I felt that the timer was fine-- It gave me limited time to perform the available actions, without feeling too rushed. I think an alternative for the blockout proportions, would be to get your metrics for your main or playable characters, get their relative proportions right, in addition to their props, etc. Or start from the intractable props & characters, since making that feel good will affect the moment-to-moment gameplay. Starting from the background & gameplay areas seems fine too.