Highguard, the free-to-play PvP raid shooter introduced at The Sport Awards final 12 months and launched just for most of its builders to be laid off simply weeks after launch, could have failed as a result of it “leaned too far into the aggressive scene.”
That is in response to former Wildlight developer and degree designer Alex Graner, who informed Quad Injury Podcast that builders “do not attempt to create one thing that does not work out,” all through growth, Wildlight “actually leaned into the aggressive facet of it, and that was at all times one in every of my largest fears as a participant.”
“I can solely communicate to my facet of it as a degree designer, however after I joined [Wildlight], it was attempting to determine this new, bold sport, and this staff is at all times pushing the boundaries,” Graner mentioned, as transcribed by PCGN, by way of Eurogamer. “You do not attempt to create one thing that does not work out, but it surely occurs, sadly. All through growth, we actually leaned into the aggressive facet of it, and that was at all times one in every of my largest fears as a participant.”
“3v3 duos is at all times the sweatiest model of something like battle royale, goal modes, wingman, it, you title it. It requires such a excessive depth of communication together with your staff, and staff play, that it would not depart a lot room for casualness. I believe that was the largest factor that turned numerous gamers off Highguard,” he added.
The difficulty, Graner believes, is that Highguard had “all these totally different guidelines and levels,” which made it tough for gamers who do not have already got a staff to play with, and significantly difficult for brand new gamers.
“It is like, ‘Oh, you need to loot, now we have to chase this goal, now we have now to plant this goal, now it is time beyond regulation… It has all these guidelines, which I believe works at a extremely excessive degree, however when gamers are first coming in it is loads to know,” Graner defined. “On prime of all that, as a result of it was 3v3, that type of sport simply requires high-skill motion and capturing, which is already a fairly excessive [bar to] entry as effectively. So if you happen to simply have just a few unhealthy video games or your teammates aren’t sticking collectively, you are simply going to get rolled, and it’s extremely laborious to 1v2 in our sport.
“It is all designed to be a team-based shooter. I believe that was the largest factor. Folks simply type of turned it off as a result of they did not have the staff.”
One other former developer additionally not too long ago spoke out in regards to the disastrous announcement and launch, saying the sport, and by extension its staff, “was a joke from minute one, largely resulting from false assumptions a few million-dollar advert placement.” Quite a lot of high-profile online game builders have additionally defended Highguard following the web backlash throughout the sport’s launch.
We not too long ago discovered that Highguard was apparently financially backed by Tencent, which seemingly pulled funding simply a few weeks after it launched. It reportedly has fewer than 20 builders engaged on it. Highguard hit a peak of 97,249 concurrent gamers when it launched on Steam. Now, it has simply 105 on Valve’s platform.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years expertise working with a number of the world’s largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.