these suddenly empty days. Those making the pilgrimage to Brisbane can still look forward to a giant game-a-thon that encompasses computer, console, board, card, dice, tabletop and dress-up games. Wavell Heights High School will be hosting "four days of Dungeons & Dragons awesomeness", while the Pathfinder Society will hold their four-day role-playing convention at the Convention Centre. Gaming lounge Mana Bar will exhibit unreleased games and hold a cosplay (dress-up and play the part) competition.

For the non-digital activists who want everything in one place, Ace Comics in Annerley is holding a multi-game tournament Uprising! this weekend. 'In [Gen Con's] absence a lot of people immediately went, 'Oh, we're not going to play our favourite games'," Ace's Michael Barclay said. "For a lot of people it's the once or twice time a year that they get to meet their friends – they only meet them at the big conventions." Despite its large portion of gamers, Mr Barclay said that Queensland's broader culture does lend itself more to "beer drinking and watching footy" than game-playing. Mana Bar, located in Fortitude Valley, has done its best to merge these two worlds and remove the antisocial stigma attached to gaming.

Co-founder Guy "Yug" Blomberg said the Mana Bar team knew Brisbane had a market for such a venue, but not everyone agreed. "People scoffed at us and said gamers – people that play games are just giant, fat, smelly nerds that crawled out of their parents' basement – they don't drink," Mr Blomberg said. "But I think that gaming in the last five years has become more acceptable what with the introduction of the Nintendo Wii and Guitar Hero. It's suddenly become something you can bust out at a party." The bar's clientele has extended beyond the hardcore gamers they originally expected, to also include a much wider market, he said. "Yes we do get the stereotype gamers, God bless them, here, but then at the same time we get the stunning, beautiful young girls, you get the football jocks ... we get all sorts."

Mana Bar is about to launch more geek-chic bars in Sydney and Melbourne and, according to Mr Blomberg, there have been talks with international clients, although he is staying tight-lipped on who and where. Seeing it's such big business for the city, are the city's IT crowd sick of being labelled as geeks or nerds? Not at all, says Mr Barclay. "Most people in the culture are quite happy for people to label them," he said. "Inside it really doesn't bother us – we call each other nerds and geeks all the time as a term of affection."