Adorable dog shelter simulator To The Rescue has surpassed its funding goal on Kickstarter two days after launching and has started chewing into its stretch goals. This pastel-colored game about caring for pups will challenge you to handle all the duties of running a shelter and sending these doggos to their forever homes. You'll make sure your dogs stay healthy and upgrade your shelter to expand your pup capacity.
"Dogs have specific preferences, can get infectious diseases, and can have negative traits," the Kickstarter says. "But you can also hold fundraisers, get random donations, and, if you work hard, help someone find their new best friend. Unfortunately, there's never enough room, and always more dogs. "
Little Rock Games is already a Kickstarter veteran, having successfully funded its card game Galactic Scoundrels which released in January of 2019. Although this is the first digital game for Little Rock, the trailer shows enough gameplay to suggest the small studio probably knows what it's up to. According to Little Rock on Kickstarter, "Many key features have already been implemented. The purpose of this campaign is to give us a boost to cross the finish line."
Little Rock Games is also committed to doing good for real dogs, not just digital ones. Although all the money raised by the campaign will be used to develop the game (per Kickstarter's transparency rules), 20% of post-launch sales are promised to be donated to actual animal shelters.
One less fun fact: To The Rescue will also include the ability (or rather necessity) to euthanize dogs. The game is designed in part to raise awareness for the realities in animal shelters, a topic Little Rock goes into in its FAQ section: "No one ever wants to have to euthanize. But since we want to raise awareness, we don’t want to pretend that it’s not potentially part of the job." Little Rock says that euthanizing pups is presented as an "important (though avoidable) part of the experience." That said, Little Rock also plans to offer an opt out of this mechanic in the full release.
Rough realities aside, To The Rescue looks like a cute simulation about caring for and managing your fluffly friends.
You can learn even more about To The Rescue on its Kickstarter page.