The Throw
One of the anomalous properties of the mine is unpredictable teleportation of the scouts. For example, in 1982, two scouts were thrown approximately 20 meters to the side of the starting point. That same year, a speleologist, having descended down approximately 80 meters was thrown back to the top where he started. In 1986, several months before the collapse, the mine systematically moved the alpinists and speleologists to arbitrary points of the eastern wall. Characteristically, this wave of throws coincides with the first attempts to describe the hallucinations occurring in the mine.
The Drill
A huge industrial auger with an adjustable angle to the surface. It was installed near the mine after the collapse in 1986. The drill was powered by the generator whose power was insufficient to ensure normal operation of the drill. Over the course of eight years, a few researchers working at the station tried unsuccessfully to improve the cumbersome, outdated equipment. In 1994, due to the lack of funding, these attempts were discontinued and the station was abandoned.
The Ice
A thick layer of ice, plugging the mine after an avalanche in 1986. By some strange coincidence, the deposits of frozen snow plugged the mine in the exact spots where researchers had previously noted the most active sites of the illusions. These sites are also the most amenable to study the spacial patterns of the throws. In relation to this, it became vital that the ice was removed by hand with ice picks at the points where presumably it was possible to detect the activity of the hallucinogenic sources of the mine. The developers/ice picks descend down big corridors, that are a result of the work of the drill, and then carefully break through the ice shell to get into the mine.
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Knock Knock PS4 Release
Yesterday, Knock Knock arrived on PS4. It's a very important breakthough for our studio: the first Ice-Pick game on consoles ever!
Please don't buy it.
Not yet. Not if you live in Europe, anyway.
The thing is, due to certain complications, the current price of the game is thrice as high as we've planned. Regional prices are a very important matter—and the current price tag is simply unfair for certain economies. We've misjudged the flexibility of the PSN service, and now, as a compromise, we're working on lowering the PSN price of Knock Knock to €5 across all Europe. It will be updated on September, 18th.
We suggest you refrain from buying the game until then—it wouldn't make sense to pay more since we're unlikely to be able to provide you with additional benefits.
If you live in Europe, have already purchased the game, and feel unhappy with the price situation, please contact us at support@ice-pick.com and we will try to figure out something.
The North American price of Knock Knock will remain unchanged, so you're welcome to try the PS4 Knock Knock experience right away.
Thank you for your attention and for the patience.
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Pathologic Kickstarter Is Live
We’ve told you about our plans to remake Pathologic before, and now they’ve come to life. The original game was released in 2005 to a huge critical acclaim in Russia. But its international release was clouded by poor translation and a lack of marketing, so the game failed to reach its audience. Now we want to remake it to bring Pathologic closer to our original vision.
The campaign is live now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic
Official Pathologic website: http://pathologic-game.com/
The game
A plague breaks out in a remote steppe town full of weird local traditions. Three healers try to fight it: a scientist from the Capital, the son of a local shaman, and a half-crazed girl. Each of them has their own idea of how the terrible disease came to be, and what is real magic to one of them becomes backwards superstitions to another. Taking on the role of any of these doctors, you’ll try to overcome the invisible evil while doing your best not to succumb to the disease, to bandits, hunger, and fatigue; scavenging and bartering for pills, bread, and milk. But it’s hard to survive in Pathologic—the remake of a ruthless and critically acclaimed Russian survival adventure game from 2005!
What’s Being Remade
“Pathologic [2005] is the single best and most important game that you’ve never played.”
— Quintin Smith, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Original Pathologic was produced by an unexperienced team that learned a lot by trial and error in the process. Lots of details and ideas were abandoned in the process. Now we have the experience and the skills needed to make Pathologic work as is should have worked from the start. New Pathologic will have modern graphics; the script will be extended and reworked. There'll be an advanced AI in the game, and the mechanics will be thought through much better.
It's more than just a remake. It's a reimagining.
You can find more media in the press kit or simply visit the campaign page!
https://twitter.com/icepicklodge
https://facebook.com/icepicklodge
http://youtube.com/icepicklodge
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4 October 2013
Thanks to everyone who has supported us during the development. To everyone who was waiting. "Knock-Knock" is finally out.
Tonight download links will be sent to everyone who's helped fund the game via Kickstarter or Strings. Warning: due to software limitations it is possible that the link may be a bit late, but you'll definitely receive it by tomorrow afternoon. If something mysterious happens and you don't get an e-mail, or the e-mail is incomplete and lacks any of your rewards, or you are attacked by furry forest creatures, or something else is wrong, please don't hesitate to send us a note via support@ice-pick.com so that we can figure something out.
As of now, the game is available on Steam, GOG and Gamersgate. Desura coming soon, as well as the standalone version that will be available on our site. Any of those places can get you a PC, Linux, or Mac copy.
And now we're embarking to make iOS and Android versions. We're planning for the iOS version to be ready by mid-December, and the Android version—by the end of the year. This year, that is. Felt like it'd be appropriate to clear any possible confusion here. See, there are many wonderful platforms in the world but only a single programmer in our studio.
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20 May 2013
Dear Friends!
We are in beta.
Today we will commence porting the build to mobile platforms.
In parallel we are working on realization of all the prizes that we promised for your donations. In connection to everything written above, we’d like to remind you: we are still waiting for filled forms so that we can add you to the credits and send you the prizes according to your donation.
And last, our project still needs your support on Greenlight. Will the game be available on Steam or will we have to choose some other digital distribution service? (We would really like to place it on Steam, many people find it easiest to use.) If you haven’t done it yet, click on “Yes” here. Each “yes” brings us closer to Steam accepting Knock-Knock for distribution.
For more information see - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/knock-knock/posts
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12 September 2012
Our Kickstarter experiment has successfully ended. However, we are not going to retreat in shadows. We will not only bring this project to an end, but will also try to keep you informed about the development process.
You can still pre-order the game with 50% discount and get valuable prizes (same as at the Kickstarter) in a special section of our website. We accept all the popular payment methods.
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22 August 2012
Ice-pickers have uploaded the next update of the "Knock-knock" Kickstarter page. They proudly declare intense exploring and decryption of the archive materials. Here you can appraise first astonishing results.
Seems like such hard work shocked their emotional state too muuch, so they needed desperately some comfort in domestic surroundings. That's why the Official Forum was reanimated and redesigned in leaps and bounds. Six years have not yet passed as Dybowski unlocked the Stamatin's pub and nestled there, so that anyone could find him there in the hour of need.
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27 July 2012
We've decided to experiment and develop the game without the aid of a publisher, indie-style, relying only on ourselves and your support. With the help of the well-known Kickstarter project, players can support a game they like with donations.
Our project page is here.
If you would like to support this project with PayPal, here's the link.
Join us!
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