Many students enter Iowa State’s engineering college hoping one day to design video games for the rest of their lives.

For Jeff Russell and three other ISU alumni, the prospective gamers’ hopes came to fruition.

It has been four years since Russell graduated from Iowa State with a degree in computer engineering. Since then, Russell, along with fellow 2005 ISU graduates Josh Larson, Andres Reinot and Mark Doeden,  have been developing “Darkest of Days,” a single-player video game, with their studio, 8monkey Labs.

“Our goal at that time was to form our own studio and make our own games,” Russell said. “Right around graduation time, we met the owners of Phantom EFX. They were looking to branch out into other types of games, and we were looking to start something new, so together we formed a new company: 8monkey Labs.”

Phantom EFX, based out of Cedar Falls, is the developer of the Reel Deal series of slot and casino games.

The first pitch made by Phantom EFX to the four recent graduates of 8monkey Labs was “Darkest of Days.” The concept of the game developed by the recent graduates drops players into some of the most violent days in history, across five different time periods.

The team spent nearly an entire year on research and development before the game underwent full production.

The four-man team of Doeden, Larson, Reinot and Russell added eight additional full-time employees and remote contractors as the production process continued.

“I was the director of development,” Doeden said. “From the very start, my role was to coordinate the development schedules and identify what needed to be done. We worked with a large group of independent contractors. I had to put together all the work efforts for the artists for the game.”

Independent artists scattered across the United States and worldwide, from Norway and Spain, became part of the team, creating the look of the game. The artists’ submissions were reviewed daily during development. The final product was released Sept. 8.

“Part of the game’s design has always been to allow for large battles, to provide a true sense of immersion in a large conflict,” Russell said. “This is unique to a first person game like ‘Darkest of Days.’ It’s not just your typical dimly lit hallway with three or four enemies in it. Our battlefields are very busy. We worked hard on the technology to make this possible.”

Marmoset is a “proprietary game engine,” which was developed over three years by 8monkey Labs that made creating battle scenes possible. Marmoset was designed to render the hundreds of characters and vegetation for up to 4-square-mile battlefields portrayed in the game.

According to the lab’s Web site, “Marmoset provides all the capabilities of a modern, full-featured 3-D engine in a simple lightweight package.”

The technology developed for “Darkest of Days” is not the only unique feature of the game.

“Our players’ favorite feature, by far, has been the ability to make use of modern weaponry in old conflicts,” Russell said. “For example, there is one mission in the game where the player’s group of Union soldiers is badly beaten by the Confederates, so the player is given a machine gun to even the odds. This is exactly as fun as it sounds, and players are loving it.”

GameShark reviewer Jeff McAllister gave the game a “B–minus,“ stating, “‘Darkest of Days’ does have a lot going for it,” but called the game’s main story idea intriguing.

Doeden said it is still too early to tell how sales of the game are going in stores. 

“Darkest of Days” is now available for Windows PCs and Xbox 360. Gamers can purchase the Xbox 360 version at Walmart, Best Buy or Gamestop. The Windows PC version and demo are available from www.darkestofdays.com. An Xbox 360 demo is planned for Xbox Live.

“It’s an uneasy feeling when it comes out into the hands of the public — just anxious because its something we’ve put our heart and soul into for the last four years, and now everyone around the world gets to play it,” Doeden said.