Making Games for the City of Marseille with GDevelop

Today, we'll speak with Thomas and Laurence, two art and design teachers from France. They have worked with the government of Mariseille and their students to create amazing projects to capture the magic of the Citadelle of Marseille. Take it away!

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Can you introduce yourselves, and this project?

We are two (young :-)) graphic design teachers working for a public design school in the south of France, Marseille. The name of our school is ésdm (école supérieure de design Marseille / Marseille Design High School).

Laurence: artist, illustrator – sketching, animation, narrative design
Thomas: 50% teacher, 50% geek – sketching, animation, coding, game design

Why use GDevelop for the project?

Thomas: We needed a simple tool for our students to build interactive projects without the limitations of true coding, because most of our students don't have deep coding skills and the core of our work is still world-building, sketching, animation, and narrative design.

How did the students get along with GDevelop during the development of this project?

Thomas: Honestly, it's never really natural for them to dive into "algorithmic logic." Most of the time, they have difficulties planning a project and work empirically. Sometimes, they have a romantic representation of design and art in general.

So, the main part of our work is precisely to develop production pipelines with the students and teach them to manage the design stages and to ensure that the requests of our partners are respected within a realistic framework: what can we do in a short time with apprentice designers, reconciling professionalism and creativity?

About GDevelop specifically, it's clear that it's a really wonderful tool to build what we want—not too low, not too high level, and very flexible.

What did the students learn during this project to complement their career path as artists? Can this help them commercially in the future?

Laurence: The students learned to collaborate and interact with multiple stakeholders: a participatory project involving local residents, co-creation with students from the Master's program in Cultural Mediation at the University of Marseille, and teams from the Citadel (cultural mediation, communication).

Was The Citadel of Marseille happy with GDevelop as a tool for this project?

Laurence: Yes, absolutely, because this tool is perfectly aligned with the spirit and mission of the Citadel, which is to transform this former military fort into a heritage third place dedicated to creation and innovation, open to all.

What was the focus of this project, the main objective?

Laurence: The creation of four interactive video game experiences aimed at highlighting the lesser-known stories of the Citadel, a former military fort whose history is closely tied to the city of Marseille.

This history spans nearly four centuries and is marked by significant events that reflect the city’s political, military, and social developments. The interactive projects explore themes such as resistance, the role of women in a place historically dominated by men, and the imagined or mythologized narratives that have emerged over time.

Are they happy with the outcome?

Laurence: Yes, they are very satisfied! One student will do an internship at the Citadel to make some adjustments to the GDevelop-based projects so they can be integrated into the mediation tools for the Citadel’s audiences.

Will you continue using GDevelop for partnerships like this? Why, or why not?

Thomas: Of course, it is clearly a very useful tool and fully integrated into our teaching.

Can you recommend using GDevelop to other artists to develop interactive projects? Do you believe it may help them either creatively or commercially?

Thomas: GDevelop undoubtedly meets the majority of the needs of individual or collective creative structures, including commercial projects. It is clear that it is possible to consider any 2D project with this game engine. We are impatiently waiting for significant development in 3D.