Merge Mansion is actually a rather simple dime-a-dozen puzzle game available on mobile devices, but it has very intriguing lore interspersed among borderline clickbait-and/or-surreal trailers and tidbits of in-game dialogue between Maddie, the main character, and her Grandma, Ursula. Every time Maddie asks her Grandma about mysterious happenings in the game, she will always look for an excuse to get out of the chat. It gets worse in the Merge Mansion ads where Grandma is shown giving Maddie or other people clues to some secret (Showing “He’s still alive” written on her hand while being taken in a police car is the most famous one) that seems will never be solved…
So What Exactly is Grandma Ursula’s Secret in Merge Mansion?
As mentioned above, Maddie is the main character of Merge Mansion, and she was tasked to help Ursula restore the dilapidated estate when a building inspector called Roddy Took informed her that the building needs to be demolished. While going through old trinkets and places, Maddie will ask her Grandma about the stories behind each item and marking she found.
Unfortunately, for crime mystery fans out here, more often than not, Grandma Ursula is simply hiding stories about her family’s rather mundane past for some reason. And the video ads don’t (or barely) have anything to do with what’s going on in the game.
Let’s take two cases as an example. After completing Task 97 and uncovering a broken Statue, Maddie learns that her parents broke up and almost didn’t marry each other. It turns out it’s because her mom (Becky) was accepted into a college in Europe. Then when she visited her dad (Michael) during the summer break, he decided to gift her a statue, and she realized she can’t live with him. She hurriedly kissed him, which made him drop the statue and made it crack.
Or after completing Task 106, which involves Great Aunt Debbie, the Tennis Court, and “a scene of a crime.” Apparently, it only refers to when Ursula and Deb often get into a fight over a tennis match Trophy and try to settle the score by beating in other in more matches. Grandpa Charlie then decided to hide the Trophy, so they stopped bickering.
However, at the end of most dialogues, Grandma Ursula will always try to lead Maddie (and us as the players) through cryptic words, such as:
- “They were happy… most of the time…”
- “I don’t want to talk about that! Just… let’s get back to gardening and forget it.”
At one point, Maddie herself got frustrated and said, “Why is everyone talking in riddles, and no one’s telling me the truth!”
Metacore Games Oy, the Findland-based developer, even admits that they keep building up mysteries surrounding Grandma Ursula because the player base always reacts positively toward the game’s story hints — even if the answers aren’t that satisfying or being kept open for future updates.
Ad agency Apptamin also breaks down the effectiveness of this marketing strategy, pointing out how Merge Mansion ads, from the 3D CG ones to the live-action portrayed by Kathy Bates, quickly get viral thanks to the enigma of Grandma’s (unanswered) secret.
“Grandma should have an edge and should have secrets – that’s when we came up with the tagline ‘What’s grandma hiding?’ – Metacore Games Oy co-founder Mika Tammenkoski
So there you have it. The mystery behind Merge Mansion’s Grandma is basically a marketing gimmick in an attempt to keep the game’s name (and characters) on top of people’s minds. Maybe one day we will get a decent mobile game with less outrageous video ads that properly showcase the game itself, unlike Merge Mansion and the meme-worthy Mafia City.
