I’m glad to share that Glasshouse has released a new trailer and, more importantly, a playtest. It’s a title I’ve been following for a while, and it delivers strong Disco Elysium vibes, but paired with a real combat system, perfect for players who still want to throw some punches in their RPGs.
The pre-alpha playtest runs from November 22 to December 7, 2025, and is available through the “Request Access” button on the game’s Steam page; once granted, a separate “Glasshouse – Playtest” app appears in your library.
After December 7, the build will no longer be downloadable or playable, so this is very much a limited window.
A Feudalpunk CRPG Inside One Apartment Block
Developed by FLAT28, an international remote collective, Glasshouse is an isometric, turn-based CRPG set in a post-capitalist “Feudalpunk” world on the brink of a new world war. The entire story takes place inside a working-class condominium in the fiefdom of Lundonstoch, which has been placed under lockdown because of fears of an atomic strike.
You play as Wealdmaer, the deputy head of the building, a man obsessed with being remembered as a righteous leader.
Unfortunately, he is also stuck in a crime scene with three corpses in the next apartment, responsible for keeping Dormitory 73B from collapsing under paranoia, poverty, and politics while a wider conspiracy closes in.
What the Pre-Alpha Offers
According to the news I read, the current build offers around 40 minutes of content from Act I, free exploration of Dormitory 73B, a first look at the turn-based combat, and a chance to tinker with your political build.
It is described as a kind of CRPG lite: something made in spare time, without external funding, for players who like dense role-playing but don’t necessarily have a hundred hours to pour into a campaign anymore.
To mark the start of the playtest, the team also showed a new trailer during the Winter OTK Games Expo (you can find it at the end of the article). That video mixes footage from the pre-alpha with never-before-seen sequences from Act II, and features narration and performances by Stefanie Joosten, Ryan Cooper, and Andy Mack.
The developers are clear that the game does not currently have full voice acting; these cameos are there to showcase what a fully voiced version could look like and, hopefully, help secure the support needed to reach that point.
Inspirations and Combat Design
On the systems side, Glasshouse wears its inspirations on its sleeve. FLAT28 cites Disco Elysium and Pathologic as major touchstones, and that comes through in how much of the game revolves around conversation, ideology, and failure-prone people rather than monsters.
Beneath that, though, is a ruleset closer to a traditional JRPG: combat runs in turns, drawing some structure from classic Final Fantasy, but with a strong “puzzle” angle the developers compare to Fear & Hunger. Each encounter is treated like a boss fight with a named opponent.
Every turn, you choose whether to attack or talk. Physical attacks use dice rolls to chip away at a standard health bar, while conversation opens up dialogue options that scale off your political build. Instead of simply persuading or intimidating in a binary way, those exchanges feed into a separate “Threat Bar.”
Push that bar high enough relative to the enemy’s, and you can try to force a surrender, ending the confrontation without killing them. It’s a system designed to make speech checks feel as consequential as swinging a weapon, and to keep the game’s political themes tied directly into the way you solve problems.
Building a Political Character
Character growth is framed through a Political Compass rather than traditional classes. You earn “Points of View” and assign them to five ideological directions, shaping which checks you’re good at, what kind of rhetoric you’re convincing with, and how people respond to you.
Every resident in Dormitory 73B has their own hidden political profile, so figuring out where your neighbors sit on that compass is part of both quest design and social puzzle-solving. The team also stresses that choices in quests and dialogue have far-reaching consequences, with more than eight different endings planned for the full game.
Conversations as a Playspace
Dialogue itself is treated almost like a playspace. The “Interaction Tab” system lets conversations branch into quick-time events, hidden objects, and secret routes, sometimes unlocking new options if you’re carrying the right item, thanks to a “Cunning” mechanic.
The game is structured as a theatrical production, complete with a Director who narrates events and a Chorus that represents the voices in Wealdmaer’s head.
Combined with the apartment-block setting, the idea is to make each scene feel like a stage where you’re constantly juggling social tension, ideology, and survival rather than simply clicking through a dialogue tree.
A Feudalpunk World on the Brink
The wider world outside the building leans into the Feudalpunk label. In Glasshouse’s backstory, a “Rifle Strike” in 1828 shattered nation-states and replaced them with feudal fiefdoms, splitting the globe between productive and sterile domains.
By 2028, a coalition of poorer territories called CoFoPo is ready to ignite a global conflict in the name of a new capitalist order. You only see that crisis through the windows and radio chatter of your apartment block, but the pressure of an inevitable world war hangs over every decision, from who you trust in the hallway to which ideology you back when tempers flare.
A Passion Project Looking for Feedback
FLAT28 themselves describe the project as a kind of personal passion piece: a narrative-driven survival RPG, built since 2022 by a remote collective of film, CGI, and game professionals working without outside funding.
The pre-alpha is one of their main tools to gather feedback on pacing, combat, and the political systems, and to see how well the mix of small-scale drama and heavy subject matter lands with players.
For anyone into harsh, talk-heavy RPGs in the vein of Disco Elysium and Pathologic, Glasshouse’s playtest looks like a chance to see how that approach translates to a single building under siege by fear, ideology, and three inconvenient corpses.
If you want to try it, you can request access to the pre-alpha build on Steam for PC, add the main game to your wishlist, and explore Dormitory 73B before the doors close again on December 7. Below is the new trailer showing never-before-seen game sequences.
