Games Like 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.

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.