Horror-fantasy icon and best-selling author Neil Gaiman is stepping into a new world: a virtual one. The British-born writer has announced the launch of his first video game, Wayward Manor.

Inspired by Gaiman's love of both supernatural and slapstick genres, the game follows the misadventures of a ghost who wants nothing more than a peaceful afterlife, and to kick out the motley crew living in the house he once called home. A gothic New England estate is the setting, with the storyline running from the 1920s all the way to the not-too-distant future. As the ghost tries harder and harder to get rid of the squatters, he also unravels the mystery of his own death and the after-life.

"It's light hearted, its goofy, it's nice to flip points of view," says Gaiman, who was tight-lipped with details, but did tell Mashable that films like Arsenic and Old Lace, The Man Who Came To Dinner, and living in New England inspired him.

"I was playing around with an idea essentially about a man and a house over a period of 200 years, thinking how much more fun it would be if the story of this relationship was actually something you could get involved in."

After a successful career penning more than 20 books in multiple genres, including the Sandman graphic novels and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, this offering is the first fully realized game.

"Back in the late 1990s I spent a lot of time working with various gaming companies," he said. "What tended to happen is I put an incredible amount of work in these things and just as something was about to happen, the company was about to go bankrupt."

Gaiman says he couldn't pass up this new chance to work with the independent game studio The Odd Gentleman and Moonshark, a game publisher co-founded by Creative Artists Agency.

"I think the biggest surprise is I did it and got involved in it. Nobody would have expected it and I didn't have the time. It just got fun and I had to make time."

As part of the release, Gaiman is also offering fans a pre-sale opportunity that includes limited-edition merchandise, the chance to name a game character, and even a private dinner with Gaiman. The game will be available this fall, on PC, Mac, and tablets.

"Normally in a game, if you're in a haunted house, you are going to be walking through it intrepidly with your flashlight, your bell-book and candle, and your copy of the Necronomicon and you keep going until you find the ghost. In this one all you want to do is be left in peace with your lovely house and be left alone. I don't want to give anything away but it's safe to say you were killed in the 1880s and you were killed for a reason."

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