Glasshouse, a cRPG inspired by games such as Disco Elysium and Pathologic 2

[Balth124]

Hi!

I'm Andrea, Lead Technical Artist at Flat28, developer of Glasshouse. I'm here because I thought it would be a great place to share our cRPG we're currently working on.

About Glasshouse


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.





Main features

• 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.

• THERE ARE NO HAPPY ENDINGS IN LUNDONSTOCH - World War is inevitable, decide what imprint to leave in the post-capitalist world of Glasshouse with over 8 multiple endings!

If you guys would like to ask any questions please feel free I'd be very happy to answer any doubts ^_^

Thank you!

We also have a concept demo available on ITCH

SCREENSHOTS

[Oyster Sauce]

I don't suppose you've worked on any similar games in the past, have you?

[Finarfin]

Looks promising. Seems to be their first game btw @Oyster Sauce ,will keep an eye on this

[Balth124]

I didn't. But this is a team effort and it's not just a single dev work!

I have been working in the videogame industry for the last 12 years but never released an RPG game before. I have other kind of games under my belt though! How did you guessed?

[Tangerine]

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.

Are you going to quote the HQ for authentic dialog?

[Demonic Fate]

Thanks for presenting your game on this niche forum of extremely respectable people.

DE-inspired games live and die by the quality of their writing, and the screenshots you have on your page are fairly sparse (and the old demo is described as 'no longer representative of the final product', which is fair). I would suggest putting up some writing samples to help people get a sense if it's for them or not.

Doesn't need to be a short story or even a long excerpt from the actual game, just a few in-universe paragraphs to get a sense of what you're going to be reading for dozens of hours. Also it looks like you're Italian, so it would reassure people that the English translation is up to the task - as Pathologic 1 players might remember, a writing-heavy game with an amateur translation is a poor combination.


edit: The use of the past tense by the Editor in the screenshots makes me raise an eyebrow. I imagine it's supposed to be part of the Brecht / Pathologic 2 influence, but it reads off at first glance.

[Balth124]

Thanks for presenting your game on this niche forum of extremely respectable people.

DE-inspired games live and die by the quality of their writing, and the screenshots you have on your page are fairly sparse (and the old demo is described as 'no longer representative of the final product', which is fair). I would suggest putting up some writing samples to help people get a sense if it's for them or not.

Doesn't need to be a short story or even a long excerpt from the actual game, just a few in-universe paragraphs to get a sense of what you're going to be reading for dozens of hours. Also it looks like you're Italian, so it would reassure people that the English translation is up to the task - as Pathologic 1 players might remember, a writing-heavy game with an amateur translation is a poor combination.


edit: The use of the past tense by the Editor in the screenshots makes me raise an eyebrow. I imagine it's supposed to be part of the Brecht / Pathologic 2 influence, but it reads off at first glance.

I totally understand what you're saying! Our narrative director is a massive fan of Disco Elysium as well as Pathologic 2. We're working really hard on a new demo that will actually represent the final state of the game and will be available on Steam as soon as we're done with it. The concept demo I think it's a nice way to have a glimpse of what the game is about, mostly about the setting.

But the whole team has improved quite a lot since that demo and we hope our newest demo will make some people happy

[Balth124]

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.

Are you going to quote the HQ for authentic dialog?

What do you mean?

[Tweed]

Almost read that as Bathhouse.

Well, if it has combat in it then it's already above Disco.

[Vergil]

I can feel the HRT seeping through these screenshots.

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyone tried the demo?

[Tangerine]

No. I read set in a post-capitalist Feudalpunk world and knew it would be ****.

[Balth124]

No. I read set in a post-capitalist Feudalpunk world and knew it would be ****.

Sorry to hear that We're working very hard just driven by passion. We don't have funds at the moment which is why we're looking and always in contact with publishers, but even so we're working as much as we can to make it a reality. Our concept demo is already 2+ hours long with 4 different possible endings but as I said we're doing the best we can and beyond.

Hopefully you'll still give us a shot!

[Acrux]

What is your opinion on ******* and/or *******? Please answer in reference to real life and also on appearing in video games.

[Irenaeus]

Looks great, I'll definitively check it out. Keep up the good work!

[The_Mask]

What is your opinion on Christian themes in RPGs?

And follow-up how much money will take to sell out and give to a hueg company that will barf out a 3rd issue of the game as a 1st person RPG?

[Tweed]

How do you feel about kobolds?

[A Chinese opium den]

Grass mouse.

[Tweed]

I guess I'll try the concept demo...

This ludonarrative experience

uhh.png

[Tweed]

words.png

[Vergil]

I guess I'll try the concept demo...

This ludonarrative experience

his reaction when you pull it out (your ludonarrative experience)

[Tweed]

Garrulousness and loquacity aside, the demo had me running around gathering up junk to MacGyver into tools, while a headmate narrator tried to move the story along. The fact that two steps away from where you start you get shown a universal stash speaks volumes about how much crap you're going to hoard and what you'll be doing with it. Sure enough, there almost no space for junk, and that's even after you make a toolbelt for a few extra slots. I was running back and forth to get the stuff I needed to make items. This isn't fun, at all. It breaks up what's already a bumpy experience due to how muddy narrative is. I'm getting bombarded with a lot of political doubletalk that's trying to build a world on top of accents that go in and out character all the time. What I mean by that is there's a mix of modern zoomer slang and old-timey stuff which is extremely jarring. It means there's no flow and everything becomes unpleasant to read.

That's not even talking about the communist bent, but I'm guessing that this can go in a lot of different directions before the game is over. I could be wrong, maybe it doesn't matter. The problem is that after awhile I stopped caring because I couldn't make any sense of it due to how thick it came on. I played Disco Elysium start to finish and despite what everyone will tell you the game is and isn't (it's not an RPG, it's a VN), one thing it has is flow. If your game is wordy and reading is a chore, you're in huge trouble. However, the biggest crime of all is that this wasn't fun. Running back and forth to make crap wasn't fun, doing little mini puzzles wasn't fun. About the only thing fun was the tension right near the very end of the demo which is too little, too late. Otherwise, I'm wandering about, clicking on everything; treading a textual miasma written by someone who's very proud of their prose.

I'm not certain who the target audience for the game is. There was no combat in the demo, granted the demo is old and a labeled as a concept so I'm sure things have changed since then, but if what's representative in concept is going to make up most of the core gameplay then it's not for me.

[Valter]

Inspired by RPGs such as Disco Elysium

Yeah, about that...

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Cautiously optimistic. I enjoy narrative games like these (planescape torment comes to mind but) ,however like some have already said those games live and die by its writing and I been greatly disappointed by many of disco elysium imitators in the recent years that completely missed the mark.



Edit: Not trying to be negative just bit weary about games like this because games nowadays greatest pitfalls IMO are its godawful writing so making a game primarily that usually raises red flags.

Also pretty sure I seen you on r/CRPG but I could be mistaken.

[rusty_shackleford]

Cautiously optimistic. I’m enjoy narrative games like these (planescape torment comes to mind but) ,however like some have already said those games live and die by its writing and I been greatly disappointed by many of disco elysium imitators in the recent years that completely missed the mark.

Play the demo and report back

[Irenaeus]

I’m enjoy



its noticeable **** writing

Also Im pretty sure I’m seen you

[Valter]

It's been 20 minutes of doom and gloom and proletariat and oppression and feces and gathering junk and a creepy old clown man looking at me whenever I have inner monologues and I'm not invested enough to continue.

[Tweed]

It's been 20 minutes of doom and gloom and proletariat and oppression and feces and gathering junk and a creepy old clown man looking at me whenever I have inner monologues and I'm not invested enough to continue.

You're gonna miss the part with the buttplug in the protagonists' luggage.

[Valter]

Then again I did not like Disco Elysium either so I might not be the target audience... though I did like Pathologic 2... It was a lot of doom and gloom as well, but the writing was more engaging. Might just be that I prefer dialogue to monologue.

[Valter]

It's been 20 minutes of doom and gloom and proletariat and oppression and feces and gathering junk and a creepy old clown man looking at me whenever I have inner monologues and I'm not invested enough to continue.

You're gonna miss the part with the buttplug in the protagonists' luggage.

Please say sike