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KickStarter Pathologic 2 (AKA Pathologic remake)

kain30

Cipher
Joined
Aug 7, 2014
Messages
543
Location
spain
Just like the tittle says. Not only we have the remake but a second part!!! :bounce::bounce:
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Looks like the remake is renamed to Pathologic 2, to avoid confusion with the original game I guess.

This is the remake's Steam page, changed to Pathologic 2:

 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
KS update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic/posts/1976564

Introducing Pathologic 2, with live gameplay

Hey everyone! My name is Alex Nichiporchik, I’m the producer of games like SpeedRunners, Party Hard, Punch Club, and Hello Neighbor. Today I bring some good news to the backers of Pathologic. I’ll be producing the game from tinyBuild’s side, as we’ve partnered up with Ice-Pick Lodge to help finish this gem.

This has been a while in the making, and we’re finally ready to take the curtain off from where Pathologic is heading as a franchise, and what this means for the game you’ve Kickstarted.

57c2ca73729385b81aa33e57ca6f0246_original.gif



First, the drill-down:
  • What we referred to as Pathologic is now Pathologic 2 to avoid confusion between the original game, Pathologic Classic HD, The Marble Nest, Mor. Utopia, and so on
  • tinyBuild partnered up with Ice-Pick Lodge to bring Pathologic 2 to market in 2018
  • All original pledges are still in effect
  • We’re changing the development methodology to become more open, similar to what tinyBuild did with Hello Neighbor — allowing in-development access to game builds to fans who support the development
59c667d6fc88e51c6e0b31b74b04c348_original.gif



Full game is coming in 2018, alphas are coming sooner
In the good old days of game development, typically you’d get a publishing deal in place — receive funding from a publisher, and lock yourselves in for a couple of years until you ship something. Repeat every few years. It’s clear this work method no longer works, not for us or for the industry as a whole. Releasing The Marble Nest gave Ice-Pick Lodge an insane amount of feedback, and after seeing what tinyBuild was able to achieve while being completely open with their fans about games like Party Hard, SpeedRunners, and Hello Neighbor, it was clear the dev process needed a change.

To be clear: tinyBuild is coming on board to help produce Pathologic 2, acting as a publishing partner.

Being Kickstarter backers, soon you will receive the first Alpha build of Pathologic 2. The build will have a slightly smaller town and a few systems in place to demonstrate the atmosphere and some of the upcoming gameplay mechanics. We will gather feedback from fans, and adjust the direction of development based on this feedback.

In the old structure, we would spend months on getting complicated systems in place, and hope everything comes together in the end.

Today we spend shorter sprints on accomplishing smaller tasks, and playtest what we’ve accomplished — figuring out if the direction is still the right one. This empowered us to come up with a few fun mechanics that’ll be playable this weekend at PAXWest in Seattle.

If the reception of the PAXWest demo is positive, that’ll be the first alpha we release to you guys. Stay tuned.

Take a look at the PAXWest demo in action. This is all live gameplay.



Thank you for following the development of Pathologic 2.

Alex Nichiporchik

CEO @tinyBuild
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,810
So... no HD remake of the original game then?

There is one. You set up resolution in options to 1280x720 lol.

"HD version" was already released i think. This was supposed to be remake of P1. P1 on other hand back in production was supposed to feature 5 characters to play with i think general being largest which was cut completely along with 1 other character.
 

alphyna

Ice-Pick Lodge
Developer
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
43
Location
St. Petersburg, Russia
Looks like the remake is renamed to Pathologic 2, to avoid confusion with the original game I guess.

This is the remake's Steam page, changed to Pathologic 2:



This is correct. The "2" is just a cosmetic change.

Basically, there's been too many Pathologics (the original Mor. Utopia, the international release, the Classic HD remaster, the Marble Nest demo), so we figure out we need to emphasize the fact that this is the latest installment. It's still the same story, characters, town, 12 days, etc.
 
Self-Ejected

Drog Black Tooth

Self-Ejected
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
2,636
alphyna
While you're here. There's been some rumors about you being short on people and the game being stuck in development hell. Would you care to comment on this?

I mean, what's up with you suddenly looking for an AI coder?
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
That PAXWest demo is extremely eerie. They are absolutely nailing down the atmosphere. It was already amazing in the original, but I think this will take it even further.
 

alphyna

Ice-Pick Lodge
Developer
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
43
Location
St. Petersburg, Russia
alphyna
While you're here. There's been some rumors about you being short on people and the game being stuck in development hell. Would you care to comment on this?
What is the blessed place where people even care about Ice-Pick rumors? Is it /vg/ or something?

Anyway, this is the first time I'm seeing anything of the kind. No, that's not true at all. As you can probably tell by the delay, management has never been our strongest suit (hopefully the aforelinked partnership changes that), but I think we're operating well within the bounds of normal indie development. I mean, sometimes people come and go (currently we're looking for an additional programmer, AFAIK), and as an indie team, we do get more crunches than bigger companies, but it has always been like this. I wonder where that rumor originated from.

EDIT: Ah, I saw your edit. Well, like I said, people come and go sometimes. Is it so unusual for a company to be looking for a programmer?
 
Last edited:

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,810
4chan's /v/, basically people were complaining about delays and then one of the posters mentioned the fact that (at the time of that post) you had IIRC 3 open positions at your company, so it did look like the things had gone south and we shouldn't get our hopes up.
This is quite a bold assumption to make.

You know that after P2 you need to do The Void/Tension Remake ? It was released in 2008 when no one really cared about small releases in press nor there were a lot of ways to promote game.. I feel like The Void with some expanded amount of content + better graphics + tightened gameplay would be something which would sell A LOT considering it is fucking stellar game.
 

Ranarama

Learned
Joined
Dec 7, 2016
Messages
604
You know that after P2 you need to do The Void/Tension Remake ? It was released in 2008 when no one really cared about small releases in press nor there were a lot of ways to promote game.. I feel like The Void with some expanded amount of content + better graphics + tightened gameplay would be something which would sell A LOT considering it is fucking stellar game.

Better nude models...
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
About some concerns (a new confusion that a not-sequel is named like one; business tone of the update penned by the publisher's CEO) over the update: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...osts/1976564?cursor=17905062#comment-17905061

This is still the same game—a reimagining. Same town, same characters, same project we Kickstarted. The name change is purely cosmetic. (Well, it will probably concern the game's marketing somewhat, but it's not like any of you need to have it pitched to you, right?)

And yes, this is a business update penned by a business person—which is precisely the reason for this partnership. We're not sure partnering up with someone equally gloomy and prone to lame puns as us would lead to fruitful results. Gloominess is our area of expertise. We're not ready to share.

So please do not worry. Yes, it's true that projects that are delayed sometimes suffer from developers' passion dying out (which is not necessarily their fault, stress does bad things to people). But this is not our case at all. We'd sell kidneys to deliver the Pathologic we promised to you, if need be.

(Which probably wouldn't do much because it turns out that organs are dirt cheap or something. We only checked for storytelling purposes. Nothing shady going on here.)

-IPL
 

alphyna

Ice-Pick Lodge
Developer
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
43
Location
St. Petersburg, Russia
You know that after P2 you need to do The Void/Tension Remake ? It was released in 2008 when no one really cared about small releases in press nor there were a lot of ways to promote game.. I feel like The Void with some expanded amount of content + better graphics + tightened gameplay would be something which would sell A LOT considering it is fucking stellar game.
Personally, I'd love to see a modern Void with better visuals and great boss fights... you know, Shadow of the Colossus-style. But I doubt it'll happen. The Void itself is already a remake/remix of the original game, which was Russian-only and called Tension (I believe). Remaking a remake seems a bit excessive.
 

prengle

Savant
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
Messages
355
on one hand, i'm really concerned about tinybuild's business speak calling pathologic a "franchise", fucking with the development model and taping a 2 to the end of the name even though this isn't a sequel. on the other, i hope that them taking care of the marketing allows ipl to get the game out the door as soon as possible without worrying about handling the shit they're not so good at

i've got butterflies in my stomach while at the same time being cautiously optimistic
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
The publisher showing the game on Twitch PAX West show. It starts with an unseen trailer:



The demo itself is mostly following the same sequence with the 5-minute trailer.
 

prengle

Savant
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
Messages
355
The publisher showing the game on Twitch PAX West show. It starts with an unseen trailer:



The demo itself is mostly following the same sequence with the 5-minute trailer.


"it's like if silent hill met a bethesda game"

i get that it's tinybuild but this physically hurt to listen to
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic/posts/1980629

Recent News FAQ

We have received a bunch of questions after the recent announcement. A perfect opportunity to make a real FAQ instead of inventing questions, like we do sometimes! Without further ado, here we go.

a6be19e70a6c0167ee9c9156ee7499e1_original.jpg



On the Publisher
Q. Tell us more. Who is in control now? Who makes creative decisions?

We kept our independence, IP, and creative control. tinyBuild is an indie publisher. They work with small teams and have no reason to change our style. They merely want to make the game known to broader audiences—a desire that we share.

No one says stuff like, “Let’s recolor the Changeling—blonds are all the rage now”, or “Twelve days are too much, how about five?” We always have the final say in all things creative.

That said, tinyBuild are not silent, of course. They do provide feedback. “Adding a lamp made looting much more engaging.” “Currently, recoil doesn’t make it clear if you have more ammo or not.” “The street ambience works really well, adding to the atmosphere; can we have more of that?” An outsider’s look is useful—especially late in the development, when you tend to get tunnel vision.

Most importantly though, they do truly like Pathologic 2. So we have a common goal.

Q. Why do you need a publisher?

If you take a closer look at the modern game industry, you’ll notice that only 2-3 unusual projects a year enjoy significant success, be it The Stanley Parable or the recent Hellblade. Apart from its quality, there are other factors that determine if an indie project becomes a hit. And marketing is key here: finding a way to convince the audience to try something new and unexpected can go a long way. This is why we partnered up with tinyBuild—the people who both know how to market games and love Pathologic 2.

Q. But you’ve got a ton of money from Kickstarter. And now you run to an investor?

We would very much liked to live in the world where truly crowdfunding medium-sized projects is possible. But we’re not. Torment: Tides of Numenera got way more money than us and was made by a much more notorious team, yes Brian Fargo still invested personal money into it.

Unfortunately, gamemaking is more expensive than you might think. Especially if we’re talking about a 3D game that requires many assets and animations.

We knew from the start that we would never collect enough money for the whole development and have already invested much more personal savings into it than we got from Kickstarter. So you and us are in the same boat.

d07a55baab80fc15280302bd8725df3d_original.jpg



On the Two
Q. Why “Pathologic 2”? Are you making a sequel after all, not a remake?

Pathologic 2 is neither a sequel nor a remake. Remember what we told you back in 2014? “We want to show what really happened.”

What do Lara Ravel and the Haruspex discuss in the evening of Day 1? In the original game they didn’t even acknowledge each other’s existence. Maria doesn’t give the list of the Bound to the Bachelor anymore, but there is something else. Who saves the Changeling from the train tracks when the Inquisitor arrives? Are you sure that Inquisitor is Aglaya Lilich? You don’t even know what’s going on inside the Polyhedron.

The characters are still pondering the same questions, sure, but they act differently and say different words.

Q. Well, you should have called it Pathologic Recuperatio or something then. You would at least get the cool points for Latin.

Pathologic 2 explores the ideas of Pathologic much in the same way like Silent Hill 2 does with Silent Hill or Dark Souls 2, with Dark Souls. Neither of them is a sequel. Pathologic 2 is a second attempt to save the town, if you will.

This game is, indeed, different from the original. Like a counterpoint. Monologues are boring, dialogues are engaging, because any dialogue is a conflict. But it takes two to have a dialogue. The “2” in Pathologic 2 is honest. (And Latin is for show-offs.)

5e025f8318d771bb5332957b0129966e_original.jpg



On Early Access
Q. Early Access works well for story-light, systems-heavy games, but Pathologic 2 is the opposite. Do you think Early Access will be effective for Pathologic 2?

The Marble Nest worked, didn’t it?

Early access exists to polish gameplay, that benefits greatly from numerous testers, since its purpose is to be handy. Note that ‘handy’ does not necessarily mean ‘easy’; the game itself can be very hardcore. But struggling with barter UI should never become a challenge.

Obviously, this approach is barely applicable to the story, since its goal is not to be handy.

This means that early builds will most likely be gameplay-oriented and very light on story. That’s what the PaxWEST demo is like, for example.

Perhaps we will have to change our approach at some point—and then, unfortunately, you will have to endure the Trial By Spoilers. But please keep in mind that we love mysteries just as much as you do, so we’ll try not to unveil too much too early.

4b4ec54421ec44502a4c858088d22b20_original.jpg



On the Marble Nest
Q. Funny you should mention The Marble Nest, ‘cause I can no longer find the “Download Demo” button on Steam.

We had to remove it. You have all been warned that The Marble Nest is poorly optimized and does not represent the final quality. New people who come to our page through tinyBuild might miss that memo. Giving a pre-alpha to a less-informed audience may hurt their impression of the game. Bad performance is a deal-breaker to some people.

Q. So what, is my access to The Marble Nest revoked?

Not at all!

Firstly, everyone who’s got it on Steam via a code (i.e. the alpha and beta backers), still have the game/demo in their library.

Secondly, you can now download the standalone version of the demo here. Just download, unpack, and play. Also useful for those of you who do not like Steam.

We trust that if you’ve made it this far through this FAQ, you definitely belong to the “better-informed” category.

The Russian version of the update is here. Русская версия апдейта — здесь.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic/posts/2069393

Utopia

Christmas comes early this year! And it’s shrouded in darkness.

If you’re a backer eligible to receive the soundtrack of Pathologic 2 as a reward (which is to say, a backer, since even the lowest tier is), expect an e-mail from us today!

f799806ea93e9195b9d8ae2c54fbe396_original.gif



And don’t let it get lost on its way, since it contains a link to Theodor Bastard’s Utopia—a bonus album, the tracks from which you’ll hear in the game. This beautiful, shamanistic, and at times downright scary music will either put you in a meditative trance or the state of utter dread. A perfect addition to any Pathologic lover Christmas party.

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You will receive a direct link to the loseless files, DRM-free.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

 

kain30

Cipher
Joined
Aug 7, 2014
Messages
543
Location
spain
I don´t like the sample track too much... I still think the OST of the original game is the best
 

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Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Year end update with lots of gifs: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic/posts/2079716

We Come Bearing Gifs

2017 has been a long year, tiresome for many.

So how about we end it with a bang and freeze your browser with a huge gif-laden post highlighting the coolest aspects of Pathologic 2 that you haven’t seen before?

It’s not a full report, mind you. But we haven’t been sitting on our hands, and there is progress to share.

So now we come bearing gifs.



Inventory

Don’t worry, those weird blue thingies are placeholder


Pathologic 2 is a very sensory game. It’s depicts a disease that, among other things, is spread through bodily contact, so we want the player to always be conscious of what their avatar is touching. At the same time, showing a clunky animation each time you eat a slice of bread would be annoying.

The compromise was to make the inventory UI slick and minimalistic, while highlighting the high-resolution image of everything you’re looking at. It doesn’t emulate the feeling of touching objects with your hands perfectly, but it does make the process of using items less mindless. Previously the hi-res image was only available on the item inspection screen.

To be done: More QoL improvements, like tooltips better explaining the ways you can interact with items. And an improved item inspection screen.



Looting

Do you like boxes? ‘Cause we like boxes. Mmm, boxes


The same thought went into the looting process. We want the player to be mindful of the objects they’re interacting with, while not annoying them.

So we’ve made looting faster (you can quickly grab items with a right click), but added a sort of mini-game to it. Now each container is separated into several ‘drawers’, and each drawer can contain its own secrets, like being locked or infected. So rummaging through them is a risk-reward process.

To be done: Playtesting the whole thing, and more.



Cool Map

That tooltip at the bottom of the screen seems to be overly optimistic


While there is no global reputation in Pathologic 2, a local one makes way more sense. If you’ve done something questionable, like stealing or killing someone, the town won’t throw its every guard in your general direction—but the small community affected by your actions will remember. This adds a layer of complexity and an additional factor to keep in mind while choosing your path across a number of districts.

The New, Cool-Looking Map of Pathologic 2 reminds you of that, as it does of the major NPCs. It also looks cool.

To be done: In Pathologic 2, the map will actually only show you the names of the places you’ve already explored. But this is yet to be implemented, as is the Mindmap integration.



Melee

Fights! Now with gameplay!


The first iteration of melee fights is complete. We’ve only tested them in separate environments for now and are yet to see how they play out on the actual town map.

To be done: We’ll start with fighting a bunch of people and go from there. And in the game.



Gunfights

Take that, evil window!


Shooting, reloading, and the very important art of falling down dead are implemented already, but we’re not yet happy with how it feels. Pathologic 2 is not a shooter, of course, so there’s no need to refine perfect gunplay, but the player is supposed to feel something when they press the button.

To be done: More refinement, durability affecting gun usage. Also we need to record more ungodly screams of dying people.



Autopsy

Haruspicy has never been so streamlined (also you don’t actually have to cut people’s organs out, curing them is an option too)


Everything that has to do with your patients’ (victims’?) bodily functions is now moved to a separate multi-purpose screen. Need to learn a person’s condition? Heal them? Or cut their heart out? All done through the optimistically-named Autopsy interface! No more looting bodies as if they were cupboards.

To be done: The Autopsy screen is working as intended, but we’re planning to refine the ways the options it provides actually connect to the core loop of the game.



Plaguefinder

Seeing pink


A barely-remembered mechanic from the original Pathologic returns in full glory—because it was actually a good mechanic that simply slipped past many people’s radars. By spending certain resources you get an option to see the signs of the plague better—so as to avoid… or investigate them.

To be done: Improve the visuals, balance the resource consumption.



The Townsfolk





Sitting down is an important skill that many of us have on our resumes


While the general mood in the Town still is (and will purposefully remain) unnerving and desolate, its inhabitants are gradually becoming smarter, learning new behavior patterns and animations. They don’t even constantly have to stand now!

To be done: The task of adding more content is never done.



Worldbuilding (Literally)

The Cemetery feels big and chilly now, but also somehow… peaceful?




Infection ups the gloominess factor significantly


We’re gradually building the Town, adding new locations and states. It’s an arduous process, especially since a world this large strains Unity somewhat.

But the sense of place is also arguably one of the most crucial elements for a game like Pathologic 2, so we’re making sure every corner of the Town feels right. The Town has been fully built already, although ~1/3rd of it is still very rough.

To be done: We’re yet to create the ‘burnt out’ districts that would satisfy us (that is, the ones that used to be infected and are now deserted). And clearly the remaining 1/3rd of the Town needs to be fine-tuned.



Character Design

Grace is a sweet kid


All the major NPCs have been modelled and are gradually being brought to life. It is, once again, an arduous process, since each of them has a unique set of animations, that express their characters, and animation is on the long and expensive side when it comes to production. We are very happy with some characters and want to work more on others.


..Although she rarely speaks literally. ...Right? She’s not being literal? ...Folks?


To be done: More animation, maybe some changes to a couple of characters.



...More Work Ahead

Have you ever been beckoned forward by a chin?





Stealth mechanics are OP in Pathologic 2


To be done: Do you really need to ask?

Though the process is not without challenges, Pathologic 2 is coming together nicely. A lot has been done and a lot remains to be added, refined, and fine-tuned. We have not been sitting on our hands and have no intention of doing so in the future.


Although, come to think of it, it does seem like a reasonable option seeing how swings seem to be unavailable


Happy holidays—and see you next year.

The Russian version of the update is here. Русская версия апдейта — здесь.
 

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