Three Moves Ahead Three Moves Ahead 638: Timberborn
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Aug 16, 2025 Ian Boudreaux, a savvy games PR professional, joins strategy experts Mike Williams and Sin Vega to explore the city-building game, Timberborn. They delve into its unique lumberpunk theme where players cultivate beaver colonies and tackle ecological challenges. The conversation highlights the game's strategic depth, focusing on water management and sustainability. They also compare Timberborn's intuitive mechanics to other complex games, offering insights into its development journey and the whimsical notion of building beaver utopias.
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Water Is The Core Game Mechanic
- Timberborn is a beaver-themed colony builder where water management is the core gameplay hook.
- Players must build dams, dikes and layered structures to control flow and power their settlement.
Droughts Replace Winters As The Challenge
- Droughts act like winters: you must capture and store water at landscape scale rather than hoarding barrels.
- Large reservoirs and terrain-altering dams change the town-building approach into hydrological urbanism.
Environmental Repair Is Built Into Progression
- The game includes environmental rehab mechanics like polluted sources and water cleaners.
- Players can clean or cap contaminated sources and restore soil as tech unlocks arrive.