Ghost Haunting Brings Classic Point and Click Design Back to Life
During our meeting with Daedalic at Gamescom 2026, the first game presented to us was Ghost Haunting, a handcrafted 2D point and click adventure developed by Cologne based studio Creative Monkeys. We did not play the game ourselves during the meeting, but the presentation provided a detailed look at its story, visual direction and accessibility systems. The project is heavily inspired by the LucasArts adventure games of the 1990s, combining low resolution pixel art, linear storytelling, environmental puzzles, item combinations and conversations with strange characters. The developers want the game to look like something from the classic era while still benefiting from three decades of improvements in game design. Every pixel has reportedly been created and adjusted by hand, reinforcing the feeling that this is a carefully produced adventure rather than a quick attempt to imitate retro graphics.
The story follows Gigi, an unpredictable eight and a half year old girl whose grandmother was the only person who truly understood her. After her grandmother dies, Gigi is not given a proper explanation of what happened and assumes that she has simply travelled to the realm of the dead. She later discovers Baron Butternut, a demon trapped inside a talking pumpkin, as well as the truth about her grandfather’s secret work hunting ghosts and monsters. Gigi decides that if spirits can travel from the realm of the dead into the world of the living, she should be able to make the same journey in reverse and bring her grandmother home. Despite the subject of death, the game is built around absurd comedy, including a toilet dwelling goblin, an organisation of verified vegan vampires and a suspicious character named Dr. Calligraphy. The adventure is set in Germany’s Eifel region, with forests, castles, legends and real locations used to give the fictional world a strong local identity.
