Friday Sundae’s There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is a genre-bending video game that thrives on its music and charm. If you took HGTV and then put it together with one of the Travel Channel’s ghost hunting shows, and then took the humor from the British TV series Ghosts, well, you’d have a great time on your hands.
Or in this case, you’d have There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, which I haven’t stopped thinking about since its reveal trailer over the summer, even without a release date just yet.
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Following its breakout appearance at the Xbox Showcase in June, Friday Sundae’s highly anticipated horror-musical-mystery game (a trio of genres that immediately gets me slamming the wishlist button) is now playable for the first time with a hands-on demo at Gamescom 2025.
This public debut gives players a chance to experience the game’s wonderfully unhinged mix of genres. And all I can say is I’m sad I’m not in Germany. An exciting moment for the studio’s denut title.
“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 in release to press during the Xbox Showcase. “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.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the developer, Friday Sundae is an indie game studio based in the South West of England. Their small team is a mix of AAA veterans and talented newcomers, led by husband-and-wife team Rachel and Anil Glendinning.
What is There Are No Ghosts at the Grand?
In There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, players step into the shoes of an American named Chris David who inherits a crumbling seaside hotel. Armed with surreal, talking power tools, you will repaint walls, replace furniture, and uncover ghostly memories tied to physical objects.
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.
You must also battle the Lovecraftian horrors that lurk within, all while trying to uncover the hotel’s mysteries. As writer and director Anil Glendinning puts it, the demo itself is a wild ride, shifting from hotel renovation to a full-blown musical number, and then to a shooter where you hurl antique decor at hostile furniture.
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.
Key Game Features
- First Steps in the Grand: Explore the hotel’s haunted rooms, where every piece of furniture holds a forgotten memory.
- Seaside Adventure: Take a moped ride through the village and fix a boat before sailing to a cursed island.
- A Playable Musical: Participate in a musical number with branching verses.
- Overnight Survival: Stay the night in a derelict WWII bunker where things go bump in the night.
- An Unconventional Arsenal: Wield improvised weapons like ottomans against haunted chairs and other supernatural threats.
Watch the Trailer
Where can I play at GamesCom 2025?
The new demo will be showcased publicly at Gamescom 2025 at the Xbox booth on the showfloor.
What is the release date of There Are No Ghosts at the Grand?
Friday Sundae has only just now released their playable demo, so the release date isn’t exactly right around the corner. As of right now, the There Are No Ghosts at the Grand release window is scheduled for some time in 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available Day One with Game Pass.
