Ice-Pick Lodge tend to pop up when you least expect them, with the game you least expect them to make. They’ve been sensibly resistant to attempting another Pathologic, instead darting off to create new specimens of the weird, the wonderful and the intimidatingly odd. The enormous success they so richly deserve has eluded them, which means a move to Kickstarter is probably sensible. True to form, the project they’re proposing, a game called Knock-Knock, is bat-shit weird – but at the same time, I think it’s the most mainstream-friendly they’ve yet been. Not in a bad way, though.

Knock-Knock is the Evil Dead meets hide & seek, as a malevolent-faced hermit tries to evade monstrous ‘Guests’ to his cabin in the woods. It immediately puts me somewhat in mind of Slender, but with rather more DIRECT ACTION and an art style that evokes 80s children’s cartoons from that alternate evil dimension on the other side of the mirror we’re never supposed to mention. (more…)

Fancy a taste of Ice Pick Lodge’s surreal puzzle adventure thing, Cargo!? I know that you do, and you are in lucky on this fine morning because an 800mb demo has materialised both on the main site, and at some other mirrors.

Cargo! is quite the game, as Quintin explained in his recent article: “Cargo is really a game about surprises. The surreal setting is forever dropping bizarre and brilliant turns of events into your lap, giving the game a mad momentum which is absolutely the best reason to play it.”

Russian developers Ice-Pick Lodge are an inspiration of mine. Operating out of a two bedroom Moscow apartment, their small team assembled Pathologic, one of my favourite games of all time, and monstrous afterlife-simulator The Void, which was among the most interesting games of 2008.

Both of these games were legendarily bleak. Last week Ice-Pick released Cargo! – The Quest For Gravity, and it’s eye-popping colour alone makes it unlike anything they’ve ever done. But precisely what kind of game is it? And is it worth buying? These were tough answers to acquire, but you’ll find them both after the jump.>
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