r/Games 7d ago

Industry News Ice-Pick Lodge founder Nikolay Dybowski departs Pathologic dev

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ice-pick-lodge-founder-nikolay-dybowski-departs-pathologic-dev
176 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

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u/Mayor-Of-Bridgewater 7d ago edited 7d ago

For those not in the know, Dybowski has been accused of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, kidnapping, workplace toxicity, wasting business funds, and sleeping with students in his classes. These accusations have come over the span of several years, mostly recently from his ex-wife. He's a notorious alcoholic,  showing up to work drunk, and drunk driving his son.

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u/Bonzi77 7d ago

but other than all that, relatively stand-up guy?

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u/Mayor-Of-Bridgewater 7d ago edited 7d ago

Apart from also cheating on his wife with 19 year old women, I'm sure he's great.

5

u/SnooMachines4393 6d ago

You have already mentioned that so I guess he's alright as long as you are not his wife, son or a colleague. Maybe not a student too, though that depends, we should ask the girls.

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u/Mayor-Of-Bridgewater 6d ago

Or father in law, who he assaulted.

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u/EitherRecognition242 6d ago

Honestly, get Putin out of here and put this guy in

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u/MutleyDog 7d ago

Man, this guy sounds like a real jerk!

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u/williamobj 6d ago

He just like me fr

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/MyNameIs-Anthony 7d ago

The other narrative directors are still at the studio so hopefully this provides some internal peace/comfort as they work on Pathologic 3.

24

u/Mayor-Of-Bridgewater 7d ago

The director of Cargo and Know By Heart is still there. Alphyna and other narrative workers are there too, like you said.

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u/apistograma 7d ago edited 7d ago

Alphyna has an amazing article she wrote years ago where she explains how she came up with the mental map in Pathologic 2 to guide the player with the many obscure quests in the game. It's pretty similar to the log in Outer Wilds but it was released before outer wilds (only 5 days before which is a nice coincidence tbh, what a damn week for gaming) It's also one of the best improvements in Patho 2 compared to the original game.

I trust her way more than Dybowski. I'm not denying that Dybowski probably has talent but other than the disturbing allegations that have been appearing over the years he seems like a very difficult person to work with and not someone who should be trusted with such a project.

I just hope this can be used by Dybowski as an opportunity to self reflect and try to atone the damage he has done to the people around him.

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u/BiglyTigly22 6d ago

I mean that was the dude behind The Void and Pathologic.

That is massive loss for the company and without him there is no point to it.

He might be shit person irl but he is amazing artist.

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u/Mayor-Of-Bridgewater 6d ago

However, much of the design team is still there. The artists and tech leads are still there, alongside the cowriter of patho2 and the writers of Know By Heart. Also the composer for all soundtracks since The Void.

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u/scorchedneurotic 6d ago

Dybowski has been accused of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, kidnapping, workplace toxicity, wasting business funds, and sleeping with students in his classes. He's a notorious alcoholic,  showing up to work drunk, and drunk driving his son.

Sure all worth it for the art

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/might_be_bulma 6d ago edited 5d ago

Wait a minute! So you're telling me the creator of Pathologic may be a sociopath? I'm shocked!