The Many Types of Feedback We Hear
Feedback comes in different flavors, and learning to distinguish between them has been pretty important to keeping Rescue’s identity.
Design and rules feedback focuses on clarity, complexity, pacing, and edge cases. "I wasn't sure when I could use this ability," or "the turn order felt confusing," fall into this category. These are problems we can fix with better wording or rule adjustments.
Gameplay feel feedback is trickier. It's about table talk, decision spaces, downtime between turns, and whether players feel engaged throughout. "I felt like I was waiting too long for my turn" tells us something different than "I didn't understand the turn structure."
Today, emotional reactions might be the most important type of feedback for Rescue in its current stage. Moments that feel delightful versus confusing or frustrating reveal whether the game is landing or not.
Sorting Through Feedback While Staying True to the Game's DNA
The mechanical core of Rescue is based on the idea of expanding the actions you can take on your turn. At the start of the game, you’re given a handful of core actions you can perform, such as placing dogs, drawing cards, etc. As the game progresses, though, you can begin utilizing the abilities of dogs in your rescue, opening up your potential actions.
At various points in the game’s lifecycle, we have collected feedback for different aspects of the game. During Unpub 2025, we primarily sought feedback on the game's flow and feel. Did the turns make sense? Was the duration of the game satisfying or drawn out?
An early playtest session of Rescue
After each game session, we had a list of targeted questions to gather as much feedback as possible on the specific aspects of the game we were still finalizing. We’d look for patterns across multiple playtests instead of reacting to one-off comments. One person finding a rule confusing might be a fluke. If five people stumble on the same rule, we need to reconsider it.
Sometimes, feedback calls for a rules change. Sometimes it calls for a better teacher. And sometimes it means accepting that not every player is going to love what we're making, and that's okay.
Making Hard Design Decisions
Some of the toughest feedback challenges were about ideas we were emotionally attached to. We eliminated treats as a kind of currency, even though they felt thematically perfect. In practice, they added friction and bookkeeping that slowed the game down. While the bones were a fun component, the moment we removed them, the game felt immediately improved.
Perhaps the best example of challenging the game's design comes in the form of dogs with a “Wild” personality. These are cards that can be used in lots of ways to make tricks stronger or score more points at the end of the game. The idea was first brought up by Rescue's graphic designer, Jessee Fish, while playtesting with family.
Wild dog Crumb
They felt the rigidity of having every dog be an explicit personality was too tight, and threw out the idea of having a “Wild” personality. I distinctly remember the conversation with Jessee where she shared this. I was so adamantly against having a “Wild” personality that I basically threw a tantrum, and we moved on.
Fastfoward a couple of months, we continued to make revisions to the game, and the idea of Wild dogs came back up. My stance hadn’t changed, but thankfully, I listened to co-designer, Kelly Perry, when she suggested we try them out. The moment I saw the design Jessee came up with for wild dogs, I was sold. Unsurprisingly, she absolutely nailed the design, and now I can’t imagine the game without them.
Playtesting V1 of Rescue
The "Solitaire" Feedback Example
One piece of feedback we've heard repeatedly is that Rescue feels like "solitaire" because there aren't many ways to sabotage other players. Some playtesters wanted take-that mechanics, ways to mess with opponents' rescues, or competitive tension that came from directly harming each other's progress.
Here's the thing: low-sabotage play is a deliberate choice. Sabotage mechanics in a game with the theme of rescue dogs just don’t vibe for me. We don't want players feeling like they're hurting dogs or blocking rescues. That's antithetical to what the game is about.
As a gamer, I love this style of game, multiplayer-solitaire. It gives me time to think about what I want to do on my turn without being concerned that my entire plan will be nullified by the time play gets back to me. While the feedback looking for more player interaction is incredibly valuable, I knew from the get-go that it wasn’t for this initial version of Rescue
What it did inspire, though, is an idea for future expansions or creative play modes that could add "troublemaker" dogs or more direct interaction. These would be framed as optional modules so the core game stays true to its spirit, ultimately giving players a choice rather than changing the core game.
The lesson here is that not all feedback requires changing the game. Sometimes it requires understanding what the game is and isn't, and being okay with that.
How We'll Carry Feedback Forward
If you're designing your own game, I'd encourage you to get really clear on what your game is about before you start sorting feedback. Not every critique is actionable. Not every suggestion improves the game. Your job is to listen openly, then decide what serves the vision and what doesn't.
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