Pathologic 3 emphasizes using unique gameplay mechanics to tell different stories. Can you share a concrete example of how a mechanic changes the way players perceive or interpret the world?

You are very right saying that Pathologic uses game design as a way to convey the protagonist’s feelings. We don’t have many ways to influence the player’s emotions. Movement speed is one of the few such tools, but it’s an extremely noticeable and very powerful one. Dankovsky, in a state of apathy, is a very slow creature, and it is an intentionally very irritating movement speed. It’s agonizing because this apathetic-depressive state should genuinely be agonizing for the player. The aim is to create a desire to get rid of it, not because it penalises numerical stats, but simply because it’s so frustrating. Accordingly, mania is inspiration and a very fast movement, but it’s also a thriller. I’m running and my health is burning up from this run. Will I be able to run away from the rioters and find a bottle of medicine, or will I run into a dead end and die there in 14 seconds? We evoke similar feelings with the new travel system. We look at the map. We choose a district. We decide on a route. The Town breaks down into separate districts because Dankovsky perceives the Town as a set of separate locations with their own functions. He’s a stranger here, it’s just logistics that need to be solved in the most optimal way.

"Will I be able to run away from the rioters and find a bottle of medicine, or will I run into a dead end and die there in 14 seconds?"

If a player consistently makes the wrong calls, like botching every medical diagnosis, can they still reach a meaningful conclusion or “ending,” even if it’s a bad one?

On one hand, we wanted to allow the player to make mistakes, move through the story, and reach a story ending. Most games assume that the player must follow the designers’ instructions, leaving freedom perhaps only in the order of completing those instructions. For example, I must defeat this helicopter boss, maybe not right now, but after some time, but I must defeat it. Furthermore, most games forbid the player from dying, or rather, pretend the player is immortal – if a boss kills the player, then you just need to jump back in time, i.e., load a save, and continue. In Pathologic 3, we allow death by mistake.If Dankovsky commits suicide or has a heart attack, that’s part of the experience. If the player loses all time – that is, spends all the amalgam – then the game deletes all saves, and that is also part of the experience. It’s an official way to complete the game. As for diagnoses – as long as the player manages the epidemic by other means (for example, by eliminating the Shabnak, or resolving issues through administrative decrees), then making diagnoses isn’t even necessary. It’s just one way to play through the game, and all these methods can be combined (issuing quarantine and deratization decrees, creating a vaccine, eliminating the Shabnak). Obviously, not all endings can be called “positive”. Some are quite grim, but they are still endings.

To what extent will the Powers That Be shape or steer events throughout the game?

We’re treading on dangerous spoiler territory here. You mention ‘The Powers That Be’, which is a Plot Concept, so we can’t discuss it without a spoiler alert. But I would say: in this instalment of the series, we are precisely allowing the player to be a figure of power. The decrees issued by Bachelor Dankovsky are, among other things, a simulator of a medical dictator. Some decrees are intentionally absurd, some even harmful. But the Town carries out these orders, albeit in its own way. The game tries to show this gap between a conceptually correct order and the complete uselessness of that order because people create informational noise when conveying the concept to the executors.

"In this instalment of the series, we are precisely allowing the player to be a figure of power."

How much agency will players have in responding to, or pushing back against, the influence of the Powers That Be?

Again, spoilers here, of course. Let’s put it this way: if you look at the structure of events in Pathologic 3 as the notation of a chess game, there will be several aggressive moves from powerful pieces (these are strange chess, with several queens) – but the player will be able to use the conflict between these powerful pieces and make their own moves. Furthermore, in this game, moves can be replayed. I would say that a dedicated player who remembers to manage their time expenditure will be able to play this game as they wish and nothing will stop them. But you must keep the clock in mind.

Looking back on Pathologic 2, what were the biggest lessons from its development and release that directly informed how you approached Pathologic 3?

From the very beginning, we thought about game optimization. That is the main lesson we learned after the release of the previous Pathologic. The game must function as stable code, otherwise it will not even be considered a narrative or visual work.

The Pathologic 3 demo was described as featuring “entirely unique content” that hadn’t been seen before. Will that content appear in the full game as well, perhaps reframed, expanded, or experienced from another perspective?

The full version of the game contains slightly more scenes in the Capital; we will visit the Thanatica laboratory several times, where Dankovsky and his assistants are trying to find a cure for death. There will also be a certain chess episode (the theme of chess is actually quite pronounced in the game).

"There will also be a certain chess episode (the theme of chess is actually quite pronounced in the game)."

Beyond shared themes and the broader setting, will Pathologic 3 include any more direct connections to the earlier games (returning characters, events, locations, or narrative threads)?

We generally relied on the plot developments that were already outlined in the very first Pathologic in 2005. Of course, they are seen through the eyes of a different character. It’s their interpretation, but those who are very familiar with the series may see many references to past games in the series.

Now that Pathologic 3 is out, are there plans for expansions, updates, or additional content post-launch?

We are currently very actively delivering fixes for the bugs that were present at release, but there are also discussions about what we can add to the game besides fixes. Not all content made it into the final version, and not all stories were told, and not even all game features made it into the release. I think once polishing and bug fixing are complete, we will make a plan specifically for content additions.

There is going to be a Pathologic 4, surely, right?

I will say cautiously – we have some IDEAS on that matter.

As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?

To be honest, we simply targeted the base PS5 because after the not entirely successful console release of Pathologic 2, with the third Pathologic, we primarily wanted to achieve stability. Therefore, our main PS5 version was created specifically for the base version of the console.

"It’s very hard to beat ML-based temporal anti-aliasing (AA) with software-written heuristics"

What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?

We do not support PSSR when running on the PS5 Pro. However, we would have loved to try it out to see if it could provide better anti-aliasing (AA) than what we shipped. It’s very hard to beat ML-based temporal anti-aliasing (AA) with software-written heuristics, as it’s a kind of supercharged heuristic in itself. While I think temporal-based AA, such as PSSR, will remain in the industry due to its upscaling, multisampling and denoising capabilities, I would like to see purely spatial ML-based alternatives for cases where temporal solutions are not suitable. If vendors won’t provide something like that, hopefully it could be achieved using self-trained cooperative vectors in modern graphics APIs and, fingers crossed, the next generation of consoles.

What resolution and frame rates will the game target on PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 Pro?

The PS5 and Xbox Series X both run with a dynamic resolution that targets 4K at 30 FPS. 4K is achieved most of the time. The PS5 Pro is expected to achieve this more consistently due to its increased GPU performance. The Xbox Series S runs with dynamic resolution, targeting 1080p at 30 FPS and never dropping below this in our tests. Initially, we targeted 1440p, but reduced it to 1080p to improve stability and texture quality on the Xbox Series S.

Do you have plans to launch the game on Nintendo Switch 2?

We have such ambitions!

The story focuses on Daniil Dankovsky, a doctor swept up in a plague-ridden city. With only 12 days, the player must make numerous decisions, from quarantining citizens to forcefully administering injections, to ensure its survival. Of course, things won’t always go according to plan and solving the mystery of the plague is paramount.

As for the demo, it’s touted as “entirely unique content” that hasn’t been shown before, with Dankovsky investigating Town-on-Gorkhon and interacting with its characters. It’s a solid introduction to the series’ core gameplay mechanics and moral quandaries, and even features controller support (which is currently in beta).

Stay tuned for more details and updates on Pathologic 3, and check out our interview with the director here.

Pathologic 3 has been officially announced by Ice-Pick Lodge and publisher HypeTrain Digital. Set in a small, remote town, the horror title will see players stepping into the shoes of The Bachelor, who arrives in the game’s setting upon being invited by someone who’s no longer alive, following which it becomes your responsibility to unravel the mystery of a deadly disease ravaging the town, and trying to stop it before its too late. 

As per the developers, Pathologic 3 will introduce a major new feature in time travel mechanics. Players will have a total of 12 days to save the town, but manipulating time to change events and unlock new outcomes will be key. Check out the game’s announcement trailer below. 

Pathologic 3 is due out sometime in 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. 

"Pixel art is all about intent, and with great artists we have on our team, we want to make visuals really pop."

Akatori sports a gorgeous and striking art style. Can you tell us about how you settled on this look for the game, and the biggest challenges you’ve faced in implementing it?

Vladimir (Game Designer, Tech Artist, Gameplay Programmer): To be honest, developing a 2.5D pixel art game is simply fun. With roughly half a century of experience behind our art team’s backs, pixel art, by itself, was already done down to a science, and we decided that, instead of retreading old ground, we would rather work on something that has more room for experimentation. There are a lot of challenges (which is why this kind of art style is fun to work with), the most important of which is keeping the look of the game consistent between 2D and 3D visuals. Pixel art is all about intent, and with great artists we have on our team, we want to make visuals really pop. Technically, nothing stops us from adding photorealistic physics-based rendering and raytracing everywhere, but we aim for a specific art style which is more hand-crafted, personal and stylized, while still leveraging extra freedom and fidelity that 3D provides.

How does Akatori’s world leverage it art style in terms of how varied the design and aesthetics of its environments will be?

Vladimir: The structure of the game gives us a lot of freedom in terms of world design. On a macro scale, every individual zone is it’s own independent world with it’s own inhabitants, culture, ecosystem, etc, and we are committed to make them as varied as possible, while keeping the whole game tied together with interconnected lore and narrative themes. On micro, level-to-level scale, the 2.5D art style allows us to break free from restrictions of tile-based art, which is common in pixel art games of this scale, and treat each individual room as a small hand-crafted diorama. Navigation is an important part of any Metroidvania, and this approach will allow us to create more varied levels with memorable landmarks, so you always got your bearings.

What can you tell us about Akatori’s combat system? Specifically, how much variation does the action offer when switching back and forth between the staff and your firsts, and how much does the game emphasizes using them together in different combos?

Vladimir: Easy to pick up, hard to master would be a fitting term for what I strive for in combat design, it’s kind of my specialty. The whole game was born out of an old prototype of mine in which I toyed with idea of using a throwable staff for platforming. In Akatori, we doubled down on this idea, making it the key component of the game. The further you go into the game, the more fists/staff movesets will differentiate with new abilities, but the key roles will stay the same – your fists is a no-nonsense fast damage dealer, while staff serves more of a utility function – it’s your primary platforming tool, way to cancel out of recovery animations, long-range projectile, source of magic spells, not to mention slow, but hard-hitting long-reaching weapon. And knowing how to utilize both parts of your toolkit effectively in any single combat encounter is the key to success.

"The structure of the game gives us a lot of freedom in terms of world design. On a macro scale, every individual zone is it’s own independent world with it’s own inhabitants, culture, ecosystem, etc, and we are committed to make them as varied as possible, while keeping the whole game tied together with interconnected lore and narrative themes."

What should players expect from Akatori in terms of enemy variety and boss designs? How does the game approach balancing between approachability and difficulty?

Will (Game Designer, Level Designer): There are several enemies and bosses in the game. Each enemy has a unique pattern and design that encourages the player to use your abilities to overcome the challenge. Keeping the flow of exploration it’s very important in a Metroidvania game, so not every enemy in the game will be a real challenge. It’s a mix of easy and tough ones. The difficulty is progressive, but in such a non linear game, an area of the map can be harder than another.

Alina (Narrative Designer): There are multiple enemies and bosses in the game, several of which will be present in the upcoming demo. Each enemy has a unique pattern and design that encourages players to be creative and use available abilities to beat them. However, maintaining the flow of exploration is very important in a Metroidvania game, so not every enemy in the game will pose a real challenge. For the sake of balance, it’s a mix of easy and tough ones. The difficulty is progressive, but in such a non-linear game, one area of the map can obviously be more challenging than another.

How large is Akatori’s world? Given its nature as a Metroidvania game, how intricate and layered can players expect its level and world design to be?

Vladimir: We don’t want to spoil too much yet, but in terms of raw numbers, we aim for 10+ distinct worlds and 20+ hours of gameplay. And speaking of interconnectivity, we are cooking something really special there, and hopefully we’ll be able to talk about it pretty soon.

How does the Void fit into Akatori’s setting? How much will the gameplay experience differ from the rest of the game when players are in the Void?

Alina: First of all, it’s probably worth mentioning that the name of this location is actually Kohakujō – Void is just a working title that kind of accidentally leaked into the public. Second, the setting of Akatori is a pretty hard thing to define, as what you might be referring to as setting is just the very first in-game world that we won’t actually spend much time in. So in a way, Kohakujō may be Akatori’s setting itself. Anyway, boring clarifications aside, Kohakujō is the initial and ‘main’ world of the game lore wise: it’s been there since the beginning of time, and its energy in the form of amber resin has given birth to all other worlds, including the homeworld of our protagonist. Once a prosperous place, it now acts as a huge container for the rest of the worlds and the energy core of the in-game universe that allows it to function. Apart from enemies and bosses unique to Kohakujō, players will also have to deal with its very special mechanic. The more time you spend in this place, the harder it gets to actually stay there: there’s an invisible timer causing levels to change and enemies to become more and more aggressive. To reset the timer, you have to either save the game or hit one of the special bells scattered across the location. But more challenges also mean more rewards, so it’s always a matter of whether a risk is worth taking at a given time.

"In terms of raw numbers, we aim for 10+ distinct worlds and 20+ hours of gameplay."

What can you tell us about the traversal and combat abilities players will encounter throughout the game, and how they’ll change up the moment-to-moment gameplay?

Will: It’s a key element. A Metroidvania is essentially a game about exploration, so the players are always expecting to find something special in each corner of the map or after defeating a boss. The abilities come to increase the potential of exploration, allowing the player to reach new areas on the map, but not only that, the same abilities can be used in combat too. Some abilities can be necessary to defeat some enemies or bosses, at least, decrease the challenge, giving new combat tools for the players. The players can expect this kind of synergy.

Alina: Apart from their primary function, what’s great about the abilities in Akatori is how enjoyable they are. It’s very satisfying to use some of them, not only in combat but also just to have fun and play around in moments of calm.

Do you have any plans to bring Akatori to PlayStation and Xbox after it launches?

Vladimir: Not at the moment, no. Right now we’re aiming for PC and Switch.

A new backstory, prologue and the plot’s first chapter are being added. It sees players venturing into the unknown Void and investigating a scientist’s disappearance. Cutscenes, lore, quests and so on will have diary notes and narration attached. You can also track everything in the scientist’s Journal.

Progression is also overhauled, with every game cycle having new mechanics and developments to the plot. Recipe costs are lower, Void resources are rebalanced, resource stacks doubled, and you can now move objects in the train for free. The cute Rofleemo are also being upgraded to NPCs and can roam your train, attending to tasks and auto-collecting resources.

Head here for more details. Voidtrain will remain in early access until 2024, but plans can always change. Stay tuned in the meantime for more updates.

Voidtrain sees players venturing through a brand new world with iffy gravity and strange void creatures out to get them. With support for up to four players in co-op, players must solve puzzles, gather resources to craft different items, and ultimately customize the Voidtrain to explore four different biomes. Environments, events and objects are randomly generated, ensuring something new with each playthrough.

Voidtrain is slated to exit early access this year, which should coincide with its Steam release. The price will be changing upon its full release so now might be a good time to jump in. Stay tuned for more news and announcements from the IGN Summer of Gaming expo.

At the IGN Expo, developer Nearga and publisher HypeTrain Digital revealed their new and unique action-survival title, Voidtrain– and that name is more explanatory than you think. Voidtrain takes players to a mysterious new world, and it is up to you to explore it, discover its secrets, and ensure your survival.

Players will com across outlandish and mysterious creatures, come across various puzzles and challenges, and learn to survive in their new environment and the challenges it throws at players- such as, in some instances, a lack of gravity. You will also be using a train as sort of your home base, and will slowly customize and upgrade it through materials you gather in the game. Though you will only start out with a single trolley, over time, everything from adding another car to making the train go faster with engine upgrades to building up its defences will be fair game.

Voidtrain will be releasing for Steam this fall. The game will feature 4 player co-op, but can also be played solo.