A stage designer laid off from Highguard developer Wildlight believes the free-to-play shooter’s difficulties stem from having „leaned too far into the aggressive scene“.
Acknowledging that the „actually huge highlight“ positioned on the sport following its reveal at The Recreation Awards moreover added stress, senior stage designer Alex Graner talked candidly on the Quad Harm podcast concerning the „consistently evolv[ing]“ sport, suggesting that his „greatest worry [came] when [the studio] determined to go full-in on 3v3“.
„I can solely communicate to my facet of it as a stage designer, however after I joined [Wildlight], it was attempting to determine this new, formidable sport, and this staff is all the time pushing the boundaries,“ he stated, as transcribed by PCGN. „You do not attempt to create one thing that does not work out, nevertheless it occurs, sadly. All through growth, we actually leaned into the aggressive facet of it, and that was all the time one in all my greatest fears as a participant.
„3v3 duos is all the time the sweatiest model of something like battle royale, goal modes, wingman, you already know it, you title it,“ he added. „It requires such a excessive depth of communication together with your staff, and staff play, that it does not depart a lot room for casualness. I believe that was the most important factor that turned a variety of gamers off Highguard.“
Graner stated Apex Legends got here simply as battle royales had been a „sort of an up-and-coming mode“ and was „very easy to know after you performed one sport“, which is why it was so profitable. Conversely, Highguard was somewhat extra complicated.
„Highguard has all these totally different guidelines and phases, it is like, ‚Oh, you need to loot, now we have got to chase this goal, now we’ve got to plant this goal, now it is time beyond regulation… It has all these guidelines, which I believe works at a very excessive stage, however when gamers are first coming in it is lots to know,“ he admitted.
„On high of all that, as a result of it was 3v3, that sort of sport simply requires high-skill motion and taking pictures, which is already a reasonably excessive [bar to] entry as nicely. So when you simply have just a few unhealthy video games or your teammates aren’t sticking collectively, you are simply going to get rolled, and it is very exhausting to 1v2 in our sport.
„It is all designed to be a team-based shooter. I believe that was the most important factor. Individuals simply sort of turned it off as a result of they did not have the staff.“
Simply yesterday (twenty seventh February), a brand new report alleged that Tencent pulled funding from developer Wildlight simply two weeks after the sport’s launch. Employees had been referred to as to an all-hands assembly, after which advised that there can be layoffs as Tencent had pulled funding as Highguard had seemingly failed to satisfy no matter metrics Tencent had for it.
Wildlight publicly confirmed layoffs a day later however would not specify numbers, and it insisted „a core group of builders“ remained to work on the sport. It is thought fewer than 20 individuals stay at Wildlight at the moment.
Tencent’s function in Highguard’s growth was, curiously, saved quiet. It wasn’t till a number of days after the layoffs that Recreation File confirmed Tencent’s involvement. The rationale for the secrecy across the firm’s involvement is unclear.
