Without this failure, there would be no Silent Hill 2 Remake. Untold story of a game that for many never existed

Today, Bloober Team is killing it with projects like Silent Hill 2, The Medium, and the Layers of Fear series. Few remember that the roots of the studio are connected to the history of another development studio, Nibris, which, from the start, wanted to "flirt" with the survival horror genre and make something special.

The project that was supposed to help it break into the industry was Sadness, which, looking back now, can be seen as the early ancestor of the creators' later projects. It's worth recalling what the developers from Poland wanted to offer us.

Slavic horror

What was supposed to make Sadness stand out from most virtual thrillers was its inspiration from Slavic mythology. The game would have taken us to the Russian Empire in the times preceding World War I. During the game, we'd find ourselves in modern-day Ukraine, playing as Maria Lengyel, a Polish-Hungarian aristocrat. After the train she was traveling on to Lviv with her son Alexander derailed, the protagonist was to face the necessity of doing everything in her power to ensure her child's safety.

It wouldn't be easy, as a result of the accident, Alexander would lose his sight. Besides, over time, he would start to act weirder and weirder. The title also did not shy away from topics such as narcolepsy, nyctophobia (a pathological fear of darkness), or paranoid schizophrenia. Furthermore, the creators' announcements included mentions of creatures like liches or werewolves. How the further fate of the main characters would unfold was to be determined by our actions and the choices we made.

Unique technology

Sadness aimed to follow its own path in technical aspects as well. The graphics of this production were intended to be monochromatic, which would enhance the atmosphere of a Gothic horror. The interface wouldn't interfere with this, as it was intended to be virtually absent.

The devs also planned to pay great attention to the controls. Since Nibris's game was being developed with the Nintendo Wii console in mind, the described title was to fully use the capabilities of its controllers, known as Wiimotes and Nunchucks. Holding them, we'd have to make certain moves to wave the torch around and scare off attacking rats or bugs, toss ropes, interact with stuff around us, and pick up items.

These last ones would be particularly important because we would use them as weapons. Sadness was intended to enable attacks on opponents with broken bottles or legs ripped from wooden chairs, among others.

Project on paper

Sadness was announced in March 2006. For this project, Nibris collaborated with Digital Amigos and Frontline Studios. Although the release of the discussed title was initially planned for the fourth quarter of 2007, it was later postponed to 2009. The reason for this delay was said to be "artistic differences" between Nibris and Frontline Studios, which led to the end of their collaboration. Even though over the months players started to suspect that Sadness might never actually be released (some even wondered if it was real), the studio kept insisting that the game was still in development.

This was the case until April 2010, when Arkadiusz Reikowski, the composer for the game's soundtrack (who later collaborated extensively and successfully with Bloober Team), confirmed that work on Sadness had been halted. This was already known in February when the project's official website was closed. Not long after, in October 2010, Nibris stopped working as a developer, and its team moved over to Bloober Team.

The new-old Sadness

However, this didn't mean the end of Sadness... at least not yet. Independent developers from the United States, HullBreach Studios and Cthulhi Games, were involved in the project and decided in 2014 to complete it on their own and then release it on the Nintendo Wii U.

Unfortunately, this involved starting work almost entirely from scratch and changing the technology from Gamebryo to Unity. This change also entailed a shift from 3D to 2D graphics. That's not the end, because the new-old devs planned to use ideas from the original creators; they wanted to focus more on solving logic puzzles and add some RPG elements to the mix.

Nevertheless, in its new form, Sadness also never came to fruition, and there is no indication that this will ever change.

What remains of Sadness?

Not much material from Sadness has survived. In fact, the only noteworthy item is a live-action trailer for the game. While it might now bring a slight smile of pity, it's important to acknowledge the creators' efforts to illustrate what the gameplay would be like without revealing the game itself. We were supposed to see it in June 2009, but an official showcase never happened.

To wrap things up, Piotr Bielatowicz and Piotr Babieno, who are now leading Bloober Team, were behind Sadness. You could say that without this project, we might never have seen the later hits from the studio. Sadness allowed the developers to take their first steps in the gaming industry and gain experience that would pay off in the future.

Sadness

cancelled

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• Overview

• Bloober Team
• Polish games
• cancelled games
• Necro Gaming