RabbitRun

Rabbit Run is a cozy, nature-themed board-adventure where a brave little bunny races along a winding forest trail — rolling the dice, solving mini-puzzles, dodging traps and surprises and being followed by an angry lumberjack. Each turn brings a gentle challenge, and a reason to smile - especially if you played similar board games in your childhood.

Theme Fit – “Here We Go Again”

Every time Bunny is scared, lost or caught in a trap, he takes a deep breath, rolls the dice, and keeps going. The forest changes, the challenges shift, but the spirit stays the same: never give up, hop again! The cycle of play, discovery and perseverance embodies the heart of “Here We Go Again.”

Gameplay Summary:

• A relaxing, turn-based forest journey with colorful pop-ups and interactive mini-games.
• The core gameplay is simple: just roll the dice!
• Solve simple puzzles, avoid hidden traps and find the perfect hideout while being followed by an angry lumberjack (actually, the bunny made him angry by trying to keep him busy and distracted from cutting more trees and destroying forest habitats)
• Each tile hides a new story moment — a scare, a clue, or a playful friend
• Designed for all ages, blending storytelling, gentle humor and exploration.

Tools used:

• Engine: Unreal Engine 5.6
• Art & Animation: Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Substance Painter, Mixamo, Fab
• UI & Design: Figma, Photoshop, UE Blueprints. 
• I used Fooocus UI to generate the images inside popups (the rabbit, owl, forest and the rest). to save time. They will be replaced with renders done with Cinema 4D and OctaneRender.
• Audio: pixabay.com
• Platform: Windows

Author:

Created by Marius Paraschiv, 3D Artist & Game Designer passionate about cultural and educational storytelling.

E-mail: mariusbfs@gmail.com

I am the owner of Beyond Fantasy Animation, which will be the publisher of the final release of this game. 

https://beyondfantasyanimation.com/

I started developing this game a few years ago from the desire to learn Unreal Engine and to extend my knowledge. I have started developing the first blueprints, the dice-rolling mechanics and the upper-face detection in UE4. Then I went to UE5 and defined the way certain tiles should work: advance 3 spaces, go back 3 spaces, roll again, lose a turn and play a small puzzle game to be able to roll again. It was hard at the beginning but the results were satisfying. Then I was so eager to add my characters. My concepts contain 3 types of rabbits and 3 types of lumberjacks, but for now, I included just one for each, to see how they fit in. For this Epic Mega Jam I struggled to fix bugs, make a few refinements, add the UI and sounds and try to finish as much as I can. I admit, it is not perfect nor bug free. But this is what I have for now, and more fixes are about to come shortly! And depending how people react to it, I will add the other characters (and more!), more animations, more interaction and features, maps, in-game cinematics, voiceover - all to tell the whole story.

Of course, any feedback or suggestions are more than welcome, I would be so happy to receive your thoughts!

PS: the main language for the UI was made in Romanian, which is very child-friendly, then adapted to English, for this particular event. The inspiration and motivation come from reality: in some parts of the world, deforestation has major impacts upon climate, human and animal life. Just wanted to bring more awareness to it.