Both Timbers
Roles: Game Design, Rigging and Animation, Development
Both Timbers is a comedy puzzle platform game I co-created with Nicholas “Elle” Linares using the Unreal game engine. You play as a cat named Chablis who is seeking revenge on their rabbit neighbors for derailing a desired delivery. Use carrot bombs to blow up obstacles and lure bunnies to their demise. Reach the bunny boss and distribute a dynamite delivery to them.
Trailer
Design Decision
During the playtests of our Vertical Slice it was clear that our players wanted more back story and some tutorialization. Originally we were going to make a cinematic showing the story, but our professor urged us to make something interactive instead. What we came up with was an interactive comic strip that allowed the player to experience the story at their own pace, get information about the controls, and explore the space without fear of failure.
Players asked for more interactivity in the narrative portion of the game, and in captured metrics we found most players tried to interact with the deadly items in the kitchen. We created animations to provide feedback when attempting to interact with these items.
Originally players needed to destroy stone walls in order to progress. During playtests players instead attempted to destroy wooden objects. In response we replaced stone blockades with destructible wooden ones.
We built a fire pit to help direct players to the end section. This succeeded in drawing attention, but created confusion about what to attack. We moved the visuals to the boss bunny to make the goal more clear and retain pathfinding.
Team Credits
- Game Design: Nicholas Linares & Michael Ritchie Rodriguez
- Technical Design: Roahith Raj
- Music and Sound Design: Sonia Coronado Cuesta & Kara Ford
External Assets
- Level Art assets by Christian Holzer (Epic Marketplace)
- Particle Effects by Level One Games (Epic Marketplace)
- 3D Character Models by bariacg (Turbosquid.com)
- “Soft Marshmallow” font by Galdino Otten (Dafont.com)