Del Toro, who described himself as a lifelong avid gamer, said he did want merely to attach his name to the game.

"I believe in the next 10 years, narrative media is going to shift to a hybrid of video games and movies," he said. "This is a great opportunity for me to help be a bridge to what I believe is the future."

Players will start as a typical person on an average day. As everything goes terribly wrong, in order to survive they must learn to form alliances with various beings and to change their role as each new challenge calls for different abilities.

"We want to create a real beginning, middle and end to the game and to each set piece of the game too," said del Toro, who owns the television and movie rights. "I want to make some of the atmospheric elements in the game very, very scary."