Does Nibris really exist?

I’ve got hunch today that Nibris and its stable of “almost done, we swear!” titles will either be remembered as the beginning of a prosperous new era for indie developers, or the most colossal non-starter dud since Duke Nukem Forever. There’s going to be no middle ground on this one.

Here’s what we’ve seen so far: A woman prancing about on a sound stage with an umbrella in back and white (that’s Sadness); a few seconds of a top-down shooter that might as well have been some graduate student’s final project (that’d be Raid over the River); and a blindside out-of-the-blue announcement about a puzzle game called Double Bloob. Oh, and don’t forget the rumors that Nibris sorta maybe coulda had a publisher, but maybe not.

Call me cynical, but all the wide-eyed excitement and cock-eyed optimism I’ve shown in spades over the past year over Nibris has melted away into, well, a puddle of sadness. And this is the kind of sadness that doesn’t have attractive young women prancing about waving umbrellas at me like some kind of naughty Mary Poppins.

So, that said, what are we to make of today’s revelation at Cubed that there are some in-game music tracks available from Nibris for Raid over the River? I don’t know about you, but this developer is either the slickest bunch of snake oil salesmen this side of the thoroughfare, or their avant garde approach to marketing and hype is sheer genius. I’m a cynic, so I’m calling BS until I see something a bit more concrete. Like box art. Or me playing Raid on my DS. Or Santa Claus descending from the heavens with titles in tow.