Playtesting is where game design meets reality. In our wildfire resilience games, it’s not just about fixing bugs or tweaking difficulty—it’s about listening. We’ve built our games alongside the very communities they’re meant to serve, and with guidance from fire scientists, emergency managers, social scientists, and civil engineers.

And sometimes, that means letting go of ideas we really liked.

Early on, we designed fast-paced minigames about in-the-moment stressors like rescuing neighbors or making urgent city-wide decisions . But when we brought it to a community workshop, people told us: “That’s not what it's like in real life.” Individuals don't need to be prepared to make decisions at that level, they need time to think through their own individual circumstance and what they will do moment-to-moment. 

At the same time, experts pointed out when our games oversimplified risk or reinforced incorrect assumptions. We’d built a scenario where everyone had equal access to "optimal" evacuation options—but real-world fire evacuations don’t work like that. Equity, mobility, and housing precarity all play huge roles. We revised accordingly.

So we pivoted. We replaced fast-paced mini-games with dialogue-based dilemmas. We gave households different constraints. We made uncertainty part of the design. The result? A more grounded experience that resonates with players’ emotions and aligns with expert recommendations.

Game design isn’t about defending your cleverest idea. It’s about creating something that matters. That means being willing to listen, revise, and rebuild—again and again.