There Are No Ghosts at the Grand gets early access release window

It’s not a release date quite yet, but I am going to take it. I’ve been following There Are No Ghosts at the Grand for a while now, trying to shake a release date out of whoever will listen, but the bizarre little mystery, horror English village that oddly likes ska music hasn’t had a release date yet. Still hasn’t, but what we do have is a release window for the early access coming later this year… Wow, take three guesses as to which month it could be; don’t all rush at once.

Here’s what the press release yesterday had to say about the new demo and the release window: “Friday Sundae has released its biggest demo for There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, the award-winning Musical Lovecraftian Renovator, for Steam Next Fest starting [yesterday]. It features 3 big missions[,] including the Autumn Clean-up Arcade Adventure!

A new trailer is available on IGN Fan Fest, narrated by Broadway star Alex Brightman as player character Chris David, and Billy Boyd ([LoLR’s Pippin]) as MacBrushy, the talking power tool, featuring fresh footage from the new demo. There Are No Ghosts at the Grand launches into Early Access on PC via Steam and Xbox PC this December, with Chapter 1 featuring 15 story missions and 8+ hours of gameplay.” Finally, I’ll get to play it properly, somewhat.

Speaking about the updated demo available now during the Steam Next Fest, the press release continues: “The new demo gives players three missions from Chapter 1: an autumn clean-up adventure in a retro seaside arcade, renovation and quarrels in the botanical gardens, and a Lovecraftian mystery hidden in a haunted island’s underground bunker. Players can renovate, powerwash, explore, solve puzzles, meet the town’s eccentric residents and experience the game’s mix of original songs, supernatural mystery[,] and ghost-hunting power tools.” Trimming the fat of talking about awards you don’t care about and the mention of 185,000 wishlists on Steam – that’s more or less it.

Writer and Creative Director at Friday Sundae, Anil Glendinning, said of the demo and announcement: “This demo is the clearest look yet at what Chapter 1 really is – the renovation, the ghost-hunting, the music, the village, and the moment everything starts getting much stranger. It’s a bigger playable slice of the world we’ve been building, and a strong preview of what players can expect from the first chapter when it launches in Early Access this December.”

There is also a soundbite quote from Alex Brightman, and sadly it is not about wanting a buddy, a pal, and wanting to kill your dad. Indeed, Billy Boyd, who? Lord of the Rings? Never heard of it, mate; was he not the tramp in Glasgow Central Station? Biscuits to you if you get where that’s from, but Brightman said of There Are No Ghosts at the Grand that it brings “the energy of musical theatre” to a first-person adventure game. Of course Brightman was in (and I just referenced) Beetlejuice The Musical. The Musical. The Musical.

Brightman and Boyd aren’t the only famous faces to take roles in There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, as the two are joined by Marcia Richards and Josh Waters Rudge of reggae punk band The Skints, Ben Starr from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Final Fantasy XVI (the boring one), and Elsie Lovelock, who was in Iron Lung, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and The Sinking City 2.

Of course, we don’t have a specific date for the release of There Are No Ghosts at the Grand into early access; the press release does note, however: “Chapter 1 unfolds across 15 episodic missions, each telling its own story within a larger mystery and often ending on a cliffhanger. Players can dip in for an episode or settle in to binge the chapter, with Chapters 2 and 3 following in 2027.” As noted above, there is an updated demo out now, and when we find the early access release date, we’ll try to keep you up to date.