A real-time strategy game about the crystal that ate the world, and the people still harvesting it. 2026-10-05T00:00:00Z https://glassfall.dev/ Glassfall 2026-10-05T00:00:00Z https://glassfall.dev/devlog/hello-from-the-verge/ <p>Glassfall is a real-time strategy game in the old tradition: build a base, harvest a resource, out-think the other side. The resource here is <em>condensite</em>, a crystal grown by a nanobot swarm that escaped its lab and now turns everything living into raw material. Everyone left is fighting over it.</p> <p>This devlog is where progress goes. Short entries, as things land.</p> <h2>Where it stands</h2> <p>The first commit went in on 27 September 2026. Nine days later:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Skirmish works end to end.</strong> Base building, power, a tech tree, harvesters, combat and an AI opponent, on maps with real high ground: plateaus, cliffs and ramps you have to fight up.</li> <li><strong>Three factions, three kits.</strong> The Verge Compact, Veyholt Recovery Division and UNTIDE print most of their gear from the same blueprints, so every shared unit and building exists in three versions. A Compact barracks is a Nissen hut; UNTIDE's is a Plattenbau block with a form for everything.</li> <li><strong>A campaign is taking shape.</strong> <em>The Unravelling</em> follows Mat, a young man from a village that did everything by the rules and paid for a licensed ward. The first two missions are playable.</li> </ul> <h2>A new engine</h2> <p>The game started as a browser prototype in three.js. It got a long way, but cliffs, lighting and the edges of the map never looked as good as they should. On 3 October the client moved to <strong>Godot 4</strong>. The simulation, meaning the rules, the economy and the AI, stayed as it was and talks to Godot over a bridge, so nothing about how the game plays was lost in the move.</p> <p>Since then the Godot version has caught up fast: scanned cliffs and ground, guns that recoil and fire from their muzzles, the full sound set, a loading screen, rally points, and the first campaign missions running from the menu.</p> <h2>How it's made</h2> <p>Glassfall is built by one person with a lot of help from AI agents, which write code and make art under one art direction. Every piece of art keeps its approved reference, every attempt that led to it, the prompts, and a note of who made it. The rule for the look is simple: the world is matte and worn, and the only things that glow are crystal, wards and Veyholt technology.</p> <h2>Next</h2> <p>More of the campaign, the remaining units and buildings brought into Godot, and a lot of playtesting. More soon.</p>