An ex-Dreamworks and Universal Studios animator has begun crowdfunding his charming fantasy adventure project Ghost of a Tale.

The PC game will star a mouse in a foreboding medieval world. It will focus on exploration, clue-finding and combat.

Ghost of a Tale has so far been the sole work of Lionel "Seith" Gallat, whose film credits include work as an animation director on Despicable Me and The Lorax.

He previously lent his paws to supervising animation on Flushed Away, Shark Tale and a number of other animated flicks.

Gallat has just launched a Ghost of a Tale project page on IndieGoGo in a bid to raise funds and hire some extra help.

"I could pay the people who have recently offered their help on the project, just based on some screenshots," Gallat explained. "I would be able to properly hire them. And I can't do that on my savings alone.

"I have to buy upgrades for several expensive professional programs/licenses so they're up to today's standards. My computer is four years old and my graphic card is definitely not optimised for video games."

Gallat describes his inspirations for the project as being early games in the Zelda series, Ico and Dark Souls. It also has shades of Redwall, a fantasy novel series also set in a world of mice.

The campaign is currently sitting on €910 (about £770) of its €45,000 goal with 41 days remaining.