Wayward Manor: Neil Gaiman making an ideal game, man

Famous author making a macabre adventure game releasing this year

Award-winning author Neil Gaiman, perhaps known as much for his graphic novels (Sandman) as his novels (American Gods, Coraline), is branching into videogames with the help of The Odd Gentleman, makers of the excellent The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.

Wayward Manor, more or less an adventure game, pits you as a ghost attempting to clear the spooky, Gothic manor of its colorful cast of inhabitants during the Roaring Twenties. The game’s website introduces the cast and is generally fun to explore. From there you can also pre-order the game, which is slated to drop this fall, with a few extra incentives for those with loose wallets. It’s like Kickstarter prize tiers, but the game is happening regardless.

$10 gets you a digital copy of the game and things get more extravagant from there. For 10 grand you’ll get a spooky dinner with Neil Gaiman himself, while $200 nabs you an invite to an LA launch party for the game. There’s good enough art and design sense here to make the higher tiers quite inviting, and if the whimsical, fun, haunting track from Gaiman’s introductory video is any indication, the music will be great, too. This has become a matter of how much I want to spend.

Yes, no gameplay has been shown, but the production values, neat art style, and talent involved already have me sold. I love P.B Winterbottom‘s whimsical, The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari style; its homage, its depth, its artistry. Pairing the team that made that with Neil Gaiman, who clearly knows his way around penning a tale, is about as perfect a match as you could ask for. I’m excited for a jaunt through the whimsical macabre. Are you?