Ice-Pick Lodge

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Ice-Pick Lodge is a Russian game development studio based in Moscow and founded in 2002 by Nikolay Dybowski. They are responsible for the development of Cargo! The Quest For Gravity, among other games. They publish games in both Russian and English.

Their design philosophy is guided by the concept that video games do not begin and end as entertainment, but are important mediums to tell stories and experience concepts both familiar and unfamiliar to everyday life.

Quotes

Video games come in such a variety of forms that it is almost impossible to perceive them as a single phenomenon. We are fascinated by games that not only entertain, but also provide food for thought and encourage the player to change for the better.

That is why our favorite genre is survival, and our method of choice is a challenge.

Perception is on its peak when the situation is critical, it is most acute on the edge. That is why we put the players in the dire circumstances and allow them to find the solution themselves.

We don’t like preaching. We’d rather ask questions than give answers. To us, a game as a dialogue between its developers and the players, and a player is a co-author.

Our job is to set the stage, redefine the laws of the world, introduce the problem, and point out how its core connects with everyday reality. The players do the rest, completing the act by virtue of their unique interpretations.

Each game of ours is an experiment. In most cases they lead to unexpected results — meaning they’re successful.

From the Ice-Pick Lodge website

We wouldn’t go as far as call ourselves artists, but our general philosophy is that games should give players food for thought, not just fun. We’ve been making survival games before it was mainstream. Pathologic (2005) was novel for its time. We’re glad that nowadays gaming has embraced survival—a genre that allows us to put the player in a really uncomfortable situation, not hold their hand on a walk through a theme park. So now we want to help the gaming industry make the next step, fully exploring the potential of survival.

From Pathologic 2's website

Games

2005: Pathologic (Russian: Мор. Утопия) — a psychological horror story of survival in an isolated city struck by an unknown disease. With three protagonists, the twelve days of survival deliver a complicated description of events.

2009: The Void, also known as Tension (Russian: Тургор) — a story of survival in a monochrome world of the Void where every living thing depends on Color. Every action is done by drawing sigils with the player's own essence, and the hero is represented by a transparent, human-shaped vessel.

2011: Cargo! The Quest For Gravity (Russian: Эврика!) — this story is set in a word that faced its apocalypse because of the loss of gravity. There, you must bring back the flying islands to the endless ocean, with the help of local creatures known as Buddies. It features a vehicle crafting system and a sandbox mode.

2013: Knock-Knock (Russian: Тук-тук-тук) — a story of a lonely Lodger haunted by strange nighttime visitors. You must analyze the causes of insanity, gradually learning how one must break the rules in order to understand truth.

2017: Pathologic Tabletop — a tabletop game released as a backer reward for the Pathologic 2 Kickstarter. Up to four players may participate as both healers and the Plague, with healers collecting evidence to cure the sickness as the Plague works to covertly kill their wards.

2019: Pathologic 2 (Russian: Мор) — a reimagining and modern take of the 2005 cult classic. A familiar story, updated and expanded upon, with completely redesigned visuals, music, and characters. Currently only released in one part, with future routes planned.

TBA - Know By Heart - A "nostalgic piece" developed by Ayrat Zakirov, the CTO of Ice-Pick Lodge and lead of Cargo! The Quest For Gravity. The protagonist reunites with his childhood friends after spending a long time apart. Their pleasant reunion will be ruined by forces outside of their control. A teaser was posted on December 31 2019 on the Ice-Pick Lodge Twitter account.

TBA - Franz - A mystery project made by Nikolay Dybowski that is still in development. Based on concepts that were considered for the Bachelor route of Pathologic 2, it tests the limits of control and is based on the "Chinese room argument" theory, criticizing artificial intelligence.

TBA - Neuro Skazka - A project in development by Nemo Soda, a new member of Ice-Pick Lodge. "The game deals with the evolution of a universe grown below the cranial vault of a god which falls asleep. The god’s brain is an equivalent of a solar system, and planets are its neurons. The player will have to turn the celestial bodies into full-fledged anthropomorphic creatures endowed with mind and identity."

The Team

Ice-Pick Lodge's staff as of 2016

Picture of Ice-Pick Lodge as posted on the Pathologic 2 Kickstarter

The developers as they appear in the Cargo! The Quest For Gravity credits, circa 2011.

Nikolay Dybowski Alexander Jukov Il’ya "Goren" Kalinin Vasiliy "Mushroomer" Kashnikov Aleksey "The LxR" Luchin Ilya Makarov Peter Potapov Igor "Halfgild Wynac" Pokrowsky Ayrat Zakirov Konstantin "Neodim" Zalomov

Meethos Maxim "Zulin" Unanov Nisa Afanas’eva Julia Butenko Yuri Nekrasov Ekaterina "Winter Shaman" Rakitina Georgi "Hof" Markov Anna Russ Sam "hydra9" Jeffreys Shaun Laughton

Jonathan Failla Jeff Burrell Marianne Graffam Julia "Kaelte" Butenko Filippe "Throdax" Christino Com[e]r Jakub Derdziak Eugene Shipilov Ruslan"zawwfish" Shtolle Michael Turutanov

Zyavra Verglück Natalia Arsenova Maria Moro Mark Barrett Dmitri Leaduhin Rima "Devil Take Her" Mayta Viktoriya Khakhalina Ekaterina Maternovskaya Wolfgang Walk Sven Brieger Markus Hoffmann