Video game lovers are doing more with their hobby, thanks to a design class offered to all majors at Iowa State.

The computer and video game design and development, Integrated Studio Arts 409X, is in its fourth semester and has evolved from an independent study into a studio class with nearly 30 students from various majors, classifications and experience levels.

“I wanted to teach the class for seven or eight years and finally decided to just do it,” said Steven Herrnstadt, professor of art and design.

From the beginning, Herrnstadt wanted to teach the students what he had seen lacking in the teams he worked with at an animation firm. He said he wants creativity and passion to be the driving force behind the animation.

Students continually polish their games, which have caused many to return to the class for several semesters. Some students have taken the class all four semesters that it has been offered.

Last spring, a team of 12 students from the class developed the game “Treefort Wars” in only 12 weeks and submitted the prototype to the Independent Games Festival in San Jose, Calif.

The game, which involves a water fight between neighborhood kids who build and defend tree forts, was chosen for the festival.

This spring a game named “Rhino,” which involves a space flight simulator, was submitted for the festival. “Rhino,” however, was not selected for this year’s festival.

“We focused less on polished elements, like the menu, and focused more on the underlying feel of the game. We didn’t have time to do both, but they were looking for those polished elements more,” said Evan Rothmayer, senior in computer science. Rothmayer is a four-time returnee to the class and said he worked on “Rhino” anywhere from 10 hours a week to about 60 hours the week before it had to be submitted to the festival. He said he does not mind the long hours.

“There is nothing I don’t like [about the class],” he said. “Steve lets the students run it as much as they can.”

The next game in the works is a 3-D adventure game, “Grimm.”

Chad Kilgore, senior in computer science, is the project manager for the game.

“Adventure games are narratives,” Kilgore said. “We took the first semester doing that, and the following two we worked on programming, design, art, music — just really trying to put all the pieces together.”

Although the completion date is uncertain, Jason Nehf, senior in computer science and technical lead for “Grimm,” said the ultimate goal is to eventually bring it to competition and reward their hard work.

Herrnstadt designed the class to be for more than just designing a video game.

“It’s mostly a class about how to play nice together because all the majors are working together. It is a difficult class to teach because of the eclecticness of it,” he said. “It is organized chaos; well, not even, it’s thinly veiled chaos.”

Students in the class are majoring in computer engineering, history, fine arts, music and more. Herrnstadt would like to see business students involved.

“The class is really just as much about entrepreneurship as it is about anything else,” Herrnstadt said.

“I’ve been guiding the class toward truly creative ideas for games rather than redoing what is already out there. We are trying to get past first-person shooter games and toward the use of games as more than just entertainment.”