Is Nibris too good to be true?

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 16th 2007 at 10:25PM }

Cubed³ recently posted an update from Nibris, the mysterious Polish developer that's strictly dedicated to Nintendo platforms. Though comprised of a mere fourteen employees (according to Wikipedia), Nibris is supposedly working on seven different projects (four for Wii; three for DS); but only four titles have been confirmed: Raid Over the River (Wii & DS), Sadness (Wii), and Double Bloob (DS). From the tech demo, we also know that Fresh Chicken Studio (who?) is contributing to the development of ROTR for DS.

While Nintendo has apparently acknowledged Nibris as an official developer, we remain suspicious of the studio's sporadic contact with the gaming community. The mystery surrounding Nibris is as thick as the one blanketing the eerie glimpses of Sadness's concept art. Give us some tangible evidence. Make us believers!

Tags: Double Bloob, Double Pang, DoubleBloob, DoublePang, Nibris, Raid over the River, RaidOverTheRiver, Sadness

Related From Joystiq

Japanese retailer names underperforming games of 2009
7 days ago
The Saboteur goes gold despite developer going dark
19 days ago
Nibris Web site promises Sadness for Fall 2009
521 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

tby1 @ Jan 16th 2007 10:32PM

I think they are capable of delivering RotR DS as that is the only game so far that we have seen gameplay. The rest, nowt. Another concept art? Gimme a break. Even large studios like Retro or Bungie concentrate on one or two games per development group (yes, they may have more projects, but they don't go around announcing games when it is merely in concept stage). This newbie has seven. I don't think they are fake, but my cynicism continues to rise everyday.

Lee @ Jan 16th 2007 10:33PM

First off, never trust Wikipedia in these cases. For all we know, NIBRIS could have 70 employees. Secondly, Just because they announced they are working on 7 games doesn't neccessaraly mean they have to be "working" on them. For all we know, they could only be in the thinking stages for most of them. Thirdly, in the same case as above, some of there games are the same game for the Wii.

For example

Wii

-Sadness
-Raid OVer the River

DS

-Raid Over the River
-Double Bloob

That would leave only three titles un attended.

Thrawn @ Jan 16th 2007 10:42PM

I can't recall concept art coming from a game making me this interested as the stuff coming out of Nibris for Sadness. The games seems like a cross between Survival horror, Noir, and Lovecraft. It makes me wonder what their other titles will be like.

Frankie @ Jan 16th 2007 10:35PM

Maybe that's their point? They want to be mysterious and create some sort of buzz and gimmick surrounding their debut Wii game?

Anyhow, as much as I am excited about Sadness for the Wii, I am putting this in my vaporware category unless otherwise evidence to the contrary presents itself.

Aeron @ Jan 16th 2007 11:09PM

Uh.. Joystiq how can they NOT be real if they have a publisher?

taken from: www.frontstudios.com

"FRONTLINE Studios signs co-production agreement on Sadness/Wii.

FRONTLINE Studios announced today that it has signed a co-production agreement with Nibris , the author of the highly anticipated Sadness game for the Wii platform.

FRONTLINE and Nibris have successfully worked together on several small projects over the past two years, and have now decided to pool the companies respective resources for the co-production of the revolutionary game – Sadness. Sadness is to be developed within a 16 month development schedule on upcoming Nintendo Wii platform.

From the effective date of 4 th August 2006 , the Sadness production plan and Publisher's relations will be undertaken by FRONTLINE Studios, Inc.

READ MORE ABOUT Sadness ON IGN - ARTICLES, SCREENSHOTS, and TRAILER "

Real Silly Joystiq.

Chris Robinson @ Jan 16th 2007 11:25PM

ROTR? There was another game with the same acronym, and we all know how good that turned out.

Brandon @ Jan 22nd 2007 11:11PM

I really do hope that Sadness doesn't become vaporware it looks very interesting. It is definitly one of the few survival horror games that interest me.

Probot @ Jan 17th 2007 1:05AM

Adding to what Aeron said, I belive I read (on this site or the fanboy blog) that in order to convince Frontline to co-produce the game, they had to put their other projects on the back burner. So they are just working on Sadness and RotR.

Still, I've always said this company was just a bunch of programmers that like Nintendo. There's nothing really spectacular about them that led me to be impressed with their games.

Although, I wouldn't mind a decent shooter on the DS.

Rallion @ Jan 17th 2007 12:00AM

If the company is that small, they probably have nobody available to show the public anything. If they have a mere 14 people and are in active development on multiple titles, it's possible, maybe probable, that everybody there is very very busy. Also, since they've never actually sold anything, one might consider the possibility that hiring people to handle marketing and PR may not be feasible for them at this point.

pseudogrey @ Jan 17th 2007 3:12AM

I've had this question in my head ever since I saw the first screen shot for Raid Over the River. Is this game actually a remake of River Raid for the Atari 2600? I was 3 years old when River Raid came out and playing it is actually my earliest childhood memory. Does anyone else see the similarities in the two titles?

idioteraser @ Jan 17th 2007 5:31AM

It's not a remake although it can be said to be inspired by it.

They have outsourced several other development companies to work on certain aspects of the game.

You know sound is one company, art assests are put in the game by another under the direction of NIBRIS of course.

Even Major game studios do the same.

kawadas @ Jan 17th 2007 6:06AM

as you said ROTR has been inspired by River Raid on Atari.... Nibris also mentioned that Sadness was inspired by ICO and Eternal Darkness. from looking at concept arts they remind me of a Dark ICO.

Z-247 @ Jan 17th 2007 12:28PM

What, we only believe a game is in development if there's a pre-rendered trailer to "prove" its existance? That makes sense. And besides, there is one of those for Sadness even.

And there's more than just screen shots of ROTR. There was a video not long back, that included actual gameplay footage. It looked really nice.

Why do people want these guys to fail? Do we all hate the idea of new people joining the game development world that much? People on this site rag on EA to no end, and yet when there might be a new indy developer that we supposedly all want, everyone tries to crap all over them. I don't get it.

We hang breathless on concept art from so many other devs. Yes these guys are unproven, but it doesn't hurt anything to give them a chance.

Nmaster @ Jan 17th 2007 1:13PM

I didn't have much faith in them either until last year when I got a chance to speak with 'em. They seem like a good group of guys, and I have full faith we'll see SOMETHING from them EVENTUALLY. They're a small team, so you can't expect to 'em to churn stuff out like the big guys. But I have high hopes for Sadness and can't wait to see more on that.

I'm gonna give them another ring and see if I can't squeeze any new info out of 'em...