Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is the latest game from Strange Scaffold, the studio behind El Paso, Elsewhere, Clickolding, and I Am Your Beast. With so many different titles in the developer’s library, I never quite know what to expect from one of its games, and Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is one of its weirdest ventures yet.
This is a match-3 narrative game, and from the title alone (which is a joke — there is no first or second entry in this pretend franchise), it’s clear that this is more than your usual mobile fare. I first sampled CRDM3 as a Steam Next Fest demo, and it has a delightful twist that really caught my attention. The characters of CRDM3 are aware they are in a video game, where they’re trapped by the mortal limitations of game developers.
It takes a bit to work up to such heady, philosophical quandaries; CRDM3 instead begins as a big goof. Stepping into the shoes of J.J. Hardwell, agent of the ATS (Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Super Science), I am immediately pelted with silly jokes. Hardwell is a little bit of a coward; as he approaches the titular mansion, one of his first thoughts is “Please, God, do not let me find any dinosaurs.” Oh, J.J. You fool. You absolute buffoon. You are about to be hip-deep in dinosaurs.
Image: Strange Scaffold/Frosty Pop
The entire early game is saturated with this kind of goofiness. One area, Clown Alley, is full of watermarked stock images of wacky clowns. An Evil J.J. emerges, who heals himself, “but in an evil way.” I’m offered a choice to step forward, and upon taking it, J.J. makes progress in a skill called “Bad Choices.” This is not subtle; some of the writing ventures into Penguin of Doom territory. Wacky humor is great in small doses, but building an entire game around it can be a tough task.
Luckily, this over-the-top, rapid-fire delivery of jokes tapers off once the plot gets going properly. Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 shares the progression structure of a Metroidvania. As I solve puzzles, talk to a wacky cast of characters, and make terrible decisions, I earn new traits. Those traits can be used to unlock new routes, and sometimes I have to revisit old paths to open up a new branch.
Every encounter is solved with a turn-based game of match 3. J.J. has a few tools that are consistently at his disposal: a self-heal, a shoulder charge, and a stress reducer. I use these abilities by matching and collecting little symbols. Each fight has a different win condition: I might have to fistfight a T. rex, throw pies at a pterodactyl in clown makeup, interrupt a cultist ritual, or dive past a laser barrage from a giant, malicious computer.
I found myself much less interested in the comedy side of the game, and more interested in the strangely frank in-game discussions and commentary about the process of game development. The aforementioned Evil J.J.? A cut piece of content; he was originally meant to hunt the protagonist if the player didn’t address the stress meter, and now he lingers in the game files. J.J. can find notes between members of the development team, like “Still waiting on art assets. Maybe if our director weren’t so busy demanding concept revisions we’d have them by now :))))”
Image: Strange Scaffold/Frosty Pop
It’s impossible to follow the games industry without getting a sense of how the sausage is made. Developers take leaves of absence, or simply leave the industry altogether, to deal with burnout. Crushing rounds of layoffs affect studios. Even in the best-case scenario, games are hugely difficult to make. For every finished product we see, there are dozens of abandoned drafts and concepts left on the cutting room floor.
This is a game about game development — the good, the bad, and the downright weird. Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3’s story includes a fictional history for the franchise and casually mentions the events of the (nonexistent) previous Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion games. Characters glibly talk about running into nasty bugs, or finding a safe place to squirrel themselves away in the derelict code. The developers are treated almost like ancient, distant beings, and we’re simply exploring their incomplete project as a half-written protagonist with a thin backstory and a vague sense of justice. The bit is so good and thoroughly implemented that at one point, my game crashed, and I sat there expectantly waiting for the narrative to continue. (It did not; it was just a normal crash. Alas.)
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 remains lighthearted throughout, despite the dips into the realities of development, but the more grounded material does a lot to prevent the jests and japes from becoming overwhelming. It also makes the game feel far more human; this is a project made by people who both love games and have experienced immense obstacles while creating games, and their experience shines through. I came for the dinosaurs, but stayed for the developers.
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 was released April 22 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Strange Scaffold. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
