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[DJSharpeCheddar]

A remake of the early 2000s game Pathologic

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic

Mission statement:

What we want to make is a unique game, but the uniqueness of Pathologic lies in the ideas that permeate its fabric, not in its genre or setting (though we like to think that they’re pretty unusual too). We also hope that it’s a valuable experience. In Pathologic it’s the player, not just the character, who explores the nature of miracles, stands up to a real evil, and finds the ultimate truth.

Any human being longs to be more. We all desperately look for a world that’s bigger, fuller, more complex than the real one. And it’s games that provide the best medium to create interactive, immersive places; it’s games that seem like the best doorway to the aforementioned bigger, more complex world. They give us unrivalled freedom; they give us abilities impossible in reality.

Yet, again and again the miracle turns mundane. We get impossibly big swords, impossibly intricate strategies, impossibly stunning landscapes.

But more often than not they don’t change us for the better.

Well, we don’t like that. Can you name a game that’s left a bigger impact on you than your favourite book? Perhaps you can. Still, that’s not what mainstream gaming tries to achieve—its goal is entertainment.

Our goals are ideas and values. We want to make a game that would reach deep into your soul and leave an impact—like books, and songs, and movies do.

We think it’s boring to:
1. make someone fight monsters made of pixels and polygons;
2. lie that a supervillain is the root of all evil;
3. lie that you can save the world.

On why they're remaking it:

You may well have, since what we’re doing now is a remake. Pathologic was first released in 2005 to a critical acclaim in Russia, and it does have an international fanbase.

Still, it succedeed in spite of numerous flaws. The ideas behind the game were novel and interesting, but the implementation turned out to be mediocre, to say the least. Pathologic was our first project as a game development studio, so a lot of things were done impromptu. Turned out learning by trial and error is charming, but leads to cutting lots of features and details out. The game was clunky, it looked outdated even back then, and the translation was atrocious.

We do have everything we need to make Pathologic work now though. One of the major strengths of the game is its premise which allows for the story to be told multiple times. Whenever you see a good play staged by a different director, you find new layers of meaning in it. We strive to do the same here.

 

[Corpekata]

Console gamers, this is one of those PC games you didn't know you wanted to play. Get to it! One of the most unique experiences around.

Backed.

 

[Lucinice]

Console gamers, this is one of those PC games you didn't know you wanted to play. Get to it! One of the most unique experiences around.

Isn't the translation supposed to be really bad?

 

[Durante]

I'm in, I've always wanted to play Pathologic, and I won't say no to a more polished version.

 

[Corpekata]

Isn't the translation supposed to be really bad?

That's one of the reasons they're remaking it.

 

[Taruranto]

The original had some interesting ideas but was borderline unplayable to me, hopefully this one will be better.

 

[DJSharpeCheddar]

Isn't the translation supposed to be really bad?

The original had some interesting ideas but was borderline unplayable to me, hopefully this one will be better.

From the Kickstarter:

Pathologic was first released in 2005 to a critical acclaim in Russia, and it does have an international fanbase.

Still, it succedeed in spite of numerous flaws. The ideas behind the game were novel and interesting, but the implementation turned out to be mediocre, to say the least. Pathologic was our first project as a game development studio, so a lot of things were done impromptu. Turned out learning by trial and error is charming, but leads to cutting lots of features and details out. The game was clunky, it looked outdated even back then, and the translation was atrocious.

We do have everything we need to make Pathologic work now though. One of the major strengths of the game is its premise which allows for the story to be told multiple times. Whenever you see a good play staged by a different director, you find new layers of meaning in it. We strive to do the same here.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Isn't the translation supposed to be really bad?

He is saying they should get the new remake when it's finished, not the old game.

 

[Bricky]

Never heard about this game before, but it looks extremely interesting! Looked up the developers and it seems they also made The Void, which I have sitting somewhere in my Steam backlog.

Will keep an eye on this project.

 

[benicillin]

Consider me in - they make some crazy games, and I enjoyed (if you could really call it that) playing through the jank of Pathologic. That game could really use an update so I hope their Kickstarter does well.

 

[xandaca]

It's an incredibly powerful, atmopheric game, if a little too broken in many respects for its own good. I worry that by making it easier and 'prettier', it'll dilute much of what made the experience so oppressive and alienating.

Anyway, anyone who liked Pathologic should definitely play The Void. It's even more powerful, stunningly beautiful in a very bleak and abstract way, and much easier to get into than Pathologic even if it soon reveals itself to be no less cruel or manipulative, and even more brutally difficult in some respects than its predecessor. Phenomenal game, one of my all-time favourites even if I never managed to complete it.

 

[Lucinice]

He is saying they should get the new remake when it's finished, not the old game.

Oh sorry I misunderstood.

Anyway I might contribute, this does sound really interesting.

 

[Messofanego]

Hope this is successful. Really liked The Void and Knock Knock. I'm all about the game's ideas, just never gave the time to play it. Maybe will try it over the weekend, blind playthrough.

 

[LordJim]

If they let me run around at decent speed, I will buy this for sure.
Time management could get frustrating at points

 

[shenhaZ]

The head of the studio is super wierd and super cool guy. You should trust him.

 

[Corpekata]

If they let me run around at decent speed, I will buy this for sure.
Time management could get frustrating at points

Yeah, walk speed increase and the new translation is about all I want.

 

[Deleted member 59090]

I just saw the Knock-Knock update and backed it immediately, now I'm watching the pitch video XD

 

[The_Player]

10% in first 3 hours is a promising result. I haven't been able to finish the original game no matter how hard I tried, so there's hope for me with the remake.

 

[Lafazar]

Wonderful, backed immediately.

I'm intrigued by the list of things they want to change, and how they intend to change them:

There are also several aspects we plan to correct—or rather reconstruct, bringing them closer to our original vision.

• There’ll be new quests, events, and plotlines, and some filler quests that were added for the sake of adding something will be rid of.
• Graphics will be much better. We’ll do everything we can so that the game looks adequately even ten years from now.
• Gameplay will be way more balanced. We’re not talking about making it simpler and survival easier, mind you; but fights used to be annoying rather than tense and emotional, scavenging was very rudimentary, and the economy of a plagued town was hardly a system at all. We plan to change all that, making all these mechanics robust. That doesn’t mean the game’ll become a breeze, it just means we’ll replace artificial challenges with real ones.
• Street NPCs will have advanced AIs that’ll make them feel way more alive. Once again, we’re not abandoning the concept of them being “extras” in this play, we just want those extras to perform better.
• We’ll also add realistic behavior patterns to the disease.
• Localization will be done internally or with the help of trusted outsourcers who are not only native speakers, but also talented writers. We understand that Pathologic is extremely hard to translate, so—once again—we won’t try to do it directly, but rather reconstruct the game in different languages.

Here are their previous games, even though some of them are plagued by... interesting design decisions, all of them are worth experiencing IMHO just because they are so completely unique and weird. There is simply nothing else like it:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Ice-pick Lodge
http://www.gog.com/games##devpub=icepick_lodge

 

[loganclaws]

I hope they succeed, the original is a very interesting game marred by a shitty translation.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Nice! Backed!

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Always wanted to play Pathologic, now I have no excuse.

 

[Rawshocker]

Backed. I hope yosp pay attention to it.

 

[More_Badass]

Backed. Learned about the original game a few months but never got around to playing it. Sounds super atmospheric, bleak, and immersive

Already one fifth funded in a few hours, this'll reach 100% fast

 

[Deepo]

Backed! Always wanted to play this, and this seems like the best way to do it.

 

[Durante]

Looks like it will almost certainly make the initial funding goal.

It also looks like a relatively low-risk kickstarter, Icepick Lodge have proven that they can deliver games, and have managed to survive independently for a while now.

 

[Canis lupus]

Never heard of it but just watched some videos of the original, looked weird and interesting, will back for a PS4 copy.

 

[HK-47]

All of Icepick Lodges game are worthy playing at least once. But Pathologic is special.

 

[898]

Hmm, what level. Kinda bummed no physical collectors edition but that art book is calling my name.
fake edit: backed.

 

[Ceebs]

Backed. The original is the definition of a flawed masterpiece.

 

[KTallguy]

Thank you for making this thread, I was in the middle of making it but I don't have time to update

And I'm having trouble uploading concept art but when I do, you guys are in for a treat!

 

[Clevinger]

Backed. Pathologic was brilliant and kind of terrible. Hopefully this one is just brilliant.

 

[zkylon]

woot

gonna back 20 for now

that 55 event thing seems really tempting

this whole event has been a-fucking-mazing, well done ipl

 

[Denton]

Instabacked. Always wanted to play it, I even own original copy, but the bad translation just turned me off.

 

[Dicer]

No Wii U but Linux, so they covered one base for me.

Will keep an eye on this for sure....

 

[evilchicken]

One in game day is two real life hours? So the game has a 24 hour playtime, was the original that long? Seems ambitious to make a modern game with 24 hours of content using a 250k budget.

 

[zkylon]

this is exciting

 

[More_Badass]

One in game day is two real life hours? So the game has a 24 hour playtime, was the original that long? Seems ambitious to make a modern game with 24 hours of content using a 250k budget.

Well technically they already made the game. Now they're making it better and bigger.

 

[Clevinger]

One in game day is two real life hours? So the game has a 24 hour playtime, was the original that long? Seems ambitious to make a modern game with 24 hours of content using a 250k budget.

I imagine that's not the entire budget.

There are three characters to choose from, so it's more like triple that. In fact, they say 70 hours in the Kickstarter.

The original was long as well. IIRC there was some overlap between characters though.

 

[Denton]

RPS have a great series of articles on Pathologic:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/10/butchering-pathologic-part-1-the-body/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/11/butchering-pathologic-part-2-the-mind/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/12/butchering-pathologic-part-3-the-soul/

There are spoilers in later ones, so probably avoid for now. Anyway, I really hope this suceeds. Please back it people. 20 bucks is not that many!

Oh and by the way, there is another cool kickstarter running ATM, that I backed, by Kai Rosenkranz, composer of Gothic and Risen games:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mustardmuffin/kai-rosenkranz-is-making-a-new-album-journey-home

Just in case someone is interested. I love his music so much.
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCtV4DYZkK0

 

[More_Badass]

RPS have a great series of articles on Pathologic:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/10/butchering-pathologic-part-1-the-body/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/11/butchering-pathologic-part-2-the-mind/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/12/butchering-pathologic-part-3-the-soul/

There are spoilers in later ones, so probably avoid for now. Anyway, I really hope this suceeds. Please back it people. 20 bucks is not that many!

Oh and by the way, there is another cool kickstarter running ATM, that I backed, by Kai Rosenkranz, composer of Gothic and Risen games:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mustardmuffin/kai-rosenkranz-is-making-a-new-album-journey-home

Just in case someone is interested. I love his music so much.
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCtV4DYZkK0

The first one is pretty spoiler free, some details about locations and characters but mainly just a lengthy overview of the game...and it sounds amazing. Seriously, read Part 1 if you're curious about the game.

 

[Arulan]

Backed. I haven't played the original but I was recently thinking about wanting to play a game set during the Black Death, and well this is close enough.

 

[zkylon]

there are higher res screenshots and concept art on the official site that are very much worth a look

 

[ichtyander]

It's an incredibly powerful, atmopheric game, if a little too broken in many respects for its own good. I worry that by making it easier and 'prettier', it'll dilute much of what made the experience so oppressive and alienating.

Anyway, anyone who liked Pathologic should definitely play The Void. It's even more powerful, stunningly beautiful in a very bleak and abstract way, and much easier to get into than Pathologic even if it soon reveals itself to be no less cruel or manipulative, and even more brutally difficult in some respects than its predecessor. Phenomenal game, one of my all-time favourites even if I never managed to complete it.

I've played the original, Russian version of The Void (called Turgor) which I think is a bit more rough with some slight differences but found it to be an incredible experience. It's probably one of the most original games I've played, even though the basics are rather simple and repetitive. It just hurls you into a very alien setting with its own ecosystem and rules, without really giving you much info about what you're about to do. Once you push through that initial frustration it proves to be an amazing thing. One of the devs on their forums were kind enough to give me a somewhat rough English translation patch for the Russian version (which was much better than most of Pathologic to be honest) so I was actually able to understand (for the most part) what the hell was happening.

Played only a bit of Pathologic and it was also a pretty unique and incredible experience but I couldn't get past the issues. I'm really glad they're doing this kickstarter, hopefully it'll turn out great.

 

[Risk Breaker]

Might be the first project I back on Kickstarter...

 

[-Deimos]

Backed!

 

[Chance Hale]

Can't wait, Pathologic and the Void are two of the best, most interesting games ever made so I'm really happy to see the former finally get the polish it deserves.

Really interesting that they're bringing it to the PS4 and Xbox One. Really hope it's the push Ice-Pick Lodge needs to make it to the big leagues because they deserve so much more attention than they get.

 

[Deleted member 59090]

RPS have a great series of articles on Pathologic:

There's also this bit about the remake from today with more apparently coming soon.

 

[zkylon]

Can't wait, Pathologic and the Void are two of the best, most interesting games ever made so I'm really happy to see the former finally get the polish it deserves.

Really interesting that they're bringing it to the PS4 and Xbox One. Really hope it's the push Ice-Pick Lodge needs to make it to the big leagues because they deserve so much more attention than they get.

it's happening, love!

it's happening!!!

 

[Clevinger]

Update #1

So, er, we kind of knew there are some people interested in our endeavours and possibly frustrated with some aspects of original Pathologic, but we're floored. We never thought we'd manage to collect more than $60,000 in our first few hours—more than 1/4th of the required sum! (Things are moving so fast that we actually had to correct the number while writing this update. More than once.)

Thank you so much! Each and every one of you. We don't want to say something posh and cliche here, like "it's an honor" or "we'll do our best to be worthy of the faith you've put in us". Just bear in mind that there's a bunch of folks somewhere in Russia who keep refreshing the Backers page, reading every name and smiling giddily.

Thank you. There'll be updates with more substance very soon.

(We're also very grateful to The Chinese Room, Tale of Tales, and Brian Fargo for their support. We love their games, and it's nice to know the feeling is mutual.)

Oh, and here's another nice thing: a feature by Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun on what exactly and why exactly we're remaking (or rather reimagining). Hopefully you'll find it insightful!

up to $75,000