I’m Giacomo Montagnoli, Creative Director of Glasshouse and founder of the FLAT28 Collective. In my everyday life I’m a filmmaker — I direct and write documentaries, fiction, music videos, and commercials.
For about four years now, I’ve been trying to break into the games industry full-time, though unfortunately at the moment it’s still something I can only pursue in my spare time.
Glasshouse is a psychological thriller CRPG set in a locked-down condominium torn apart by a triple murder.
The idea was born out of our shared experiences of the COVID-19 lockdown, where meals spent in front of news reports on wars and geopolitical crises easily turned into heated arguments one couldn’t escape.
Glasshouse is essentially a study on the divergence of thought, and on the player’s relationship with power — and how they exercise it over others.
There have been plenty of bumps along the road (see the 2023 “Unity Gate”), but so far the engine has supported every single artistic and design choice we’ve made.
We use Unity 3D (HDRP) — or rather, Unity chose us. FLAT28 is a collective mostly made up of freelance developers who already had strong experience with Unity.
When the team came together, it was obvious Unity would be the only viable choice: we needed a powerful, free engine, with enough documentation and community support to cover our shortcomings.
For us, 2023 was both a period of death and rebirth. The project was rebooted, and we lost two of the three original founders along the way.
This is normal — especially when you have no funding, and you’re working for so long without seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. For a brief moment Glasshouse was on the verge of shutting down completely, but the ultra-democratic structure of the collective saved the project and gave it new life.
Glasshouse and FLAT28 Collective are distinct but interconnected entities. While the game itself has a very flexible hierarchical structure, collective decisions are made by majority vote, where each vote counts equally.
At the time, due to personal struggles, I voted in favor of closing the project. But the rest of the collective voted against it. If Glasshouse is still alive — and more alive than ever — it’s thanks to them.
It’s inevitable that at some point there will be internal conflicts, even if your team is made up of the best human beings possible.
The only advice I can give is: when problems arise during development, fight the problems — not the people. Don’t make it personal. You’re all on the same side of the barricade.
Developing an indie game — especially if it’s your first — is an iterative process, almost like collective therapy, where no one comes out a “winner.”
I can’t give you a handbook on how to succeed. Just look at me: after three years, Glasshouse still hasn’t been funded, and it’s still far from completion — yet we’ve survived, and the game is better today than it’s ever been.
Maybe, to keep going, we only need to win every now and then. Small, achievable goals — one at a time, with a slow but consistent and steady pace.
Giacomo
