PRISON OF HUSKS

In PRISON OF HUSKS a soul awakens in the body of a doll. Its beloved has vanished, and the world once painted like a heaven, Lysiane, is decaying. The Soulslike from Glass Head Dolls links the search with branching paths, oppressive encounters and fights against dolls, deformed creatures and powerful figures whose unfulfilled wishes drive the story. The developers rely on a deliberately limited but tightly interconnected setting.

Glass Head Dolls gives Jan 27, 2027 as the release date for Windows PC via Steam and PlayStation 5. The current Steam product listing instead shows Jan 26, 2027; the difference has not yet been explained. Until clarified, the studio's date is the authoritative announcement, but the discrepancy should be noted. A free PC demo was already released in 2025 and comprehensively reworked on Oct 8, 2026. It contains the first play area including a boss fight and is not the full version.

The developers confirm native versions for Windows PC via Steam and PlayStation 5. The demo is currently available via Steam. The PlayStation Store lists the PS5 version as announced. A release for PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch or mobile operating systems is not confirmed by the official sources consulted. Steam lists a single-player mode; a cooperative multiplayer mode has not been announced.

The story leads across the Lithos Plateau through ruins and gloomy buildings that bear witness to the past of the afterlife. The inhabitants seem like dolls or decaying works of art. The search for the beloved brings the player together with characters whose longings shape the encounters and fights. The setting is not an open world without borders: the individual areas are deliberately nested within each other and connected by shortcuts.

Glass Head Dolls follows the compact, vertically linked level design of early Souls games. Behind doors and walls lie shortcuts that later lead back to places already visited. Exploration is meant to pay off, partly because found items open new routes or safe options for fights. A sketchbook collects discoveries and also serves as narrative guidance. The October demo already shows pages to collect; a complete view of all connections in the finished game is therefore not yet possible.

Combat combines different melee weapons with pistols and magic. Parries create counter windows and can restore stamina. Active combat builds up extra damage, while failed maneuvers leave the character vulnerable. Developer reports describe enemies that switch to other attack forms depending on distance, parry their opponent or create pressure through tactical retreat. Not every animation shown in earlier prototypes is necessarily part of the final version.

The doll can combine different weapons with rings and brooches. This creates varied combat strategies, rather than sticking only to a set armament. The developers explicitly name no classic character leveling mechanic: after a defeat, new routes and equipment combinations take center stage. A large part of progress therefore consists of knowledge about enemies, shortcuts and suitable tools.

The revised demo from Oct 8, 2026 still contains the first level and the first boss, but with noticeable system changes compared to the earlier version. According to the developer, the parry button now responds without the previous delay. There is a new exhaustion phase, a revised control scheme with key bindings, outfits at mirrors and sketchbook pages. The previously planned combine feature has been removed from the design. These changes are part of the current development state; further adjustments before release remain possible.

The developers use the Haunted PSX Render Pipeline to achieve overexposed lighting moods, fog and a visual effect reminiscent of older consoles. The world is built in Unity with ProBuilder and hand-painted vertex colors, instead of ordinary real-time shadow lighting. The visual style is thus not merely laid over a modern game as a nostalgic filter, but also influences the design and readability of the architecture.

The Steam page requires at least Windows 10 and 8 GB RAM for Windows and lists roughly 1 GB storage. Other hardware values differ between store and demo details or still seem provisional; a reliable performance forecast cannot be derived from them. For the full version, German menus and subtitles are listed, but no German voice acting. The current demo has a narrower language range than the planned full version.

The project began as a prototype developed largely by Tammy Morley alone. The small team now operating as Glass Head Dolls works with additional specialists on animation, concept art and community management. The game fund WINGS has supported development financially and is listed on Steam as a publisher alongside Glass Head Dolls. As its goal, the team names not an artificially stretched playtime but a dense world that rewards repeated exploration.