Friday Sundae, a Bristol-based indie studio, just released a free demo for There Are No Ghosts at the Grand on Steam on November 24, 2025. This game defies every attempt at categorization. It starts as a hotel renovation simulator, transforms into an interactive musical with genre-hopping songs, then pivots into psychological horror where you shoot furniture at possessed armchairs with spider legs. If that sounds absolutely unhinged, you’re starting to understand what makes this one of 2026’s most anticipated indie titles.
- You Have 30 Days Before Something Claims You
- Talking Power Tools Are Your Only Friends
- The Demo Goes Completely Off the Rails
- It’s Also a Musical Because Why Not
- The Lovecraftian Horror Underneath
- Who Makes a Game Like This
- What Players Are Saying About the Demo
- Release Plans and Platform Availability
- Why This Game Matters for Indies
- FAQs
- Conclusion
You Have 30 Days Before Something Claims You
The setup is deceptively simple. You play as Chris David, an American who unexpectedly inherits The Grand, a dilapidated seaside English hotel. The catch? You have exactly 30 days and 30 nights to restore it to its former glory before something unspecified but definitely terrible happens. The locals aren’t thrilled about an outsider renovating their beloved landmark, and they’re very insistent that there are absolutely no ghosts at the Grand. Definitely not. Don’t even look for them.
Of course, there are ghosts. Lots of them. And they only come out at night, which is when your hotel renovation sim transforms into a first-person supernatural combat game where your paint sprayer becomes a weapon and your vacuum sucks up vengeful spirits instead of debris. The tonal whiplash is deliberate and spectacular.
Talking Power Tools Are Your Only Friends
Your main interaction with the world comes through a set of sci-fi tinged power tools that talk to you. These aren’t subtle personalities either. Your primary tool features an overenthusiastic Scottish AI that provides running commentary while you work. The arsenal includes a sand blaster for stripping old paint, a paint sprayer for applying new colors, a furniture cannon that moves or creates household items, a vacuum for cleaning up debris, and a daisy-chain gun for connecting objects.
During daylight hours, these tools function as standard renovation equipment. You blast away decades of neglect, repaint walls in colors of your choice, destroy broken furniture, place new items to restore rooms, and vacuum up the mess. The renovation mechanics hit that satisfying sweet spot where every action produces immediate visual feedback. Watching a grimy, ruined room transform into something livable feels genuinely rewarding.
When night falls, these friendly renovation tools change modes and become weapons against supernatural threats. The vacuum doesn’t just clean anymore, it captures and shoots ghosts. The paint sprayer reveals invisible entities. The furniture cannon becomes a literal cannon that fires bookcases at enemies. This dual-purpose design creates mechanical continuity between the two gameplay styles while maintaining distinct identities for each phase.
The Demo Goes Completely Off the Rails
The publicly available demo takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and covers an astonishing amount of ground. It starts with basic hotel renovation, teaching you how to use your tools in a controlled environment. Just when you’re comfortable with the mechanics, a hostile local named Maddie Green shows up with theories about mysterious slime washing up on the beach.
Suddenly you’re repairing a boat using your renovation tools to gather materials scattered across a nearby island. After an unfortunate crash, Maddie conveniently floats away, abandoning you on the island for the night. Now you’re exploring World War 2 bunkers, renovating underground rooms, and experiencing your first real supernatural encounters as strange noises echo through the abandoned facility.
The climax features armchairs. Specifically, armchairs with hideous spider legs that chase you across the beach while you desperately shoot furniture at them using your newly weaponized power tools. If you watched the Xbox Games Showcase reveal trailer and wondered whether the game could possibly include this much variety, the answer is an emphatic yes. There Are No Ghosts at the Grand refuses to stay in one genre for more than ten minutes.
It’s Also a Musical Because Why Not
Every character you meet has their own theme song representing different musical genres. The soundtrack jumps from spooky ska to wartime jazz to skater punk depending on whose story you’re uncovering. This wasn’t the original plan. Creative director Anil Glendinning explained that Friday Sundae was listening to late 80s and early 90s music during development, particularly reggae, punk, The Clash, and The Specials. The music added to the game’s surreal nature so effectively that they leaned into it hard and made the whole thing a musical.
These aren’t just background tracks either. The musical sequences are interactive story moments that reveal character backgrounds, motivations, and secrets. Each song style matches the personality singing it, creating a diverse soundtrack that somehow feels cohesive despite genre-hopping constantly. The approach mirrors the gameplay’s refusal to commit to a single identity, keeping players off balance in the best possible way.
The Lovecraftian Horror Underneath
Beneath the comedy, musical numbers, and furniture-shooting absurdity lies genuine horror. There Are No Ghosts at the Grand draws inspiration from Lovecraftian cosmic dread, where uncovering mysteries reveals truths that shouldn’t be known. The Grand Hotel’s history connects to the player’s own buried past in ways that become increasingly disturbing as you dig deeper. Every resident of the surrounding village guards secrets, and even Chris harbors truths he hasn’t revealed to himself yet.
The game uses its comedic elements to lull players into false security before pulling the rug out. One moment you’re laughing at your Scottish AI’s sarcastic commentary, the next you’re reading environmental clues about something that happened in the bunker during World War 2 that has implications far beyond a simple ghost story. The tonal shifts aren’t accidents, they’re deliberate psychological manipulation that makes the horror land harder when it arrives.
As you explore, renovate, and restore, a creeping horror tightens its grip. The 30-day deadline isn’t arbitrary. Something is coming, and the game makes you feel that mounting pressure even while you’re picking paint colors and arranging furniture. The demo only hints at what’s really happening, but the full game promises a mystery that winds through the hotel’s storied history, its former owners, and supernatural forces that have waited decades for someone to disturb them.
Who Makes a Game Like This
Friday Sundae is a husband-and-wife team founded by Rachel and Anil Glendinning in Bristol, England, about five years ago. The studio started by making games for companies like Cartoon Network and the BBC before deciding to create their own title. The team has grown to ten people with a flat organizational structure where everyone’s voice matters in creative decisions. Anil describes it as feeling like being in a band, riffing with friends and coming up with ideas.
This collaborative approach explains why There Are No Ghosts at the Grand feels so eclectic. The game collects ideas and stories from the entire team’s diverse experiences rather than following a single creative vision. That’s how you end up with a musical renovation game featuring Scottish AI, possessed furniture, and World War 2 bunkers all coexisting in the same narrative space.
The studio took a major gamble building a demo of something this strange. A musical renovation game set in the UK with horror elements and talking power tools doesn’t exactly fit established market categories. But Microsoft saw something special in the pitch and brought Friday Sundae into Game Pass, invited them to the Xbox Games Showcase, and provided support that allowed the team to continue development. The game launches day one on Game Pass in 2026 alongside Steam and Microsoft Store releases.
What Players Are Saying About the Demo
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand currently sits as the 624th most-wishlisted game on Steam with thousands of players eagerly anticipating release. Early demo reactions praise the game’s willingness to take risks and defy genre conventions. Players appreciate that the renovation mechanics feel satisfying rather than tedious, the writing balances humor with genuine scares, and the musical sequences enhance rather than interrupt the narrative flow.
Some criticisms focus on the demo’s brevity. Thirty minutes provides a taste of what Friday Sundae is building but ends right when things get truly weird. Players want more time to explore the supernatural mystery, experiment with combat mechanics, and see how the renovation and horror elements integrate over a full playthrough. The positive takeaway is that the demo creates genuine desire to experience the complete game rather than feeling like a standalone experience.
Technical performance has been solid across different hardware configurations. Friday Sundae released stability and performance updates on November 17, 2025, addressing issues found during early testing. The art style uses Autodesk Maya for character models and environments, creating a visual aesthetic that’s distinct without requiring cutting-edge hardware. The game runs smoothly on mid-range systems while maintaining atmospheric lighting and detailed textures.
Release Plans and Platform Availability
| Platform | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PC (Steam) | 2026 | Demo available now |
| PC (Microsoft Store) | 2026 | Day one Game Pass |
| Xbox Series X and S | 2026 | Day one Game Pass |
| Additional Platforms | TBA | To be announced later |
Friday Sundae hasn’t committed to a specific release window beyond 2026. Given that the game features 30 days and nights of gameplay with different events, characters, and supernatural encounters each cycle, there’s substantial content to complete before launch. The studio’s approach prioritizes quality and polish over rushing to meet arbitrary deadlines, which should result in a better final product even if it means waiting longer.
Why This Game Matters for Indies
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand represents the kind of creative risk-taking that only indie studios can afford. No major publisher would greenlight a musical horror renovation sim with talking power tools and armchairs that grow spider legs. The market research would kill it before a single line of code got written. But Friday Sundae built it anyway, trusting that players want experiences they’ve never had before rather than safe iterations on established formulas.
The game’s success, even at this early stage, proves there’s an audience hungry for weird, ambitious projects that refuse to color inside genre lines. Microsoft’s willingness to support the title through Game Pass validates that platform holders understand the value of diverse catalogs that include experimental titles alongside blockbuster franchises. If There Are No Ghosts at the Grand performs well at launch, it could encourage more studios to pursue similarly unconventional ideas.
FAQs
When did the demo for There Are No Ghosts at the Grand release?
The free demo launched on Steam on November 24, 2025. It’s available to download now for anyone with a Steam account and takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.
When does the full game release?
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is scheduled to launch in 2026 for PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, plus Xbox Series X and S. The game will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass. Additional platforms will be announced later.
What kind of game is There Are No Ghosts at the Grand?
It’s a first-person action-adventure that combines hotel renovation simulation, psychological horror, musical storytelling, environmental puzzles, and supernatural combat. By day you renovate the hotel using talking power tools, by night those same tools become weapons against ghosts and monsters.
Do you need to be good at horror games to play this?
The game balances horror with comedy and musical elements, making it less intensely scary than pure horror titles. The renovation gameplay provides breaks from supernatural encounters, and the absurdist humor undercuts tension when things get too frightening.
How long is the full game?
The game features 30 days and 30 nights of gameplay, suggesting a campaign length of 15-20 hours depending on how thoroughly you explore and how quickly you complete renovation objectives. Friday Sundae hasn’t confirmed exact playtime yet.
Is the demo representative of the full game?
Yes, the demo showcases the core gameplay loop of daytime renovation and nighttime supernatural encounters, the musical storytelling approach, environmental puzzles, and the variety of genre-hopping that defines the full experience. It’s designed to give players an accurate preview of what to expect.
Can you play There Are No Ghosts at the Grand in co-op?
Friday Sundae hasn’t announced multiplayer or co-op features. The game appears to be a single-player narrative experience focused on Chris David’s personal journey uncovering the hotel’s mysteries.
Who developed There Are No Ghosts at the Grand?
Friday Sundae, a Bristol-based indie studio founded by husband-and-wife team Rachel and Anil Glendinning. The studio has ten employees and previously worked on children’s games for Cartoon Network and the BBC before creating their debut original title.
Will the game have mod support?
Friday Sundae hasn’t announced plans for official mod support. Given the game’s narrative-driven structure and musical elements, modding may not be a priority compared to gameplay-focused titles.
Conclusion
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is exactly the kind of weird, ambitious indie project the industry needs more of. A game that starts with hotel renovation, pivots into interactive musical theater, then transforms into first-person combat where you shoot furniture at possessed armchairs shouldn’t work. By every conventional metric, combining this many disparate elements should create a muddled mess that fails to satisfy anyone. But the demo proves Friday Sundae somehow made it work. The tonal shifts feel intentional rather than chaotic. The renovation mechanics are genuinely satisfying. The musical numbers enhance storytelling instead of interrupting flow. The horror elements land effectively because the comedy establishes false security before pulling it away. And the talking Scottish AI in your power tools provides consistent personality that ties everything together.
The fact that Microsoft believed in this project enough to bring it to Game Pass and feature it at their showcase demonstrates how platform holders are recognizing the value of creative risk-taking. Players have been asking for something different, something they haven’t seen before, and There Are No Ghosts at the Grand delivers exactly that. Whether you’re into renovation sims, horror games, musicals, or just want to experience something genuinely unique, the free demo is available right now on Steam. Download it, spend thirty minutes getting a taste of what Friday Sundae is building, and prepare yourself for one of 2026’s most bizarre and brilliant indie releases.
Just remember when the locals tell you there are no ghosts at the Grand, they’re lying. There are definitely ghosts. And armchairs with spider legs. And a mysterious slime on the beach. And a World War 2 bunker with secrets that probably should have stayed buried. But you’ve only got 30 days to figure it all out before something claims you, so you better start renovating. Your talking power tools are waiting.