Ice-Make a selection Resort founder Nikolay Dybowski departs Pathologic dev
Photo by the initiative of Ice-Pick Lodge.
Nikolay Dybowski, the co-founder and chief creative officer of Ice-Pick Lodge, has departed from the company.
In a statement, the Russian studio announced that Dybowski chose to step away to “focus on personal endeavors and his private life.” Recently, Pathologic enthusiastsdiscovered accusations against Dybowski involving kidnapping and domestic abuse, with some claims dating back to 2021.
Dybowski established Ice-Pick Lodge in 2002 and has played a pivotal creative role in almost all of its games since then. In addition to the two Pathologic titles and the anticipated Pathologic 3, he also directed 2013’s Knock-Knock.
Aleksey Luchin, a former Ice-Pick Lodge developer, later spoke about the allegations, stating that Dybowski’s behavior had become an “open secret” among the team. He characterized Dybowski as a “manipulative sociopath who is quite eloquent.”
“I believe the best option for Nikolay would be to exit Ice-Pick Lodge to avoid damaging their reputation with his own mistakes,” Luchin remarked months ago, “and let the current team continue their work unabated.”
According to Ice-Pick Lodge, Dybowski’s responsibilities have been redistributed to various team leaders “over the last several months.” Additionally, the studio emphasized that heads Peter Potapov and Ayrat Zakirov remain, continuing to serve as “pillars of Pathologic 3’s development.”
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Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A native of Kansas City, MO, Justin Carter has contributed to a variety of online platforms including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to his work at Game Developer, his articles can also be found at io9 on Gizmodo. Don’t be afraid to ask him about how much gum he has consumed, as the answer may be more than he’s willing to admit.