Huong Jiao Ping & Ulitsa Dimitrova - get back review

I came across these games through the list of applicants to the Indie Games Festival 2010 (IGF10) award, which was announced about a month ago. Albeit possibly indefinable as games, they present an interesting, if short, foray into the interactive media genre. Although surprisingly well set in China and Russia (respectively), these games were actually made in Germany by students from the University of Fine Arts of Kassel. This new wave of graduate gamemakers seems to be in full gear since USC’s Interactive Media Division paved the way.

Both games share a distinctive handmade pen&paper art style with simple drawings but well animated and great intro artwork. Sound is minimalistic.

Intro screen


Starting with the eldest, Huong Jiao Ping has you guiding a woman through what appears to be a chinese marketplace. Interaction is slim: you can move up and down the road or look in your shopping bag. The so-called purpose of the game is to fill the aforementioned. You’ll gather your ingredients and then boil them up in the pot at the end of the street, and at this time the game ends.
Of course, from what I’ve told you you can imagine this being done in a very common way, perhaps imagining some old woman from Shenmue II’s Green Market Qr., just shopping about for groceries. What is shown however is somewhat more gruesome and bizarre. So bizarre that I have no way of interpreting the ending as no more than slapstick or maybe a deal of karma. Spend 2 minutes downloading and playing the game and you’ll understand what I mean. Quite a disturbing experience.

Buying cigarrettes from the stall


As for Ulitsa Dimitrova, it is slightly more complex. The game environment is larger, there’s more interaction and the game really only ends when you don’t want to play it anymore. The name of the game means something like Dimitrova Avenue. You’ll play the role of an actual son of a whore, and you’ll be able to rob hood ornaments, smash windows for vodka and glue or beg, with which you can get cigarrettes or money (to buy more cigarrettes). The game is very much touted by blind perseverance. You can play for as long as you like, and the little tune that’s being whistled will repeat ad infinitum. But as soon as you stop, the boy will get the shivers, curl up and die in the snow. Just like Pacman, Tetris or Donkey Kong (save for killscreens), death is inevitable.
Again, the themes are borderline and present a harsh contrast with the juvenile artwork. Not only are your game mechanics very much reduced to stealing, but you roam around an environment that’s populated by drug addicts, blackmarket dealers and prostitutes.
One interesting encounter will be with a girl that fancies you reciprocally. Your one shot at love is maimed by your offering of a cigarrette. She willingly accepts but as her mother catches you she takes her away. Unlike everything else in the game (that runs on a continuous loop), you’ll never see her again.

These games are obviously free and avaiable here:
http://www.uni-kassel.de/hrz/db4/extern/trickfilm/spiele/

Originally published December 30, 2009