Critically acclaimed in its native Russia upon release in 2005, the Western release of survival RPG Pathologic was endlessly problematic and deeply flawed. Despite this, it has gained a cult following and is deeply loved by a hardcore following. It is because of this audience that independent developer Ice-Pick Lodge decided to revisit their iconic game, totally reimagining it as the game they originally intended, bringing it to Kickstarter where it is on the verge of reaching its $250,000 target.
Succeeding despite the plethora of aforementioned flaws and its poor implementation, Pathologic captured the imaginations of gamers due to the novel and arresting ideas behind the game along with its surreal and ambiguous storyline and characters. Ice-Pick Lodge’s very first title as a game development studio, Pathologic reflected the inexperience of its team with the amount of mistakes that were made. “It was clunky, it looked outdated even in 2005 and the English translation was horrific. It just didn’t make a lot of sense.” commented Creative Lead, Nikolay Dybowsky.
In the intervening years since 2005, Pathologic gained somewhat of a cult following despite its numerous flaws, a loyal and vocal audience who recognized the flawed masterpiece that it was. It was in no small part because of this audience that Nikolay and his team at Ice-Pick Lodge decided to revisit their beloved first child.
Dybowsky continues, “With three games now under our belt we felt confident that we had the skills and expertise to finally make Pathologic the game we originally intended. But as a small, independent developer consisting of a team of nine, we knew that we couldn’t finance the development alone in order to make the game that we wanted, which is why we hesitantly turned to Kickstarter.”
Dybowsky and his team at Ice-Pick Lodge were taken aback by the response. “From day one, the response of the fans has been overwhelming, We were originally reluctant to set the target at $250,000 feeling that perhaps that was a bit too ambitious, but we soon realized that anything less than that would mean we would have to compromise our vision which we did not want to do. So we bit the bullet and decided on $250k. The immediate feedback of the fans was unbelievably positive and justified our decision, which is why with almost two weeks left of the Kickstarter campaign we are on the verge of hitting that incredible milestone.”
Official Website: http://www.pathologic-game.com
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic
Teaser Trailer:
Screenshots:
