Jeff Charis-Carlson

Iowa City Press-Citizen

Just getting an “A” on their yearlong senior project in video game production wasn’t good enough for Jared Cook and Peter Carlson.

After graduating from Iowa State University in 2015, the pair decided to keep tinkering with their project, “Metagalactic Blitz,” until the game was ready to be shared with a larger, online community.

They knew they had a workable concept — a multiplayer arena game that blends dodgeball with sci-fi weapons — and ISU’s computer science and design programs had given them access to the latest design technology at the time.

But they had bigger dreams for the game, as well as for their new company, Pixelvex.

Now their hard work has paid off and “Metagalactic Blitz” will be released May 19 on Steam, an online gaming platform that serves more than 125 million users.

Because both men started full-time jobs right after graduation, work on the game was done in their spare time. Cook develops software for Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, and Carlson is a designer for ISU’s Virtual Reality Applications Center in Ames.

“We kept setting deadlines for ourselves and then constantly pushed them back because we kept missing them,” Cook said.

But over the next two years what had been an unpolished two-character game submitted as a final project evolved into an online multiplayer, galactic dodgeball extravaganza.

The pair said that the upcoming release on Steam "doesn't mean that we've made it," but means that they now have the possibility of making it.

“This is the point at which our game gets shown to the public and the public can actually play it and give us feedback," Carlson said. "We know it’s fun, and our friends know it’s fun. Now we can see what other people think.”

Classes, gaming and the real world

Jim Lathrop, who has been teaching at ISU since 2003, said the success of Cook and Carlson helps showcase why the yearlong game development project works so well as a capstone to students’ years studying computer science, software engineering or design in Ames.

“Most video game development requires lots of people and lots of time,” Lathrop said. “They are doing a project that serves as a microcosm of what they will face in the real world — especially in terms of being able to work and communicate with people who don’t think like software engineers.”

During the first semester, students come up with the design concept for a video game and write the background documents. During the second semester, they work on the programming and production to transform their idea into virtual reality.

Lathrop said he also enjoys the course because the students are advanced enough to teach him about the newest developments in the industry. He, in turn, teaches them how to channel their ideas and energy to produce an actual video game.

“Good games are good games, no matter when they are made,” he said.

And with the technology at the university expanding year after year, the students are able to take more advantage of virtual and integrated realities.

Working for a paycheck

The lessons learned in the yearlong course, however, also are meant to expose students to skills they will need when they are out of the classroom and working for a paycheck.

Ryan Krause, who graduated earlier this month with a bachelor’s in software engineering, was the team leader this year on the development “Crown Wars.” The game, inspired by Pokemon, uses a new piece of technology, the Microsoft HoloLens, a wireless headset that allows users to interact with holographic images in an integrated reality. With the goggles on, players can see hologram monsters rise out of their playing cards.

“It was my job to make sure that everyone was on top of things,” Krause said.

Although his fellow students were mostly self-directed, the project gave Krause experience in facilitating teamwork — how to break down a large project into the different steps and make sure each step was completed before moving on. He also worked on programming for the game, including adding a multiple-player system.

Krause's training at ISU helped him earn a job as a software developer for technology company Garmin.

After he moves to Kansas City, he said game development is going to have to fall to the sidelines.

“I plan on doing it like a hobby,” he said.

Too busy to walk down the aisle

The gaming programs and clubs at ISU also opened doors for Zachary Koehn, who graduated this month with a major in software engineering and a minor in psychology and digital media design.

“I knew I was going to major in software engineering because I wanted to do game design,” he said.

Because of internship experiences and his leadership with the ISU Game Development Club, Koehn took an extra year to complete his undergraduate degree. But the variety of resume-building experiences helped him earn a job in software design a branch of UnitedHealthcare in Minnesota.

Koehn didn’t even have time to walk across the stage to get his diploma this month. He, instead, already had organized to take the club to the Glitch.com conference in Minnesota.

“I was giving a speed talk rather than walking down the aisle,” he said.

Koehn didn’t start on “Crown Wars” until the second semester, but he began working on the 3-D modeling for the monsters and creating the podium on which players place their cards.

“It is absolutely a team activity,” he said. “If you ever hear a game that was made by one person, that would truly be a feat.”

Koehn said his new day job will include helping to improve the company’s user interface and experimenting with virtual reality. Any work on game design, however, will have to be done on the side.

“This is just the beginning of game design at Iowa State,” Koehn said. “There is so much more in the pipeline.”

Beyond a labor of love

Given collaborative nature of video game development, Lathrop said he would like to see the curriculum at ISU expand into a certificate or degree program — one that not only brings together programming and design students but also students in art, English, music and business.

“It’s a hugely multidisciplinary thing,” he said. “The programming is only one small part. An important part, but still just one part. … I can just say ‘stay tuned’ and we’ll see if we can make something else here there.”

Faculty within the computer science department recently took a step in that direction by deciding to create some subspecialties within the curriculum.

“We recent voted to institute tracks within the computer science degree that will give us more flexibility to explore some of the many directions in which computer science is developing,” said Gianfranco Ciardo, who chairs the department.

Those tracks still need to be approved at the college and university level, but once implemented, they would give faculty and students more opportunities to focus on video development.

“The students quickly learn that it’s not all just fun and games; it’s actually hard work,” Ciardo said. “They need to be writing some very efficient code. It’s really tough programming.”

Students would keep their intellectual property and, like Cook and Carlson, could continue to develop their projects after graduation.

Or, like Krause and Koehn, they could go on to jobs that take full advantage of the varied skills they learned while studying at ISU.

Neither Cook nor Carlson are ready to quit their day jobs anytime soon.

“If this blows up, that is a possibility, but that’s one in a million,” Carlson said.

But both are thrilled with “Metagalactic Blitz” being released to an audience of potentially millions.

“It’s primarily a labor of love,” Cook said. “We are not betting the bank on it, although we would be very happy to make money on it. … We would be satisfied, however, if we just got a happy, consistent fan base.”

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffCharis.