Fantasy author Neil Gaiman has announced that he is working on an ghost-centric game that will release later this year.

The British-born writer – probably best known for The Sandman and Coraline – is working with indie studio The Odd Gentleman and Moonshark on an adventure title called Wayward Manor.

The game involves a ghost seeking a peaceful afterlife, who must kick out a motley group living in the gothic New England estate he once called home, all while unravelling the mystery around his own death.

The storyline will span the period from the 1920s through to the not-too-distant future.

"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, Gaiman told Mashable.

“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."

"It's light hearted, its goofy, it's nice to flip points of view," Gaiman added.

"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."

Films such as Arsenic and Old Lace and The Man Who Came To Dinner are an influence, as was living in New England, said Gaiman.

Gaiman has been involved in game projects before, but none have seen the light of day.

"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."

Wayward Manor will be available this spring for Windows PC, Mac, and tablets.