Lea Schönfelder won the “Student Showcase” section at the “Independent Games Festival” http://www.igf.com/ with her computer game “Ulitsa Dimitrova”. The festival is the world’s largest festival of the Independent Game scene and takes place in San Francisco, California, in March 2010, but the award winners were already announced in advance.

“Ulitsa Dimitrova” was developed in collaboration with Gerard Delmas during the “Drück mich” project, which was presented as a cooperation with the “New Media” course at the Kunsthochschule Kassel at the International Trickfilmfestival Stuttgart in the spring of 2009. The task of the player is to keep the 7-year-old street boy and chain-sweeper Pyotr alive by keeping him occupied and thereby keeping awake.

In contrast to “normal” children, Pjotr’s life, however, consists of smoking, breaking in and stealing. If the player stops playing, the street boy sits down and freezes in the snow on the icy Ulitsa Dimitrova. Inspired was Lea Schönfelder by her visit to Saint Petersburg, where she watched the life of street children. Her other game “HUONG JIAO PING” were also inspired by her travels.

We congratulate!