There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, developed by indie studio Friday Sundae, is a narrative-driven adventure that’s part renovation sim and part spooky horror mystery, all neatly packed together within a picturesque British seaside town. Oh, and it’s also a musical.
When I saw the Xbox Games Showcase reveal trailer back in early June, I knew I had to keep an eye out for There Are No Ghosts at the Grand. A grandpa singing and dancing through a Grand Hotel, a player gunning old paper off the walls, a quaint village ready for a makeover, a creepy crawler scurrying away, a talking cat — if that doesn’t intrigue you, I don’t know what will.
At Gamescom, I got the chance to speak with creative director Anil Glendinning and have a quick 15-minute go at There Are No Ghosts at the Grand.
Starting the game at the Grand Hotel, I was handed what looked like a set of advanced Super Soaker water guns. Instead of spraying water, however, these things spray paint, move furniture, blast sand, and vacuum the floor. They also talk, which was handy, as I could use their friendly guidance on how to improve the hotel lobby.
Restoring the old hotel to its former glory felt like a fun, but decidedly non-spooky task, which made me wonder how the developers decided to turn it into a tale of mystery. As Glendinning tells me, however, it was the other way around.
“The very first thing we wanted to create was a ghost story. It all started from there,” Glendinning says. “And the ghost story is about renovating a possibly haunted hotel in a dilapidated U.K. seaside town. From there, the idea of renovating with tools felt natural.”
“What was a little bit unexpected was the way it also became a musical, as it was just because of the music we were listening to at the time,” Glendinning explains. “We were listening to a lot of spooky ska, reggae, punk… A lot of music from the British scene around the late ’80s, early ’90s. And the game is set in the early 2000s, so that felt like a natural fit when it all came together.”
More than just a background soundtrack, however, There Are No Ghosts at the Grand lets its characters do the singing, with the player occasionally joining in. As cool as that sounds, I wondered if such an unusual and initially unplanned gameplay element might be at odds with the rest of the game, but Glendinning assures me: “Everything that we’ve done in the game is in service of the story, including the musical elements.”
“A lot of the songs are inspired by protest songs, from bands such as The Selecter, Madness, and The Clash,” he says. “This choice of music has a lot to do with what it feels like to live in such a place. Some of these seaside towns have a lot of boarded-up shops and not an awful lot for people to do, and the music adds to that atmosphere.”
As Glendinning explains, There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is predominantly a narrative-driven adventure. “It is set in an open world, so players can explore the hotel, choose the rooms they want to decorate, and spend as much time decorating them as they like. And you can decorate the village, too,” he says. “But every now and again, the story will take them away from that, so they can start exploring the underlying mystery.”
Glendinning won’t spoil the story, but know that a supernatural power will affect both the hotel and the town, and if you want to find out more, you’ll have to solve tricky puzzles and speak with eccentric locals. And perhaps… hunt some ghosts?
As I question him about the game’s spookier side, Glendinning all but confirms that there are, in fact, ghosts at the Grand. But a true horror game it is not. “The game has a spooky atmosphere, sometimes a creepy atmosphere,” Glendinning says, “but it’s not really a horror game in that traditional sense. Mostly, we want to tell a story about the characters.
“There are not very many jump scares, not very many monsters, and certainly no gore or anything like that. It’s all really about atmosphere, and it’s suitable for everyone.”
After finishing my first renovation work, I left The Grand to scooter around for a bit and find a boat. At first glance, this British seaside town looks far too cozy to be haunted, but Glendinning assures me that such a place, with plenty of history, forms the perfect setting for a ghost story. “Ghost stories are very often about decay, about the past,” he says. “So a lot about this game harks back to the past within this U.K. town.” Apparently, I’ll just have to wait for nightfall…
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand will hardly be my first game of the renovating kind; PowerWash Simulator has previously tricked me into doing strangely satisfying virtual cleaning chores, and I’ve had a good few hours of home-decorating fun in House Flipper as well. Neither game kept my interest for long, though, as the gameplay always began to feel repetitive after a while.
Although it’s still early days, I think my experience with There Are No Ghosts at the Grand might be quite different. Not only does it place a story in the foreground, but it also doesn’t make me work on anonymous fixer-uppers — I’d much rather decorate a living, breathing place full of character and mystery, and maybe even a ghost or two. Plus, I’ll get the chance to go into town whenever I feel bored, solve puzzles, and occasionally join a sing-along. What more could I ask for?
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand will come to Windows PC and Xbox Series X (where it will be available through Game Pass) in 2026.
