[5] While the game initially drew positive attention for its unique gameplay concepts, such as black-and-white graphics and emphasis on psychological horror over violence, Sadness became notorious when no evidence of a playable build was ever publicly released during the four years it spent in development.

[1] Set in pre-World War I Russian Empire (modern Ukraine), Sadness was to follow the player character Maria Lengyel, a Victorian-era aristocrat of Polish-Hungarian descent who has to protect her son Alexander after their train to Lviv derails in the countryside.

[14][15][16][17] Speculation that Sadness was vaporware intensified following a number of events, particularly the announcement that Frontline Studios was no longer working on the project (citing "artistic differences")[2][14][18] and the game's delay to 2009.

"[23] Fog Studios, Nibris' marketing partner, responded to the accusations on vaporware on at least two occasions, once in June 2008[24] and again in September 2009,[25] insisting that Sadness development was still underway, but was in need of a publisher.

In May 2009, N-Europe interviewed Adam Artur Antolski, a former Nibris employee and scriptwriter for Sadness, who revealed that constant failures to meet deadlines were caused by prolonged dispute over its design, with little consensus made among the staff and with Frontline.