If you’re looking for something special, your friendly neighborhood Italian has something unique to show you today.
Glasshouse is an upcoming narrative-driven survival computer role-playing game developed by Flat28, a talented Italian dev. The game is set in a post-capitalist world on the brink of a nuclear winter war, where players are confined to a condominium to navigate complex social dynamics, manage resources, and uncover political conspiracies and it draws inspiration from various titles such as Disco Elysium and Fear & Hunger, aiming to blend deep storytelling with survival mechanics.
A World in Crisis, A Leader in Doubt
Set in Lundonstoch, a dystopian fiefdom trapped in a state of lockdown, Glasshouse paints a world where feudal structures have replaced nation-states, and economic disparity has halted technological progress. As the global conflict between the capitalist CoFoPo Union and the fractured fiefdoms escalates, Wealdmaer’s struggle to maintain control over his small domain becomes part of a much larger historical tragedy.
Players step into the role of Wealdmaer, a deputy head of condominium trapped inside an apartment block with three dead bodies and no escape. As tensions rise among the residents of Dormitory 73B, political conspiracies emerge, and the looming threat of world war presses down. Choices matter—whether in diplomacy, investigation, or conflict—shaping Wealdmaer’s legacy and the fabric of the world beyond the windows.
Turn-Based Combat or Sharp Rhetoric?
Glasshouse uniquely approaches turn-based combat, blending traditional mechanics with narrative-driven interactions. Instead of random encounters or generic enemies, every fight is a carefully designed scenario with adversaries that have their own motivations and ideological stances. Players can choose to engage physically, using a dice-based system reminiscent of classic RPGs, or attempt to de-escalate the situation through dialogue.
The game introduces a Threat Bar alongside a traditional health system. Instead of simply reducing an opponent’s HP, players can manipulate their stance through conversation, using dialogue choices shaped by their political alignment. If successful, enemies may surrender without a fight, making persuasion as viable as brute force.
This dual-layered approach ensures that combat isn’t just about strength but also about understanding and exploiting the social and psychological dynamics of each encounter.
The Political Compass: Ideology as a Weapon
Everything in Glasshouse is political. Your choices shape your identity through a five-branch ideological system, affecting how NPCs react to you and how you approach challenges. Every resident in Dormitory 73B has their own hidden political alignment, and uncovering their beliefs can open—or shut—doors in unexpected ways.
No Happy Endings, Only Consequences
With over eight possible endings, there’s a grim yet compelling world where history is shaped by the choices made behind closed doors. War is inevitable—but what mark will you leave on the shattered remains of a post-capitalist society?
Glasshouse is a game for those who love deep storytelling, tactical decision-making, and the weight of ideological struggles. If you’re ready to test your beliefs in a world on the brink, this CRPG is one to watch.
Development Status
As of February 2025, Glasshouse is in development. A demo is available on itch.io for players to experience its core mechanics and narrative direction. The full release date has not been announced. Below is an overview via Steam, screens, and reveal trailer.
More Details About The Game
Glasshouse is an isometric Turn-Based-CRPG set in a post-capitalist Feudalpunk world at the dawn of a terrible world war. Inspired by RPGs such as Disco Elysium and Pathologic, Glasshouse promises an intense narrative-roleplaying experience punctuated by unforgettable characters, complex dialogue trees, multiple endings and deep ideological introspections that go beyond the screen.
You are Wealdmaer, a deputy head of condominium obsessed with the desire to be remembered as a “righteous” leader. Stuck in a crime scene from which you cannot escape, you manage the problems of the poor souls in Dormitory 73B, survive your flatmates, and fight a political conspiracy that will challenge your ideological faith forever.
- THE DUTY OF A DEPUTY – You’re stuck in your apartment building with three dead bodies and too many questions. Prepare for the worst, the lives of your neighbors depend on your choices!
- TURN-BASED COMBAT – Engage in exciting do-it-yourself weapon fights or choose the peaceful path and make the enemy surrender with your oratorical skills.
- THE POLITICAL COMPASS – Build your political identity, sharpen your language and overcome ambiguous ideological skillchecks. Every NPC has his own political compass, study every conversation.
- BUILD YOUR WAY OUT – Gain new knowledge by reading books and build makeshift equipment through the Workbench!
- A DRAMATIC THEATRICAL COMMEDIA – Inspired by Greek tragedy, Glasshouse is narrated by the Director as if it were an inevitable play. Throughout your adventure you will be accompanied by the Chorus, the inner voices of the ego.
Explore the cramped working-class dwellings of Lundonstoch, a fiefdom that for fear of an imminent atomic attack has ordered precautionary lockdown measures. Sneak into your neighbors’ apartments, discover terrible truths and make choices no one would dare to make. The city is on fire, but you can only see it from the windows of your apartment block.
As the quarantine begins to wear down the minds of the residents of Dormitory 73B, a political conspiracy puts everyone’s lives at risk. Can you trust your roommates?
Glasshouse Combat takes inspiration from the classic turn-based combat of Final Fantasy, with a dash of “puzzle-game” logic a la Fear & Hunger. Each turn, you can choose to attack the enemy or talk to him. Attacking involves a dice roll that damages the enemy’s health bar, while talking offers an avenue of mediation through dialogue lines that scale according to your Political Compass.
If you are able to “strike” the right chords, you can severely damage his Threat Bar. The latter is a holistic value that determines the degree of suggestion you can arouse in your opponent: If your Threat Bar is higher than the enemy’s, then you can try to make him surrender. There are no mobs, every fight is a boss fight with people who have drives, desires, and family.
There is no shame in having ideals, everything is political, even the gameplay. In Glasshouse, you can gain Points of View and invest them in the Political Compass, a class system based on 5 different ideologies. Build your political build, approach ethical dilemmas and manage relationships with neighbors to the best of your ability.
Each resident of Dormitory 73B has his own hidden Political Compass, discover it through dialogues and solve quests as you see fit.
Everything has a consequence, be careful not to set off storms.The Glasshouse Dialogue window is a maze of interactions. Through what we call the “Interaction Tab,” navigating through dialogues you can find yourself in complex puzzles, Quick Time Events, items to collect, secret hiding places and much more. Taking inspiration from classic TTRPGs, we created a dynamic dialogue system that leaves room for unpredictable branching, with gameplay always at the center.
Each dialogue can hide unexpected interactions thanks to the Cunning mechanic, which allows new lines of dialogue to be unlocked when certain items are present in your inventory. Dialogue is at the heart of any good CRPG worth its salt, and Glasshouse honors it through a contemporary take on it.
Glasshouse’s is a fragmented and deglobalized post-capitalist world. Following the Rifle Strike of 1828, states and nations were torn down in favor of a feudal geopolitical structure. This sudden denationalization resulted in severe immobility in terms of technological progress, which over the next 200 years fostered a great economic divide between what are called Productive Fiefdoms and Sterile Fiefdoms.
In 2028, the CoFoPo union, a coalition made up of more than 52 Sterile Fiefdoms, declares war on the status quo, with the goal of reunifying the globe under the banner of capitalism.
