Indie dev slams the handbrake to pivot to what might be the first match-3 Metroidvania after playtests for a “match-3 survival horror comedy RPG” shockingly fell apart

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Candy Crush Saga
(Image credit: King)

El Paso, Elsewhere developer Xalavier Nelson Jr. has announced his studio Strange Scaffold's intentions to turn their upcoming game Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3, which is not a sequel, into possibly the only match-3 Metroidvania in existence after the developer decided the genre was more streamlined than its original plan to make a match-3 survival horror comedy RPG.

"We had a playtest," Nelson says in a video posted to Twitter, "and no one knew what they were playing. Otherwise, the feedback was glowing." 

Strange Scaffold otherwise hasn't revealed many details about Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 since announcing the game in 2024 – well, aside from this drawing of a T-rex wearing a wig. 

But Nelson summarizes in his video that Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 will be "a game about the joy of unlocking, as well as using match-3 – not just for combat, but for everything from debating a robot, to swallowing a bunch of jewels so that a jewel thief can't steal them first." Right, of course. I knew that. 

Nelson has clearly thought about his new Matchroidvania game way too hard for me to be skeptical. In another video, he emphasizes his philosophy that "match-3 isn't just for puzzles, it isn't just for combat, it's not just Candy Crush. It can be used as a metaphor for practically any type of interaction that you would find in an action game or an RPG."

"The fact that, everyday," he continues, "I get to come up with metaphors like this alongside the rest of the [Strange Scaffold] team makes me fucking feral." 

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.