Ice-Pick Lodge

**Ice-Pick Lodge** is a Russian game development studio based in Moscow and founded in 2002 by Nikolay Dybowski.

## Description

*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.*

## Games

**2005: *Pathologic*** — a story of survival in a self-conscious city struck with 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*** — too crazy even for its creators, 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. It features a vehicle crafting system.

**2013: *Knock-Knock*** (Russian: *Тук-тук-тук)* — a story of a lonely forester 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.

**2015: *Pathologic Classic HD*** — a remaster of the 2005 cult classic. Updated textures, higher resolutions support, new visual effects, brand new in-house English translation, and many other improvements.

**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*** — 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.

**2019: *Pathologic: The Marble Nest*** — a stand-alone story that takes place in the *Pathologic* universe. Originally released as a demo in 2016, it was updated for *Pathologic 2* and released as DLC for the main game.

**2022 - *Know By Heart*** - A "nostalgic piece" developed by Ayrat Zakirov, the CTO of Ice-Pick Lodge. 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. The release date was announced for February 10, 2022, in a livestream from September 2021.

**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."

## Merchandise Shop

On January 18, 2018, during *Pathologic 2's* development, Ice-Pick Lodge created a merchandise store on their website to support the company, called the Ice-Pick Shop. They sold clothing, key charms, stickers, and wax seals of tavro.

The store was closed on March 17, 2019. The website can still be viewed here — shop.ice-pick.com/en.

* Assorted merchandise
* Tragedian paper doll
* Tragedian paper doll from the official Instagram
* The storefront featuring t-shirts with Stairways to Heaven
* Sticker sheet
* Sticker sheet
* Posters from the Haruspex's Lair
* Packaging that merchandise came in

## The Team

**The developers as they appear in the press kit on *Pathologic* site**
* **Eli Goren (groan)**
* **Nikolay Dybowski**
* **Vassily Kashnikov (Mushroomer)**
* **Meethos**
* **Peter Potapov**
* **Ivan Slovtsov**
* **Liu Sukhinina**
* **Ayrat Zakirov**
* **Albert Semyonov** - Programmer
* **Igor Zinoviev** - Programmer
* **Masha Khomenko** - Programmer
* **Anna Orlova (SpaceLaika)** - Artist
* **Igor Pokrovsky** - CGI animator
* **Nikita Varnakov** - First Mate
* **Sophya Vasilenko** - Keeper

**The developers as they appear in the credits of *Pathologic***
* **Ayrat Zakirov** - CTO
* **Peter Potapov** - 3D Design
* **Vyacheslav Goncharenko** - 3D Modelling
* **Groan** - Art Director
* **Meethos** - Lead Artist
* **Irina Kapitonova** - Artist
* **Andriesh Gandrabur** - Composer/Sound Design
* **Alexey Bakhvalov** - Lead Programmer
* **Gauhar Aldiyarova** - PR-coordinator
* **Ilya Kalinin** - Art director

**The developers as they appear in the credits of *Pathologic 2***
* **Peter Potapov** - Technical Art Director
* **Meethos** - Art Director, Concept Artist
* **Ivan Slovtsov** - Lead Game Designer, Producer
* **Anna «SpaceLaika» Orlova** - Concept Artist
* **Alexandra “Alphyna” Golubeva** - Narrative Designer, Writer, Localization Lead, Lead Translator, Copywriter
* **Ayrat Zakirov** - CTO
* **Vassily Kashnikov (Mushroomer)** - Audio Director, Sound Designer, Music Composer, Post-Production
* **Eduardas Lukosiunas** - 3D Artist
* **Martynas Cesnauskas** - Character Artist
* **Maria Khomenko** - Technical Designer, Game Logic Programming Team Lead, Project Manager
* **Pavel Panfilov** - 3D Artist, Environmental Designer
* **Pavel “GoldenGrifon” Fedorchuk** - 3D Artist
* **Eli Goren** - Character Artist Supervisor
* **Gintautas Jankus** - Character Artist
* **Maria Zolotukhina (Atenebris)** - Concept Artist
* **Elena Kondrashina** - 3D Artist, Level Designer, Cutscene Designer
* **Ekaterina Fedorchuk** - 3D Artist
* **Arminas Didziokas** - Lead Character Artist
* **Mikhail Burlakov** - Character Animation, Facial Animation
* **Iva Tatarnikova** - Concept Artist
* **Dmitry Vladimirov** - 3D Artist
* **Alexander Teterankevich** - 3D Artist
* **Kestutis Rinkevicius** - Character Artist
* **Oleg Filippov** - Character Animation, Facial Animation
* **Igor Pokrovsky** - Lead Animator, Mo-Cap Animation
* **Dmitry Chaurov** - Character & Facial Animation, Mo-Cap Animation
* **Andrei Abramenko** - 3D Artist
* **Vassily Ossiysky** - Facial Animation
* **Liza Kleinerman** - Facial Animation
* **Ilya Makarov** - First-Person Animation, Character Animation
* **Ekaterina Borisova** - Character Rigging
* **Igor Surin** - Character Rigging
* **Semyon Shitikov** - Facial Animation
* **Sergey Smeltsov** - Mo-Cap Animation
* **Dmitry Barulin** - Mo-Cap Animation
* **Liu Sukhinina** - Mo-Cap Animation, PR Manager
* **Stanislava Voronova** - Mo-Cap Animation
* **Dmitry Nikolsky** - Mo-Cap Animation
* **Nikita Varnakov** - UI Artist, PR Manager, Support
* **OWL Studio** - Additional UI Art
* **Akhmel** - Lead UI Artist
* **Roman Vlasov** - Game Balance Designer
* **Evegeny Nikishin** - System Designer, Level Designer, Data Engineer, Technical Sound Design
* **Denis Surdeikin** - Quest & Level Designer, Game Logic Programmer
* **Daniel Tyomin** - Quest & Level Designer, Game Logic Programmer, Translator
* **Lina Belova** - Additional Writing
* **Mary Kapkova** - Additional Writing
* **Anna Russ** - Poems
* **Igor Zinovyev** - Programmer
* **Oleg Stepanov** - Programmer
* **Dmitry Zhebynev** - Programmer
* **Kevin Snow** - Localization Manager, Lead Localization Writer
* **Bruno Dias** - Localization Writer
* **Laura Michet** - Localization Editor
* **Cat Manning** - Localization Editor
* **Seva Kritskiy** - Localization Consultant
* **Nikolay Ershov** - Translator
* **Nikolay Konovalenko** - Translator
* **Alice Tomina** - Translator
* **Cathé Stepanyants** - Translator
* **Aleksandr Kuvshinnikov** - Translator
* **Nikolay Balinov** - Music Composer
* **Artem Karassev** - Additional Sound Design
* **Theodor Bastard** - Original Music
* **Kirill Akimov** - Additional Sound Design
* **Sergey Bulatov** - Sound Engineer, Foley Assistant
* **Charly Newar** - Additional Music
* **Egor Korshunov** - Recording Organisation
* **Evelina Novikova** - Recording Director
* **toneworx GmbH** - Localization Studio
* **Wolfgang Walk** - Recording Director
* **Kai Schmitz** - Audio Engineer
* **Robin Beckmann** - Audio Engineer
* **Lorenzo Weck** - Project Management
* **Waldemar Husser** - Project Management
* **Sophia Vassilenko** - Chief Operating Officer
* **Evgeny Leutin** - PR Manager
* **Lewis Denby** - PR

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

## References

1. ↑ *The Void* (video game) - Wikipedia
2. ↑ Ice-Pick Lodge: About Us
3. ↑ Kickstarter - Rewards
4. ↑ Google Docs - "What we do in Ice-Pick Lodge"
5. ↑ Happy New Year teaser
6. ↑ Know by heart... Live (YouTube)
7. ↑ Google Docs - "What we do in Ice-Pick Lodge"
8. ↑ Wikipedia - Chinese Room
9. ↑ VK.com - hand\_dust
10. ↑ Google Docs - "What we do in Ice-Pick Lodge"
11. ↑ Twitter - "Welcome to our brand new Ice Pick shop!"
12. ↑ Facebook - "Our ship is closing down." March 17, 2019
13. ↑ Instagram - "Tragedians, tragedians everywhere!"
14. ↑ Instagram - "New posters feature images yet unseen-not only by you, but by anyone who's not a menkhu."
15. ↑ Tumblr - "Soon sigil stamp on Ice Pick Lodge shop packaging" from sandplague
16. ↑ Pathologic 2 Kickstarter