Author: Mariam Mebuke

Interesting adventures begin unexpectedly. You don’t need to wander the “heart of the sea” for ten years after the war, witness the manifestations of gods living on Olympus, encounter “dark phantoms,” meet people who straddle the line between gods and men, study their characters, test yourself in various situations, and finally return home to be awaited by loved ones. Interesting stories often have unexpected beginnings. So, we decided to embark on a journey to Kutaisi, the city of white stones!

This journey is like an extraordinary chapter in a book that must end on a certain page, like all such texts, but what if we find ourselves in virtual reality and are offered a view of Kutaisi from any point in the world on our mobile phones? Even Odysseus might envy such a journey. Imagine Odysseus sitting inside the Trojan horse playing a game created on his island, Ithaca! Not only Odysseus but also Menelaus, Achilles, and anyone interested in this island! Kutaisi is that kind of island, but to truly understand its “soul,” we must journey through different eras of its existence and revive all the stories anew.

Let’s also remember that this is a city of culture, where you can find at least one surname for every letter of the alphabet, each leaving an important mark in this field. I have one more condition… Since we are already in the game, we must imagine Kutaisi as an alien city, a place we’ve never been. Perhaps among us are those who want to rediscover this city. We must transform into a character from Max Frisch’s book “I’m Not Stiller,” becoming Gantenbein himself, and trust the game to explain to us, the blindfolded, what this city is all about.

Let’s consider some technical details. The game consists of three parts, created in two languages—Georgian and English—and covers different eras. It’s important to note that the creation of this game is significant not only for those who live here but also for those who have never been to the city of Aya, where the Picasso boy and Petre Otskheli lived. These three names are not coincidental, and you’ll soon understand why.

The story of Kutaisi begins with myths…

 In the first part of the game (as mentioned, it’s a trilogy, but not like Glukhovsky’s “Metro” or Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”), we can travel to ancient times, to Colchis, and the myth of the Golden Fleece. Medea and Aeëtes are absent, but Jason’s ship, the Argo, must navigate distant roads. Of course, we will encounter the Golden Fleece, collecting it as one of the game’s objectives, along with delivering the Argo to its destination (a conditional, vertical, and rotating place, like love itself, and if you will, even infinite!). Let’s use our imagination and picture the obstacles the crew of the ship will face, and the storms they will endure. Perhaps that’s why this game is called an “Odyssey.” The first part indeed resembles a continuation of a sea voyage filled with myths and stories. Another interesting and important part of this game is the music, carefully selected and created specifically for this game. We’ll talk more about the music, but it’s worth noting that these compositions individually capture the spirit of Kutaisi and its cultural vector. You might even want to put on headphones after the game and just listen, listen to these melodies endlessly. The song lyrics also echo the old, well-known poetic spirit—“In the storm of poetry, I surrender death to the waves.” Perhaps the passengers of that ship thought the same, but reaching the city of Aya was worth all the obstacles. Reaching the “quiet shore,” if following the game in chronological order, we must now touch upon the architecture and cinema of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thus arriving at the present. It’s truly a contrast! We must be reborn as the Picasso boy (a character who became synonymous with the city after Rezo Gabriadze’s film), meeting people on the white bridge like him and taking everyone under our hat. Now, in the game, we’ll have to collect these hats and run, like in childhood when we ran from one roof to another in neighboring houses, enjoying the laughter of the proud Kutaisi homeowners at our childish sincerity. So, it turns out that from Gantenbein to the Picasso boy, it is not so far! The game, from a technical perspective, with its graphics and many interesting details, makes it easier for us to imagine ourselves in the space we are traveling through. The game starts with these words: Now you will embark on a journey through Kutaisi… We are ready… Galaktion and his muse, the Ishkhneli sisters, the Lado Meskhishvili Drama Theatre, numerous cultural heritage monuments, buildings once frequented by the Blue Horns, Georgian feminists educated at the women’s gymnasium, artists, and those who “believed in the construction of a ‘flying apparatus’. Here, we should mention the music again. Along with the texts, elements of electronic music are introduced, making the game more lively and equally interesting for all generations. Some will discover their favorite electronic music, some new texts: “But I am not offended by winter, I love the cold of this city in spring, like the wind blowing personally for me.” Some will feel the desire to become another ghost of Kutaisi, as described in the song’s text.

Many dreamed of becoming the  Picasso boy in childhood, but most dreamed of becoming astronauts… The third part of the game seems to revive this childhood dream. We traveled to the past, collected memories, remembered a lot, and now we are in the present because this is the year we have, and we are playing something that no one has created before. We are playing an app about one of the oldest European cities, and this app is the first… Creating a game inspired by your own city and being the first is incredibly interesting. It’s time for the future! In the third part, the flying painter Petre Otskhcheli demands our utmost attention to the sky, to fantasy. The painting comes to life as if the painter depicted on the wall of the David Kakabadze Art Gallery is indeed flying, charting his path to the sky. Ground to aviator, aviator to ground. We are taking off! Everyone in this city has tried to fly in their own way. With the already mentioned “Flying Apparatus,” with the “Flying Painter,” and with Irakli Abashidze’s poem: When it warms up, I must fly to my Kutaisi, that’s what he wrote… Now we are flying too. How many hours will it take to reach the destination—no one knows, but we spend this time so engrossed that we don’t think about anything else. All three times converged and united here, in Kutaisi. Thanks to the graphic design, music, and the “magicians” who created the game, we have become part of this journey, and wherever we go, no matter how far we are from this city or how close we are, we will have our piece of Kutaisi with us, not only figuratively but literally, as here and now this city embraces novelty alongside the old, stepping into the digital age. The game downloaded on the phone can bring you joy and nostalgia; the joy of discovering something new is as sweet as the book you open for the first time.

Perhaps if Gantenbein had visited our city, he would have mentioned the stories, big and small, already told in this game. If you pass by the monument to Galaktion, its grandeur will make you look up, and you’ll notice the flying painter in the star-studded sky. Kutaisi is a city of adventurers, altruists, and artists all at once.

We have played together; now it’s time to try it on your own… 

Are you ready?

 Return the aviator to the ground! Open a new chapter of the book. 

Three, two, one… 

You’ve got mail: 

We must embark on a journey to Kutaisi!