If I remember correct, Dybowski told in one of the interviews that both "Pathologic Remake" and "The Frost" budgets are estimated to be ~$2mil. And I'm kinda afraid they wouldn't be able to collect that amount of money via Kickstarter (think Ed Annunziata with "The Big Blue" and Eternal Darkness guys with "Shadow of the Eternals", although the latter ones were absolute PR nightmare due to late Silicon Knights' history).
Also, something like half a year ago I suggested to Dybowsky (via their forum) the it would kinda make sense for IPL to team up with Robert Briscoe (especially since he wasn't doing anything particularly constructive since Dear Esther Remake's release, and even made a statement in one of the interview regarding being open to suggestions - and especially considering the recognition of his name after Dear Esther's release and after his levels in Mirror's Edge) specifically for this remake - and this message even got through to him (after a bit of pestering) - but he replied that despite my suggestion being interesting and unusual, deep down he somehow just didn't believe such a scheme would be possible.
Also2, they were at this stalemate "What do we do next: Pathologic Remake or The Frost? What do we do next: Pathologic Remake or The Frost?! What do we do next: Pathologic Remake or The Frost?!!" for, like, a year or year-and-a-half at the very least. Looks like they finally decided to play it safe (which is frankly, for me, a bit of a pity, even despite their recent announcement that The Frost would be a 2D game, should they have pursued it).
Name, from what I managed to gather from their comments on forums and in interviews:
1) In any case it would be largely decided by contributors and fans. IPL are currently really not sure how radically they want (or rather have the moral right) to change/butcher the game, it's more like "We want to turn it to that dream game we weren't able to make it back then" with a lot of spraying possibilities, than a concrete plan with a number of exactly defined steps.
2) Almost certainly - graphics. Hence - the aforementioned budget.
3) Almost certainly - a completely redone combat system.
4) There is a probability of the epidemic-related mechanics ending up reworked (overall disease spread, maybe the player himself spreading the infection, etc.)
5) Almost certainly - radically altered/rewritten Devotress'/Impostress' storyline + patched up rough edges in other two storylines.
6) There is a probability of Inquisitor's and General's storylines being returned back to the game (they were part of the initial plan during the development of the game, but were later cut out).
Also, the composer from the original game (Andriesh Gandrabur) is not working with them anymore, so either there won't be any remixed/better_quality music at all, or the remixing would be done by Mushroomer (shudders).
