Daniil Dankovsky is a medical science savant. He’s not wasting his time on ordinary patients dying from Sand Pest; there are dozens of them and there's no treatment. He's called upon to observe rare, peculiar patients who refuse to die within the five hours, like the rest of them. They exhibit unusual symptoms that shouldn’t be there.

It's similar to solving a mathematical equation where the sum represents the present symptoms. There are several known variables (such as various circumstances of the patient's life) and several unknown. The task is to thoroughly study everything to uncover the truth.

A patient may disclose some details that will clarify their symptoms, or they may lie, perhaps out of embarrassment or due to a hidden motive. After the medical interview, the player needs to examine the patient's body. The player marks the present symptoms in the doctor’s ledger: unusual skin discoloration, darkened veins, ulcers, and so on. In some cases, the physical examination alone is sufficient to determine the correct diagnosis.

However, even the patient's body can be deceiving. If Dankovsky suspects this, he must explore the patient's environment and living conditions. This becomes a detective story on its own, the details of which we'll reveal later.

And these peculiar individuals who refuse to die are the key to victory. Unusual patients are glitches in the program. By collecting a sufficient number of these "glitches," you can create a vaccine.

What psychological techniques does Franz employ to influence the player?

The character of Franz is a classic infantile victim with borderline personality disorder. The player of the “savior” type will treat her with utmost care, only to later bang their head against the wall trying to figure out what they’re doing wrong. The “aggressor” type, on the other hand, is going to play their own mind games and tailor Franz's erratic behavior to suit their own goals, changing the rules even more frequently than she does. I played this game as both types consecutively: I was never able to succeed as the "savior", but as the "aggressor" I had no problem breaking the game and lashing out at Franz without really listening to what she was saying.

Franz creates the illusion of normality and gradually pulls you into her illness.

Like any manipulator who believes in what they’re doing, Franz is not afraid to lie, including the lie of omission, to flatter, to play the role of a miffed damsel, to accuse, to give the silent treatment, and so on.

And how can one resist such influence if they encounter it in real life?

In real life there is only one way out – don’t get into those relationships, run away from them as quickly as possible. The urge to help, fix the other person, and so on will only lead to burnout and depression. You can't build a healthy relationship with that kind of person, so there are only two options: either immerse yourself in their illness or run away.

Some say that "turning the other cheek" is sometimes the right strategy. Is it appropriate in the case of Franz to comply with her demands rather than confront her?

The relationship the user forms with Franz is a game within a game. As a player I want to beat the game. As a participant of a relationship, even with a virtual character, I enter into this relationship with a purpose and a desire to gain something from it. The entire game revolves around this dilemma.

I want to beat the game, but the only way to do so is to interact with Franz. She does everything she can to make the relationship more important than beating the game. But once that happens, the player automatically loses. And then his anger is transferred to Franz. So whether you turn the other cheek or not is irrelevant. If you start playing with Franz, you automatically lose. And if you don't, you just don't progress. It all depends on your goals and whose rules you want to play by.

What would you call the type of relationships portrayed in the game? And how can you recognize them before entering into them?

The game shows a codependent relationship. Each person in the couple defines their own goals and rules. And mutual deception and unwillingness to end these relationships lead deeper and deeper into the maelstrom of unhealthy patterns, damaging each of the partners.

Recognizing them is very simple: when entering this kind of relationship, you feel like you are swimming in murky waters. In a healthy relationship, there are common goals and rules of interaction that the partners adhere to out of mutual respect.

In destructive relationships, there are always hidden agendas, and the goals that are openly declared are usually vague and can be interpreted in different ways. The rules also lack clear boundaries and can change depending on the situation or mood. Therefore, if you are in a relationship and do not understand where it is headed in three months, six months, or a year, and the rules by which you are building this relationship are constantly changing, then there is a high probability that you are in a codependent relationship. In the end, they won't provide you with what people seek in healthy relationships.

What are some of your personal takeaways from your experience with the game?

My first thought was: “I'm a normal person” :)

Throughout the entire game, I had a constant sense that something was wrong, and I felt disgusted by some of the actions I had to perform on Franz while trying all aspects of the game.

The game does a good job of demonstrating what you should not do in a relationship. However, you can only notice this if you have a history of building healthy relationships. If you are used to building codependent relationships, the game can confirm your perception that such relationships are normal, and that can potentially be harmful to you.

Overall, as a fan of the studio's works, I took aesthetic pleasure in how it was all done, and I was pleased to experience something new.

Initially, it might seem that Franz as a game is about an AI, but this is not the case at all. Even comparisons with the Black Mirror TV series are inappropriate here.

The essence of the new game from the creators of Pathologic 2 is difficult to understand, but we tried to figure it out in a conversation with the head of the studio Nikolay Dybowski.

– What stage of development is Franz at now and when will the game be released?

The game has been finished for a few months now, and no changes have been made to it. Right now, we’re in the process of making a decision on how to represent it in the app marketplaces. It's quite an unusual thing, and it's hard to meet the requirements and the modern standards of mobile applications. This applies to visual design, categorization, and distribution models.

– Where did that name «Franz» come from? Was it Kafka?

Such questions are always difficult to answer... A word just comes to mind – a name, a title – and you realize that it is the right one. Sometimes you're even surprised at it yourself. As if someone else decided it for you, and you were just confronted with the fact. Imagine that a dog just came into your house, now it’s going to live with you, accept it. You can try to exert willpower, paint that dog as a zebra and start feeding it hay, but what good will it make? Anyway, I thought that this name is a good fit for an otherworldly creature, which itself does not really know how to use neither names, nor their own body, nor they themself as a whole.

– And why is Franz female?

It isn’t really female. It's a tulpa. It’s just that I personally imagined Franz as a female, it made things more relatable for me. But other people, on the contrary, tend to speak of this creature as a male – for example, the writer Linor Goralik, with whom we had collaborated a bit on this project.

– It seems like the main theme of the game is abuse. Is there something personal here or is it just that this idea was in the air, and you grabbed it?

It’s certainly not the main theme. The game's overall theme is the contact with the otherworldly and how it can develop. That's something that's really been on my mind for a long time. And yes, you could say that it's deeply personal. Such contacts, in my opinion, are inevitably fraught with danger, probably, probably that is why those relationships are shaping up like that: toxic, tense, nerve-racking.

Abuse is a vague and imprecise concept (just open the Wikipedia article and be astonished). It has an intuitive cloud of meaning – but in everyday speech, this word is often used to label any form of partner's behavior that hurts or offends others in some way, from open aggression to passive resistance to one’s desires. If someone is comfortable using such a label (for it surely makes everything plain and simple) – I suppose they will undoubtedly see in Franz exactly what they expected.

And as for the ideas in the air, the original idea behind Franz has been influenced the most by the growing public interest in cognitive biases and distortions.

– As I understand, it's a kind of a voice assistant type app, only it's... not really helpful, but frightful. Something straight out of a Black Mirror episode? Or is it our harsh reality with the advances of ChatGPT?

It's more like an app in the form of a virtual pet. And treating a creature that is capable of responding to your actions like a pet... you were just talking about abusive relationships, right? Abusive relationships (if it is appropriate to use this term at all) are rarely equal. Usually someone dominates in those relationships, no matter in what form. Remember Dostoevsky: «Love is a feeling that gives one person the right to torture another with impunity». So, that’s why the idea of the virtual pet piqued my interest: precisely because it was not quite clear who exactly dominates and controls the other. At first, one party considers themself as the master. That is probably what led some of the testers to see an «abusive theme» in everything.

But that's nothing like Black Mirror. AI has nothing to do with it. And you don't need an AI to truly frighten someone – a person can do it all by themselves.

– Have you used neural networks in your work? And if so, in what form?

No.

- I've been playing around with different chatbots in Telegram like «Hello, stranger!». Is that the essence of Franz? Or is it more complicated than that?

These are related forms, of course, except Franz isn't a bot. She reads the player's reactions and, we think, programs them in a certain way. We were surprised at how little it takes to program a person to behave in a certain way. The well-known white bear problem is a pretty clear example of such a suggestion. Sometimes it even happens unintentionally.

But, of course, it is worth resisting against this. The main thing is to avoid the pitfall of recursion.

– Are you afraid of ChatGPT and its rapid development? How do you think our industry will change because of it over time? In particular, the narrative side of work? Neural networks are already being built into games, it's just that they don't have enough computing power yet.

Not afraid at all. On the contrary, it's extremely interesting. It's a long-awaited historical challenge, just like Toynbee wrote. Any challenge to mental abilities is probably the most useful thing that can happen for an individual and for civilization as a whole. And the more serious it is, the better.

The task of an «asymmetric response» to a challenge for a mediocre, philistine creativity (I suggest not to see derogatory connotations in these words right now) is very non-trivial.

– You can make a ChatGPT bot in Telegram, assign a role to it (specify in detail who it should impersonate) and converse with it. It is probably even possible to imitate Franz in this way. Is Franz (the app) in any way similar to this?

Not sure if you can do it in Telegram yet, but the question is clear. I've already said that we are more interested in the player than in whatever communicates with them on the other end. Who cares if it's God, a human, or an algorithm? It matters not – it’s you that you should think about in the first place.

Remember how much stress and anxiety there was at the dawn of the Internet: «The person on the other side of a screen can be anyone! Someone writes that he is a young girl, but in fact he is a troll with a beard! How are you supposed to control it?» You don't. Do you think we have significantly more control if we can see the appearance and know the name of someone on the other end? Nothing of the sort! It's just that more stereotypes come to dominate us, and the illusion of alleged control makes our behavior even more predictable, banal, and often destructive.

– Will Franz have access to the phone’s contacts? To push notifications? What can she even do with your phone and how does that fit with your privacy policy?

Can we please not give an answer to that question just yet? :) But don't worry, the app marketplaces are very sensitive and strict about such things. They guard the interests of their users with a keen eye.

– What happens if you ignore Franz? I'm sure I'll have a fight with her and ignore her. Should I be afraid of her retaliation?

That's a perfectly valid reaction. It's one pattern of behavior – a refusal to make a decision. It’s not like you have to look at Schrodinger's cat. And as for retaliation... Well, that depends on what you would consider retaliation. Of course, we won't stoop to scary campfire stories, that's just silly, and not particularly scary. Is an incomplete tulpa good or bad? Can a missed opportunity be considered a punishment? I don't know the answer. Like I said, a person can do it all by themselves.

– Approximately how long is the game designed to be played for? And how does it actually work with time? Can Franz disappear for a day and then come back with a push notification?

She can. And as for playing time – it's not too long until the key decision moment. From there it's up to you to decide what you want to do with it and how long you intend to keep something like that with you.

– How would you characterize her personality?

It's a moderately distorting mirror. What will be reflected there in each particular case is completely beyond our reach and control.

The format

To take a part in Icepicktober challenge and win a prize you should meet all three conditions.

• Repost this announcement to your page or your group.
• During the month, draw on the given topics and share your art  on your social media. Don't forget to sign your work with hashtags #Icepicktober, #Inktober. It will be impossible to win the prize without hashtags.
• Make a compilation of all your artworks and share it in the comments section with hashtags #Icepicktober, #Inktober

Important rules

1. You can draw your arts using all styles and techniques you want. The most important aspect is that your drawing has to correspond to the chosen topic and the spirit of the inktober.
2. You can choose topics in any order, but we advise you to stick to our schedule.
3. All the artworks that you post must be drawn specifically for the challenge. You can not use the prepared drawings.
4. You have to tag your drawings with #Icepicktober and #Inktober hashtags.
5. The artworks must be drawn by you, it is forbidden to use neural networks and resort to using someone’s help.
6. You can start the challenge any day, but the final compilation has to be posted before November 7, 2022 (inclusive).
7. Only the one who completes 31 arts and publishes the final compilation will be able to win. All the artworks must contain hashtags #Icepicktober and #Inktober.
8. By taking a part in Icepicktober challenge, you consent the publication of your artworks on the Ice-Pick Lodge social media.
9. It is forbidden to draw sensitive content of any kind.

Deadline

All your artworks, including the final compilation, must be posted until November 7. We will announce the results no earlier than November 14.

Winners

There will be two winners. One of them will be chosen by subscribers. The second winner will be chosen by the Ice-Pick Lodge studio. Each winner will receive a nice gift.

That's it. We look forward to your work for #Icepicktober and wish good luck to each participant!

What «Franz» actually is?

Franz is a mobile game for both IOS and Android. It has been developed by Nikolay, Anna, Oleg, Vasily together with a programmers’ team for one and a half years already.

This game is a hybrid between an SMS novel and an angry version of tamagotchi. A stranger will appear on the players’ mobile. At first  they won’t have an idea about who it is or where it came from, as well as what it needs from them. To figure it out players will have to mend fences with it. They will be able to do this through a direct exchange of replicas, solvation of linguistic riddles, different types of touches to the Franz itself and the time spent in the game. It is worth remembering that Franz is a rather contradictory being with a difficult character. It will change its behavior depending on the way players communicate with it. It might wake them up at 3 am sending them hundreds of notifications only because it feels lonely. It might become offended and block the application for a while as well. At the same time, it can be kind and courteous. Each player is endowed with full power over the Franz and decides for themselves whether it will obey their rules or subordinate it to its own.

The stranger inside a mobile? Sounds weird. Who he really is?

Well, it’s her, not him. Franz is a young lady, a main hero of the game. Players will spend the majority of time in the game face to face with her. The whole gameplay is based on interactions with her. It’s well known that some people have a really complex and complicated nature. Believe me, Franz is truly one of their kind. Playing with her is like playing with a wild animal. She may seem cute and funny, but there will always be a feeling of anxiety in the background. At any moment something can go wrong.

Franz can be called a fiend, an antagonist to some extent. Players will sometimes have to stand against her toxic influence on them, but it still will be a choice of each person to do it from a position of strength or kindness. Yet, it is a question of players’ personal attitude to the game. Franz’s behavior is diverse, and her provocations are more of an ethical test. So the players may not even notice becoming an evil themselves while fighting against it.

Will you tell us something about the team that works on «Franz»?

Anna Pimonova is engaged in development of the project together with Nikolay Dybowski. She is an author of a wide range, who specializes in the horror genre. Previously Anna has been working as a script writer on a range of films, such as Tseh (stands for the workshop) and Otrazhenie (stands for the reflection). Then she started to develop games. Nowadays she works on her own psychological thriller «Flower shop» together with her team. Originally, Anna came to Ice-Pick as a script writer for Franz, but then she became responsible for the narrative design of the game together with Nikolay Dybowski. Last, but not the least, Anna Pimonova is a project manager of Franz.

Oleg Pashchenko is an artist and designer, who offered us his own unique view of the visual component of the game and created art for the project completely by himself. Vasily Kashnikov, also known as Mushroomer, wrote the soundtrack, reflecting the mystical and disturbing flair of the game.

The game still has a signature vision of Ice-Pick Lodge. Its dark and mysterious atmosphere, as well as allegorical vibe with a space opened for theories and guesses reminds all the previous games of the studio. The one thing changed in Franz. Now all the riddles that you will have to solve are related not to the game or its characters, but only to you as a player. The inner dialogue with yourself or a dialogue in the game — who said those things could not be the same thing?

Yet, Ice-Pick games are not about an atmosphere, but an artistic utterance. Any mobile game may become an empty shell, if there is no main idea in it.

Franz is a really important project for the studio and its authors. It is devoted to the topic of toxic relationships and reveals several stories whose value for us is great at once. First of all, Franz tells a story of difficulty in finding a common ground with surrounding people. Arranging an agreement with a lady living in your mobile won’t be that easy. After all, she is an attempt by Nikolay and Anna to create a full-fledged living personality. That is only one of the reasons why her volatile behavior is difficult to predict. Secondly, the game is about how difficult the path to this very mutual understanding is and how people change along the way. And it may sound trite, but the main driving idea of «Franz» is love. She wants it from the player, but acts as if she has been learning this feeling by spying on dysfunctional families.

Perhaps the most important feeling that Franz evokes is moral disorientation. You will have to test the strength of your value structure and think carefully about whether you can call yourself a good person.

The idea is clear now. What about the gameplay?

Player’s communication with Franz is based on searching for inscriptions. There are four different locations in the game, which change over the process of the player 's rapprochement with Franz. And players will have to find four types of inscriptions in those locations: visible ones; invisible ones (inscriptions that could be found by listening to sounds and looking for visual effects); inscriptions on the screen; partly visible inscriptions (to open the invisible part players will have to tap on it several times).

But communication with this young lady can not only be verbal, but tactile as much. Franz is commensurate with the phone. She feels like a doll the size of your mobile. The mobile itself becomes Franz when people open the application. So that is why the tactility of the phone transmits to the character. Therefore players can influence Franz and show their attitude to her using affectionate or aggressive interactions. The speed of touches affects the young lady as well. Depending on how frequently players will interact with her, she can become more or less aggressive.

And yet there is always the thought that the main character is alive, reasonable, even if with a difficult character. She is endowed with the will to choose when to get in touch with the player, which is why the pauses between sessions can vary from one minute to six hours. The duration of Franz's silence is influenced by the scenario decisions and her individual reactions to the players’ actions.

How far are you into the preparation?

The major part of promised rewards are in the studio already. It waits for its shipment. But we haven’t started it yet. Let us explain the reason.

There are several items in each package. If at least one of the items is not yet ready, the package is considered to be not completed, so it cannot be sent. It is also impossible to ship in parts, when some rewards are ready, and others are not. There are a lot of addressees.

Moreover, many of them change their addresses of living, therefore the risk of confusion dramatically increases. Until all the rewards are ready, we cannot start the shipment. But, of course, we will start delivering all the kits to you without waiting for the most complex and expensive items like the handmade Executor’s masks.

And what kinds of rewards are not ready now?

CD disks with a Pathologic 2 soundtrack will be ready by the end of July.

The artbook will be printed by the “Eksmo” publishing house. It will take us a bit longer than we expected, but also will guarantee the highest quality possible. We’ve been looking for the publishing house for a while for both posters and artbooks. After a dozen color tests we have ensured that on the paper all arts look exactly as the artist intended. Printing will be fully completed by the 1st of August.

Executor’s masks turned out to be the most complex item to manufacture. Artisans have been experimenting with its form and the structure of its mount, so it could be put on the person’s head the way it’s been in the game. One of the masks is ready and we’ve approved it. We’re working on three others simultaneously. Masks will be ready by the end of August.

Brooches are already manufactured. The only thing left to do is to pack it, so it could be delivered to you safe and sound.

So what do you have right now?

All Tragician masks are ready, as well as improved ball-jointed dolls. We also have tavros and brooches, posters and maps of the city on Gorkhon. For those who had ordered the game after the first shipment, we’ve printed more copies of the Pathologic board game (russian version only).

It is also important that now there are team members who deal only with shipment, so this process could be organized better and faster.

So when will you start delivering reward kits?

As soon as it is fully stoked. The dispatch of kits that need only CD disks to be stoked will begin in the first week of August. Same with kits that are waiting for artbooks to be manufactured. Let’s hope the publishing house won’t have any problems with printing it, so we could start shipping it in the middle of August. 

Last rewards will be packed by the end of the summer.

What were you actually doing all this time?

We’ve been working. Throughout this whole time. None of those who stayed at the studio by the end of 2019 had any vocations longer than 2 weeks.

The release of the Haruspex hasn’t come easy. To be clear, it’s been really rough since the very beginning. The reason has lay not only in the financial side but also in the moral one: everyone has spent themself on cranches, burnt out emotionally, and barely crawled the way to the finish line. Then a large part of the team has dispersed. The studio quickly entered a slow regeneration mode. In such conditions, we had to solve three problems: rejuvenate to make the further work possible; find a new source of income and at the same time make the two remaining scenarios in good faith, without cloning the same game "with different dialogues”.

Then why did you get distracted by other games?

The first rescue plan that came to our minds was this: we decided to give up exceptional work on Pathologic and switch to a few smaller projects: Known by Heart, Franz, NeuroTale (which has now become Mythastasis). We assumed we would make it quickly, solving 4 tasks at once. Firstly, to get at least some funds for the development of the Bachelor (the studio has been strapped financially). Secondly, to have a rest from the Bachelor ourselves and to generally reboot the perception of his universe. Thirdly, to cope with burnout by switching from large long-term construction to small projects. And lastly, to rebuild the management of the studio, learning how to conduct several developments simultaneously by decentralizing processes in which the participation of already exhausted Nikolai used to be a “bottleneck”.

You haven’t succeeded with quick small games, have you?

Yes, Franz took us longer than we would expect. Mainly because there was only me, I had to deal with two projects - both Franz and Bachelor. It is more difficult than it appeared at the beginning. 

So you’re saying that the core of the team hasn't been working on it all those 3 years?

Yes. A small team of people and I were involved in the pre-production of the Bachelor throughout the year. There was also a separate independent team that worked on Ayrat's “Know by heart...” game, and did not influence the development of Pathologic 2 in any way. We understood that the game was expected, but we simply did not have the resources needed to make a Haruspex-like project. We began to think about how to come up with a concept that would allow us to make new gameplay out of the maximum number of ready-made assets and without the expensive development of new systems. Such a concept cannot be invented quickly even in a fresh and vigorous state. It has been exhausting work.

And why are you developing such a new game considering the regular remake is awaited?

First of all, not everyone’s waiting for just a regular remake. The world doesn’t stay in one place and the development of Haruspex has shown that the concept from the late nineties doesn’t work quite well nowadays. We announced on Kickstarter that all three heroes will be completely different from each other and this wasn’t about different replicas in the dialogues.

I fundamentally did not want to make a clone of an existing game, where the core gameplay of the Haruspex would migrate with the individual characteristics of this hero and, most importantly, with his former shortcomings. That includes the combat system, controversial economy, and the attempt to imitate a small-scale open world under the limited technical capabilities. The problem of streaming a large city on consoles, which rose to its full growth during a porting, also did not go away. All this had to be taken into account.

Therefore, when we got over the crisis, we immediately began thinking about how to make the Bachelor' root different from the Haruspex’ on one hand, and with an adequate budget on another. At the very beginning, it was supposed to be made more like the Marble Nest, the game in which survival is presented without any need of going through the dumpsters, and in which the main accent was aimed at the plot and the individual structure of the mind map that everyone liked in Haruspex.

Thus, we should be waiting for something like the Marble Nest?

No. Even developing a “low-key Bachelor” we had to create not a piece of old game, a full-fledged gameplay. We’d taken in account mistakes of developments, and this time started without pernicious arrogance, trying to do it the right way: with creating a bunch of gray box prototypes. The first version of pure cabinet gameplay we prototyped in a really low-key way: in fact, the whole story there should have been taking place in one location we called the Stillwater. During the episodes of strolls through the city players could receive impression phrases. It would appear when some urban detail fell into the player's scope, scattering in a cloud of phrases, as in the BBC Sherlock. Players had to catch them like mosquitoes with the further haul result appearing in the mind map.

All in all, we barely created a Fruit-ninja with thoughts and phrases that players had to immediately evaluate and find the necessary ones were playing a role of fruits. If the phrases didn’t fit, players would have to go hunting it again. This kind of gameplay still seems beautiful: maybe some kind of it would be presented in a current version of the game.

As a joke, I called it the combination of Her Story and IT’S WINTER. We wanted to show the intellectual hero and display the process of critical thinking through the game interface. In essence, it was a puzzle that tests memory, attentiveness and the skill of combination impressions.

Sounds terrifying. Especially for fans of the old game.

The second prototype was a story with a non-linear narrative, where 12 days were deliberately  placed not in chronological order, but mixed up, as in Pulp Fiction. The subconscious desire to create a convincing imitation of the sensations of an exhausted person had its effect. The player could move between different days, as if "remembering" what happened on the eleventh day and what happened on the sixth one. Bachelor’s had its own timeline, so did the player and the town with its citizens. And all of those three conditions sometimes had “go visiting” each other by the way.

For example, a volunteer hired by Dankovsky on the seventh day, when returning on the third day, had also appeared there. Sounds okay. But how should they act, when this meeting proves to be the first one chronologically, the second one for the player and obviously the third one for the hero. Dialogues have been written from the author’s reality, where the same volunteer on the third day could know what would happen to the Bachelor on the seventh day, and the Bachelor could not react to it. And so the idea of ​​changing the active hero in the process of dialogue arose. It remains in the final version. But, in general, this kind of approach was too confusing. Both players and us were totally flipping out.

And so now you’re working on the third version of gameplay, aren’t you?

Yes. It’s not the city or even the plague that matters to the Bachelor, but Simon and, more precisely, the question of how he technically achieved immortality. And this question is directly related to the different types of time that I wanted to show through the gameplay. It has been only during the playtests of the second prototype that it’s become clear that in the concept with a “jump cut” the player's experience of the time’s flow had completely gone! Totally! Time had been so complicated the players have stopped noticing it. And we wanted them to be able to compare various types of perception of a time within a short interval. Therefore, we focused on what techniques and activities make players experience time within a short interval, like in Nolan's film "Memento".

At the same time, a game with a different time course had to be combined with a tactical “street” gameplay. The interaction with infected zones, particles and objects should affect the flow of time.

If you’ve been preparing the prototype you like for such a long time, how long will it take to create the game itself?

Firstly, Know by Heart.. is released, and Franz is already on its way. A lot of employees are able to work on the Bachelor now. Secondly, at the end of the last year, we entered into an agreement with a major well-known investor. And despite how feverish the world is now, today we still have a deal. Therefore the team has expanded and since the beginning of this year it has working on a game at a full capacity.

Okay, but what about the production? What stage are you at right now?

The third prototype is what we’re working on right now. And, in fact, its design pillars have already been approved. Some of its details still don’t suit us all. But it's Okay. By the beginning of October we are making an alpha version. Since mid-August, we are launching intensive production of new assets and gameplay systems. 

In this post, I must apologize not only for the chaotic information about the status of the project, but also for the optimistic assumptions that were once voiced. All this was due to a vague assessment of our capabilities and assumptions about what exactly we are releasing. I have already wrote that a year and a half ago we almost faced death and were ready to release a very modest game with the cabinet gameplay. This should have been simply to keep a promise and make at least some kind of release.

The majority of fans mean the Haruspex-like game when asking “What’s about the Bachelor?”. There were 25 people working on Haruspex at the same time, apart from outsourcers. For the studio it was the maximum number of specialists. Still this amount of people and the budget I’ve mentioned early is not nearly enough for a game of such scale.

But the situation and our opportunities have been changing. We’ve been testing one prototype after another. Now we have the right prototype and an acceptable budget. Moreover, we have a sufficient number of employees, the number of which continues to grow. That’s why we will be able to give an adequate time frame after testing the alpha version.

How will the Bachelor differ from the Haruspex?

Daniil Dankovsky works with the technology of mortality. He is interested in how a person naturally “ends” and what can be done about it. Immortality and death are problems that primarily rely on how time works. The aging processes of the body are associated with its irreversible and irresistible flow. But time works way more complicated in the modern scientific picture of the world. Its foundations were laid by Einstein, Planck and Mechnikov. They all are conditional contemporaries of Dankovsky, and he, as an intellectual, should know about their work.

Therefore Dankovsky should perceive time not mundenly, but differently. Changing his concerns about the time, he would start to use it as a tool to understand not the not the physiological immortality of the cell, but the immortality of man as a thinking unit. 

There are precisely a number of philosophical questions that we want to focus on while working on the plot of the Bachelor. Firstly, that includes the dilemma of death and immortality. Secondly, it’s about time and being lost in it, as well as managing time itself or changing its perception. That is what gameplay changes are connected with. We have to decide on what the hero can do in our world model, what he can influence, and what, on the contrary, is not so important for him.

The open world.

The original Pathologic, as well as the Haruspex, tried to imitate life itself. That was the natural and philistine perception of reality. Time was passing linearly and unstoppably, the hero wanted to eat and sleep. It was obvious he couldn’t be in several places at once. We wanted people to perceive the fantastic situation in the city on Gorkhon as the most realistic one. So the game felt like everyday life. Twenty years ago, such a task seemed really daring and important. The perception of the game was different from now, the process of interaction of person and the game was different.

Because of such an extensive complex of meanings of the “open world” phrase, it’s better to clarify what we are really talking about. There will be no continuous streaming of the city. Now the hero arrives at the point needed, solves a problem there and then moves to another destination in time and space. There also will be no more a number of artificial humans standing round the streets pretending they have some kind of business. It won't be possible to engage in combat with any passersby. There won’t be any stats imitating physiology, but the system of markers to control the time instead.

Haruspex’s survival.

The three heroes of Pathologic have different approaches in solving the problem of surviving. Actually, it’s the problem of their limits, including mortality. Haruspex was rough and unconsciously solved it through love. He was the down-to-earth hero, the man of family and responsibility. Haruspex had spread both his body and individuality to the boundaries of the whole city, which then became his new body. Becoming a father to people who, strictly speaking, are not his children by blood, he restored the broken ties of the city’s body. Moreover, the player literally realized this in the gameplay, watching the city from the everyday and physiological side.

Bachelor is rational and solves this problem in the opposite way. He is an egoist, a man of his mind and an analyst. That’s why he does not connect what has been disassembled, but, on the contrary, breaks the world into its component parts. He comes to the city to make sure that some individual, homo sapiens, has learned to live forever. To understand this "trick" about the technique of achieving immortality he needs to reconsider the main categories of the world. That includes the nature of time, space and the causality.

And Dankovsky, too, must go beyond his ego through the gameplay, dividing the unity of his life path into parallel, mutually exclusive parts. The fight against the epidemic rests on the denial of reality. This epidemic, by the default, seems to be the only correct thing. It is as it is, you just have to understand its structure. The way of pragmatic fight against evil is possible only in this dimension.

The story of the Bachelor is about the necessity of a new synthesis from the fragmented and rethought world. It’s the only thing coming to my mind right now. It seems that nowadays without a systematic habit of this process, it will not be possible to survive at all. So we can say that survival, as the genetic code of the game, has also been preserved. But only now it becomes real, not imagined.

The combat system and stray passerbys.

The combat system has never been Pathologic’s strong suit, alas. We never really wanted to make complex action-oriented gameplay. Players could kill 3d npcs just to understand their vulnerability. I see the everyday, physical world of the Bachelor as more conventional than in the plot of the Haruspex.

The characters will not disappear from the streets. But for me it’s much dearer to me when they just prop up poles or sit on benches. As soon as they begin to move, their artificiality and limitations immediately appear. I was certain about that back to 2002, I’m still certain about that right now. Each time I yielded to insistence on doing active behavior and each time I regretted it.

Barter, robbery and profiteering.

It really doesn't suit the Bachelor. He is a famous person, distinguished guest and head of the epidemic control headquarters. Due to the status he has in the city, he should not have problems with materials. Even against the backdrop of general impoverishment and a shortage of basic necessities. This should not bother him, he has a different kind of deficit. I can still reassure those who like to save and suffer from a lack of values. There’ll be a huge number of economic manipulations in the game. I really like to accumulate game values ​​in a shortage and rejoice in successful acquisitions too. it's just now this economy will be about other values: time, people and facts.

The game with a reticle and plague clouds.

I want to close the old gestalt and finally do what was not possible either in 2005 or 2018. In the old Pathologic, the players, as it seems to me, did not physically feel the danger of infection. In fact, people in the game, as well as heroes, were infected according to their script. And the game just threw lots if they got infected or not. That’s why the players did not quite feel that work with infection is work with the environment. I wanted to ensure that any interaction with any object entailed a risk of infection that could not be reduced in any way. But it turned out that the person played not with a sense of danger, but with the state of the scale. Now we are working on how to fix this and create a sense of the constant presence of risk “in the air”. It shouldn’t be marked clearly like the subtitle: “you currently entered the infected area, fasten your seat belts and eat a pill”. 

Contagion particles will become smarter playing a much more important role than in old Pathologic or Haruspex. There will be more types of it and more complex behavior. Player will have to find it, figure it out and interact with it. It will be like an endless waltz with the plague. That is what’s going to be the core of interaction with the space of a game.

New city district’s conditions.

Bachelor travels not only through the past and the future, but through the exact moments as well. He creates his own way like a mosaic out of dots of memories or assumptions.

But due to the lack of a clear change in the stages of the state of the district (healthy, infected, boarded up), the city is now divided not as much into areas with quests, but into different states of air, emptiness. Particles of the contagion will be everywhere, but its evolution will depend on time spent by the hero in specific coordinates of spacetime. This exact find we’ve been testing in the last prototype and it fulfilled all my expectations. Personally, now I have almost a tactile sensation of living disease. It feels alive, volatile, it breathes and moves. It’s become a more contemporary variation of old mambo-jumbo with clouds.

By no means a chronological order of story.

Remember how in the classic Pathologic the pressure of uncontrolled time did not allow you to complete all the quests being a participant of all game situations? Bachelor won't have this opportunity too. But since he has confused time, and he studies its fabric, sometimes the Bachelor will manage to manipulate it. Or maybe it’s all just a memory and sense of reality confusion? Is the narrator even reliable? Anyway, players will be able to plan the time allotted to us until the physical death of the hero. They will come back to previous days to make up for the findings they didn’t manage with the first attempt. But all deeds still have its cost.

Volunteers.

I was sick of the status majesty and lofty eccentricity of the majority of chief citizens. I cherish them like a family, and they will remain in a new game, it’s just how it’s going. But still, they aren’t well-suited to solve the immediate tasks of fighting the epidemic. Therefore, about two dozen new simpler characters will appear in the game. Bachelor will have an opportunity to hire them as volunteers, so they can free him from his routine. Those volunteers will also save his precious time that he definitely doesn’t have enough for the entire volume of the game. In fact, the Bachelor will have to divide and extend himself in order to cover at least some main facts with other people's eyes and hands. Those findings will afterwards complete the hypotheses that excite him.

Furthermore, in this game some new locations will appear. One is extremely far from the City on Gorkhon, the other is extremely deep inside of it.

The game Know By Heart was born as a pet-project of the technical director of Ice-Pick Lodge Airat Zakirov. Started a few years ago, the game was first developed by him alone in his spare time, but gradually gained a small team and grew to a stage of announcement and a Steam page, where you can add the game to your Wishlist. We'd be happy if you check it!

So, what is Know by heart?

Know By Heart is a game about accepting the loss, in it creates the illusion of returning to childhood and the subsequent сoming of age, the realization of the short-lived time. The player will be immersed in the life of a provincial Russian town, where the echoes of the Soviet era are still heard.

A short but crucial episode in the life of the town is intertwined with the story of the newly reunited childhood friends. They are about to plunge into memories, reconnect and resurrect their old friendship. However, the joy of the meeting soon turns out to be overshadowed by the fact that the guys are beyond their control.

We hope to write a short series of articles about the project’s backstage that can be useful to start-up developers. There are quite a few interesting topics to discuss:

• Is it possible to make a budget motion capture for an indie game?
• How to implement voice overs for a game?
• What is the relationship between marketing and the number of add-ons?
• How do I release the game on Steam?

But we’re going to start with the making of the announcement video.

Although the studio has been in the industry for a long time, we've not previously created video game trailers by ourselves. That’s why the production of the video was learned the hard way.

Perhaps some of the readers might want to look at this process from the inside. In our opinion, the trailer turned out to be interesting and was received quite warmly during the recent announcement.

Chicken or egg?

First of all we had to solve the question that worried us most. What is the primary: music or script? In other words, we make a video with a particular plan, and then we make a soundtrack, or we write the music first, and then we adjust the video series to it.

We chose the first option. The script, then the music. I wanted to give a hint about the history of the game, and without the script, it wouldn’t have worked. In addition, the composer of the project said he would write a soundtrack for any video series. Still, he’d have to be moved a little bit to get into the music.

It says it’s done. The script for trailer was written, but there was a problem in the process. Due to limited resources, we could not do any complex staged scenes. So the entire scenario ended up with fragments of the game itself with minimal changes, which did not allow to seamlessly link individual scenes into history.

That is, the words «to make an indie game trailer cheap» in the title in reality means that the clip almost entirely consists of a demonstration of moments of the game without storyboards and specially made animations and scenes.

Technical details of filming

For the draft version of the trailer, footage was shot with low bitrate and resolution. To give the editor a choice, alternatives were also recorded.

For these purposes, we initially used the Unity Recorder package built into the Unity Engine. There you can record video from the editor with an ideal frame rate (in our case 60) in high resolution (we have 3840x2160).

However, there are also problems. Unity Recorder shoots videos in obscenely poor quality due to the very low bitrate even at the High setting. Therefore, for the final shooting, we integrated a plugin into the project that allows Unity Recorder to record video via FFmpeg.

In addition, we slightly changed the arguments in the integration so that the encoding goes with an even higher bitrate.

Basic arguments used for FFmpeg process (no video size or framerate):

-y -f rawvideo -vcodec rawvideo -pixel_format rgba -colorspace bt709
-color_trc iec61966-2-1 -loglevel error -i — -c:v h264_nvenc
-b:v 70M -maxrate:v 70M -bufsize:v 50M -rc vbr -preset fast

Thus, 30 seconds of 4K video came out on average in about 275 megabytes. The quality turned out to be adequate to survive the compression when recording, editing and uploading to Steam, YouTube.

First draft

The editor put together the first draft of the script and immediately concluded that, despite the good video series, the parts are not connected in the sense of each other and therefore the roller needs a voice-over as a binding element.

This upset us, because the editing’s belief in the necessity of voice-over meant that there was nothing in the ad that worked to transmit the story. We really wanted the trailer to broadcast some simple message with the minimum media, without saying too much.

In search of a solution we remembered the early trailer of the same game, made for internal use. The video was assembled from almost static frames, but unlike the current version worked to transmit the message.

This was largely due to the photographic frames in which the faces disappeared. This image resonates well with the main themes of the game, and we realized that we need to put it in the basis of the video.

After discussion, we chose as the binding element the mirror, which assembles at the beginning of the trailer and breaks at the end, thus representing the stages of the relationship between friends.

The mirror was taken from a slightly modified video game mechanics. As a result, these scenes could be removed at minimal cost.

Music selection

More experienced colleagues who have already dealt with trailers have whispered to us that the decision to go from the script may not always be the most correct way for projects with limited ability to shoot unique footage. So, in addition to adding a binding element, we decided to write music immediately.

This is a key element, 'cause music can:

• convey the atmosphere of the game;
• outline the general "video drama";
• conveys a message by itself, especially if written by the person who composes it for the rest of the game.

Our composer quickly gave out nine sketches. Inside the studio and among folks we voted and chose this track.

https://soundcloud.com/nikolaykashevnik/know-by-heart-soundtrack-announce-trailer-music

Second draft

A new montage was made with a mirror and music. In addition, the editor pointed out which scenes he liked and which should be re-shot: change the angle, turn off the headlights on the machines or otherwise correct. The other things we asked you to replace yourself. So it was decided to move all the dark and rainy scenes to the second half of the trailer to create a general feeling of a bright start.

The result already looked much more complete and gave a basic view of the game.

Timing of the video

Total duration

As the pace of life increases, the length of the trailers decreases. Today, a two-minute trailer is considered too long. We initially aimed in the time of one minute 10 seconds (the PR manager at all offered to shorten the video to 40 seconds, saving only the most interesting parts). In the end, we couldn’t get into that frame, and the length of the final clip was one minute, 22 seconds.

First 7 seconds

There is a rule of the first seven seconds. If the viewer's attention is not captured during this time, the video will be skipped. This is about a person who accidentally stumbled upon a video during Web surfing.

Often the problem is solved quite mechanically: at the very beginning aggressive cutting of frames under the cheerful soundtrack, and then the roller slows down.

We had arguments about the delayed start of the trailer, where the train arrived and the girl came out on the platform. Nothing bright happened, and the scene lasted more than seven seconds.

In the end, we did not radically change anything and confined ourselves to adding a locomotive whistle to the mentioned frames. The reasons for this are:

1. We didn’t think the trailer would have too many random viewers from the outside and it would be able to turn. The game is not called a «game for all», but its audience is rather narrow.
2. What we wanted was not so much to make a commercial that lured everyone into the game, but to help people figure out whether they liked the game or not.

Real data

And here is the real view data. Indeed, viewers fall off rather abruptly at the beginning. In the first 7 seconds, approximately 27% of viewers leave. Then there is a rather long plateau, where the interest hardly changes then the credits.

27% seems like a pretty big value. These viewers did not form their opinion, because they did not get to the scenes that give an idea of ​​the game. Therefore, in the release and gameplay videos, we may be solving this problem.

We'd like to add a few words about the shortened version of the video, which is 40 seconds long. The current graph shows that interest is fairly even before the credits, meaning viewers hardly stop watching. In addition, if you perceive the video as a filter that allows you to decide whether to wait for the game or not, a shorter duration is impractical.

The trailer matches the game and its pace in an atmospheric way, and if a person can't watch it to the end, it is most likely not his product. It seems to us that attracting such a user will rather create the opposite effect. Especially after the release, when expectations from the game are very different from reality.

In subsequent videos, gameplay and release, we will most likely try to keep the viewer in the first 7 seconds, probably by adding intriguing footage from the game. But we will not be led by the overall duration, leaving the trailers at the pace they need.

The final version

For the final clip, all scenes were reshot in 4K resolution, 60 frames per second with a good bitrate. A couple of places in the trailer had to be collected in two languages ​​- this is a typewriter and titles with the name of the game.

Both videos (Russian and English) were sent for noise dubbing, which was performed in 2-3 iterations. Only then did the difference become visible, how much the sound complemented it.

It remained to make two covers for YouTube (1920x1080) with the name of the game and the inscription "Announcement Trailer", and then the announcement itself followed.

By the way, regarding the page on Steam. For your game to receive the “coming soon” status, you do not need to have uploaded builds to the platform.

We emphasize that the Steam page is very important at the time of the announcement. It contains a button for adding a game to wishlists. The wishlist is a pretty good indicator of future sales. However, keep in mind that it takes some time to get the page ready and styled and requires approval from the Steam team, and each iteration can take several workdays. In our case, the page was rejected twice. So this task should not be postponed until the last moment before the announcement.

Conclusions

We do not pretend to be universal. Whether to apply them or not is up to you in each specific case. There are some hints for a small indie game with limited resources for filming a video:

• the video should start with music;
• use a soundtrack similar in spirit to the game, so that the viewer immediately feels the atmosphere of the whole work;
• the script may not work the way you thought, because the possibilities for shooting footage are limited;
• you can add an atmospheric binding element that conveys a simple message and builds the video around itself;
• use noise dubbing, it raises the final quality;
• The first 7 seconds are really important. Do not include logos here unless you are Rockstar Games.

Sometimes the decisions of the art department directly affect the gameplay in the game. Here’s one of those stories told by Elena Alt, level designer of Pathologic 2.

I was asked to make an indoor for the Kids house, a place where children gather and play. Some of you, if you went to your hometown for the summer, probably spent a lot of time in such places.  

Working on the location, I remembered my happy childhood at my grandmother’s in Belarus. We occupied with the guys small buildings. There we cleaned up, brought in furniture, which we were allowed to take from the house, made something with our own hands. Then then we hung up our drawings on the walls, and we added to the interior curious stuff we found on the street. Here it is, the real secret hideaway. We spent all our time there.  In decorating the Kids house, I was just reproducing these memories and thinking about the objects that kids could fill this place up with and the games they would play. So in the game came a corner with playthings, and also children’s drawings on the walls. 

But wait, the kids like to play and listen to fairy tales!

When we were kids, we’d meet at our hideout, and older guys would tell us scary and fantastic stories. They were especially good when it was raining outside and we sat in a circle and listened to stories.

So the Kids house had a fairy tale corner. I thought it would be nice if these stories were told in the light of a lantern. This place, for some reason, became the key to the House for me. I felt that I needed something to emphasize the importance of this place.

When I tried to visualize it in my head, I imagined a shadow theater that looked like cartoons without TV. I imagined a design with a lantern around which a slotted plate revolves. Through the slits, light enters the surroundings and draws on the walls a views of the Town. The lantern shows recognizable landmarks: Cathedral, Abattoir, Polyhedron.

The designers liked the lantern so much that they decided to do a quest with it: the lantern in the game was initially broken and the children asked the hero to fix it.

And that’s how one visual solution in the game became part of the gameplay. By the way, for repairing this lantern, the player gets an achievement in Steam.

Ice-Pick Lodge here.We gather for you some info about what’s happening at Ice-Pick Lodge these days. New games, fresh blood and future plans. Without further ado let’s see what we've cooked up:

There are 4 projects at different development stages at the moment. One of these is the promised continuation of Pathologic 2.

We’re live and kicking, and ready to move mountains. The studio attracted some fresh blood and ideas. And as for social media, we'll be telling you more about what’s happening inside Ice-Pick Lodge.

The games we’re working on have an equal creative value and are being led by different people. All three games except Bachelor’s story are small ones.

Each of them is an author’s work of a particular individual from Ice-Pick Lodge. We’d wish to see the studio as an independent creative community where every person is free to express and implement his bold ideas. It is for this reason that the games will differ widely as to both their design and spirit.

For the time being we are not ready to announce the release dates. Although they will become clearer during this year. You will definitely hear more about the projects and their creators during 2020. So stay tuned!

And now for the games!

1. Know by heart (First on PC/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch. Later on iPhone/Android)

A nostalgic project led by Ayrat Zakirov, the CTO of Ice-Pick Lodge. Events of the game will unfold in the Russian province. The protagonist, Misha, is about to reunite with his childhood friends after spending a long time apart. Together they will revisit old memories, rediscover common ground, and rekindle their friendship. Alas, this joyous reunion will soon be ruined by something beyond their control.

2. Neuro Skazka (iOS/Android)

Neuro Skazka is a mobile author’s work by Nemo Soda who has recently joined us. 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. Neuro Skazka is a new way of looking at a classical “evolution” genre through the prism of bio horror.

3. Franz (iOS/Android)

Franz is a lab experiment of Nikolai Dybovski that grew out from the reflections about the possible game mechanics which could appear in Bachelor’s story. The main idea is to test the limits of control. It is a variation of a Chinese room argument that was first presented by philosopher John Searle. The concept is focused on criticism of artificial intelligence and how it is being perceived by a neutral observer. Is it true that we have full control over the game? Or is there a chance that it just gives us such a feeling?

4. Pathologic 2: "Bachelor's scenario"

The continuation of Pathologic 2 should not be treated lightly. The first chapter showed us all the pros and cons of our game design. We’d want to take into account all the mistakes we made and raise the bar higher. But this takes some time. We’re looking for a way to make the Bachelor’s gameplay quite different from the one you’ve experienced during the Haruspex. And we want to achieve this goal using the instruments we already have. Nikolai is writing the script. Everyone's busy doing their own thing. You will see the game in the foreseeable future.