Created by Jonathan Smeby, Jonny RPG is a humorous depiction of the developer's life with predominantly fantastic and surreal elements, as well as references to popular video games. Despite its name, Jonny RPG is not a role-playing game, but rather an adventure with action-based combat and some mini-games. The player controls the titular character through (mostly) top-down environments, exploring the surroundings, acquiring items, talking to characters, and sometimes fighting enemies in a simple action-oriented combat. The mini-games usually involve spoofs of famous video games such as the Mario franchise, Grand Theft Auto, and others.