I only have to skate a few meters before the piercing drum of rifle fire fills my ears. Armed with my trusty can of spray paint, I cover the hostile soldiers in splotches of bright colour while rollerblading circles around them. They stumble about, trying to keep me in their sights. Stopping to complete an unfinished bit of graffiti on one of the walls, spreading colour between gaps in a template, the soldiers gather around me. Unable to target me, they mill about in the way as I try to finish, making it a touch more difficult to work out if I’ve left any blank spaces.
I’m playing an early version of Palestine Skating Game, which offers a test of its Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-inspired rollerblading and painting amid a stylised rendition of war-torn Gaza.
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Palestine Skating Game has been in the works for a number of years, but it came to my attention via Amaar Chowdhury’s recent interview with its developers for Huck. Rather than summarise the excellent article, which I recommend reading in full, I’ll focus on my impressions of the game’s 0.8 demo.
After finishing the mural while watched by the paint-covered guards, I spent some time railgrinding through this early demo’s version of the West Bank separation wall. The space is a recreation of a few city blocks, filled with real world artworks and murals emblazoned across the looming concrete facade. You pass drawings of Trump and Netenyahu kissing, Morgan Freeman’s face alongside a quote from Nelson Mandela, murals dedicated to both Eyad al-Hallaq and Leila Khaled.
The reality of the environment grounds the otherwise loveably janky splattering of paint globs. The experience feels deeply unnerving, but I’m glad of that discomfort. Playing left me aware of the real suffering the game’s aiming to convey through the backdrop to its carefree sliding around. After respraying a massive tank as it fired booming shells my way, I returned to the wall. The structure makes me think how this wall, declared illegal many years ago by the International Court of Justice impacts the Palestinans living in its shadow.
In its final form, the developers plan to include an electronic score, but currently Palestine Skating Game has no soundtrack. A cold silence is punctuated only by the discharging of weapons. I’d argue this makes those sounds hit harder than they might in the final version. For now, it remains a work-in-progress blend of video game silliness and brutal reality, made by a team who know that day-to-day of that brutality firsthand, some still living in the West Bank to this day.
If you fancy giving the most recent prototype of Palestine Skating Game a go, you can find it on Itch.io. The game’s developers have GoFundMe and LaunchGood open to raise money for their Gazan staff, though the latter looks like it may be closed for donations as of writing.
