You don’t have to work for Nintendo to make a video game. Fifteen University students designed and programmed the proof when they made “Fallen Sky.”

The team formed in October, when members of the computer art club decided to modify “Unreal Tournament 2003” into an entirely new game.

Now, with seven months of grunt work and late nights behind them, the group is about to debut a playable version of their creation at the Digital Arts Show Wednesday in the Student Union. Seeing others enjoy the game will be the big payoff for Maury Mountain, one of many gamers-turned-game designers on the project.

“It’s like when someone tells you how good your cooking is,” Mountain said.

But this type of cooking takes months. Many members of the group have had to put other things on hold, according to Nick Popovich, another student working on the game. The project became even more important when Greg Little, the group’s faculty adviser, decided to make it worth class credit.

“This game has been our everything this semester,” Popovich said.

Actually playing video games has taken a back seat to making them, he added. “I haven’t played ‘Unreal’ since I started working on this.”

Mountain agreed that the project has been priority number one.

“I’m in the art building 80 hours a week working on this,” he said. “It can go till 6 a.m. sometimes. … This is all I’ve been doing. All I’ve cared about.”

The final product is the best display of the group’s effort. In terms of visuals, “Fallen” is no “Pac-Man.” Complete with fully 3-D creatures, caves and cliffs, the game puts the player into a lush world where two competing tribes — all humans playing online — fight for food to feed their respective queens.

Though the game uses the basic code from “Unreal,” the two games share little in terms of gameplay. Whereas “Unreal” is a futuristic, first-person shooter, “Fallen” plays more like capture the flag, with teams vying for food and resources.

“Fallen” relies more on strategy. “Unreal” is more of a cyber shoot-’em-up.

“It actually requires you to think,” Popovich said. The team of 15 had total control of gameplay and every other aspect of the game. Given that “Fallen” will be distributed for free online, they don’t need to meet a publisher’s demands, according to Popovich.

“There’s no corporate anything telling us what to do or what to make,” he said.

Modifying games isn’t new. Many games based on the “Unreal” series can be played online. But, considering how “Fallen” was made, it has an edge over competitors, Mountain said.

Most video game modifications are made by people separated by distance — often by oceans. Because the “Fallen” team consists only of University students, they keep much closer contact, Mountain said. “I thought it’d be really cool to suck the talent we have here into one product.”

The team consists of not only art students, but computer programmers as well. They even have a science student, who gives advice when they design creatures. Mountain described the game’s beasts as “hyper-evolved” versions of animals today. “We’re in constant battles between science and what we want as fiction,” Mountain said.

The artists creating those creatures began drawing the game’s concept art late last year. The team made hundreds of drawings. From there, they narrowed them down to 300 character designs. Then to 15. And that was only the first month. Since then, they’ve focused on implanting those characters into a playable environment, complete with a sky inspired by what the view from one of Jupiter’s moons might look like.

Soon after “Fallen” debuts at the Digital Arts Show, those with Unreal Tournament 2003 installed on their computers will be able to download the game at www.fallensky.com.

Though the game is playable, it’s still not finished. Many aspects of gameplay are still missing. There are bugs to be worked out, too.

Last week, Mountain said the group still had to create more weapons, armor and a female version of the main character. He then turned and looked at Rusty Hughes, one of the game’s programmers.

Hughes laughed. “So I take it I’m gonna be working on it this weekend?”

The creative side of the design process doesn’t stop when group members leave their computers. When asked what the main characters where called, the team said they hadn’t picked a name. Mountain made the decision in about two seconds. “Let’s just call ’em Titans,” he said.

Though “Fallen” could lead to a brighter future for its makers, even the most prominent game designers don’t become household names, Mountain said.

“It’s not really rockstar status,” he added.

But, for these game fans, it isn’t so bad to be behind scenes for once, according to Hughes. “On a computer-nerd level, we’re doing all right.”