Ex-Highguard Dev Says The Shooter 'Leaned Too Far Into the Competitive Scene,' And That 'Turned a Lot of Players Off'

Highguard, the free-to-play PvP raid shooter announced astatine The Game Awards past twelvemonth and released lone for astir of its developers to beryllium laid disconnected conscionable weeks aft launch, whitethorn person failed due to the fact that it "leaned excessively acold into the competitory scene."

That's according to erstwhile Wildlight developer and level decorator Alex Graner, who told Quad Damage Podcast that developers "don't strive to make thing that doesn't enactment out," passim development, Wildlight "really leaned into the competitory broadside of it, and that was ever 1 of my biggest fears arsenic a player."

"I tin lone talk to my broadside of it arsenic a level designer, but erstwhile I joined [Wildlight], it was trying to fig retired this new, ambitious game, and this squad is ever pushing the boundaries," Graner said, arsenic transcribed by PCGN, via Eurogamer. "You don't strive to make thing that doesn't enactment out, but it happens, unfortunately. Throughout development, we truly leaned into the competitory broadside of it, and that was ever 1 of my biggest fears arsenic a player."

"3v3 duos is ever the sweatiest mentation of thing similar conflict royale, nonsubjective modes, wingman, you cognize it, you sanction it. It requires specified a precocious strength of connection with your team, and squad play, that it doesn't permission overmuch country for casualness. I deliberation that was the biggest happening that turned a batch of players disconnected Highguard," helium added.

The issue, Graner believes, is that Highguard had "all these antithetic rules and stages," which made it hard for players who don't already person a squad to play with, and peculiarly challenging for caller players.

"It's like, 'Oh, you privation to loot, present we've got to pursuit this objective, present we person to works this objective, present it's overtime… It has each these rules, which I deliberation works astatine a truly precocious level, but erstwhile players are archetypal coming successful it's a batch to grasp," Graner explained. "On apical of each that, due to the fact that it was 3v3, that benignant of crippled conscionable requires high-skill question and shooting, which is already a beauteous precocious [bar to] introduction arsenic well. So if you conscionable person a fewer atrocious games oregon your teammates aren't sticking together, you're conscionable going to get rolled, and it's precise hard to 1v2 successful our game.

"It's each designed to beryllium a team-based shooter. I deliberation that was the biggest thing. People conscionable benignant of turned it disconnected due to the fact that they didn't person the team."

Another erstwhile developer besides precocious spoke retired astir the disastrous announcement and launch, saying the game, and by hold its team, "turned into a gag from infinitesimal one, mostly owed to mendacious assumptions astir a million-dollar advertisement placement." A fig of high-profile video crippled developers person besides defended Highguard pursuing the online backlash during the game’s launch.

We precocious learned that Highguard was seemingly financially backed by Tencent, which seemingly pulled backing conscionable a mates of weeks aft it launched. It reportedly has less than 20 developers moving connected it. Highguard deed a highest of 97,249 concurrent players erstwhile it launched connected Steam. Now, it has conscionable 105 connected Valve's platform.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.