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Marvin: late for school

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Android game, hobby

2014 - 2016

500 hours

Developer

Programming (GML, java-based)

User interface designer

Character animator

Developer, programmer, animator, script writer

GameMaker: Studio

Adobe Photoshop

Spine

www.swecquestudios.com google playstore amazone appstore

Marvin: Late for School can be summarized as an escalated hobby project that resulted in an Android game published on the Google Playstore. I did this project with a good friend of mine, Patrick Prins, so he deserves half of the credits. The game itself and the reason we did this does require some explanation, although a lot of it is just based on an inside joke.

To begin with, Marvin is the nickname we gave to one of our friends and classmate from secondary school. He was….very special, in the sense that he was always, every single day, late for school; He always ‘forgot’ to do his homework too, and didn’t even bring his books, let alone a simple pen. So, Marvin was kind of chaotic, and me and some friends came up with a theory that could explain this odd behavior. I will not completely explain this theory, but it had something to do with Marvin living on the countryside next to the city which would make him travel by goat and through all kinds of terrains. Then, one day in the summer of 2014, me and Patrick where bored, so we decided to make a mobile game of our friend Marvin!

So just like that, I worked on programming the game while Patrick took care of graphics and composed a soundtrack from scratch. The engine used for developing the game is GameMaker: Studio from Yoyogames, which I had already some experience with at that moment. Code is written in the language GML (GameMaker Language), which is basically a simpler version of Java. This is also where I got the basics and logic of programming in general. I also took care of animating the character: Marvin while riding his goat. For this I used a tool called Spine, which uses a bone structure to animate characters.

Nine months later a first version of our game was ready to go life. We established an unofficial company that could publish the game, called Swecque Studios, and uploaded it to Google Play. Our budget was low, or actually zero, so for marketing we had to be creative: we would put our hopes on social media. Later, I made a dedicated website for Swecque Studios in Adobe Muse, and Patrick designed our very own merchandise which we’re offering via the services of Spreadshirt.

All of this might seem a bit over the top, but it was a very, very educational project which was a lot of fun to do. Plus, after all these years, we can say Marvin: Late for School is a legendary success! We’re talking about a whopping 330+ downloads over 47 different countries!

Unfortunately, due to limited time and a lack of income stream, the development of Marvin: Late for School has been discontinued as of June 2016.