During the Xbox Games Showcase, Friday Sundae unveiled There are No Ghosts at the Grand, a unique, narrative-driven musical adventure, set against a spooky British seaside town that’s bursting with supernatural secrets.
“There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is not a traditional musical in the musical theatre sense,” said Anil Glendinning, Writer and Game Director at Friday Sundae. “It’s more like a cool, dusty album of British ska and punk songs from the 1980s that you find in your dad’s record collection.”
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Developer Friday Sundae is an independent games studio based in the South West of England. Their small team is a mix of AAA industry veterans and talented newcomers, and led by husband and wife team, Rachel and Anil Glendinning. There are No Ghosts at the Grand is Friday Sundae’s debut game, and whispers sweet promises of haunting musical potential.
The Story Behind There are No Ghosts at the Grand
In There are No Ghosts at the Grand, players will inherit a crumbling English hotel and restore it by day while battling ghosts by night. They have exactly 30 days and 30 nights to renovate the crumbling building before it… or something else… claims them. With a sardonic cat, a talking power tool, and a twisting supernatural plot, this is a spooky, cozy, musical mystery unlike any other.
Players will meet a host of unforgettable characters while staying at the Grand. Not only do they each have their own poignant and humorous stories to tell, but also their own catchy song in which players can make dialogue choices through verse. From spooky ska to wartime jazz and even skater punk, There are No Ghosts at the Grand’s original soundtrack is as eclectic as its mysterious characters.
Gameplay to Expect
While the daylight lasts, players must use friendly, talking power tools such as the sand blaster, paint sprayer, furniture cannon and daisy-chain gun, to blast the hotel back to its former glory. Renovating the hotel will require a good aim and some occasional puzzle-solving. Sometimes you’ll shoot paint and paper on walls, blow out broken windows and smash old furniture. Other times you’ll need to pause and consider some light environmental puzzles, using cryptic clues from the hotel’s past to guide your restoration.
But when night falls, the power tools will transform into weapons against the creatures that haunt the hotel hallways. Turn the vacuum cleaner upon supernatural entities, reveal invisible assailants using the paint sprayer or subdue the slithering spooks with a well-aimed bookcase to the face, using the furniture cannon.
There are No Ghosts at the Grand will support Xbox Play Anywhere, allowing cross-save across console, PC or cloud, and will be available on day one with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, with additional platforms to be announced later.
