The former Highguard developer attributed the game's failure to being 'too difficult'.

Alex Graner, former level designer for Highguard, argues that this multiplayer shooter is too competitive and complex to attract new players.

Former Highguard senior designer Alex Graner admitted his "biggest fear" came true when the team-based shooter failed to retain players due to its over-focus on professional competition. In a fiercely competitive market where multiplayer titles like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, Apex Legends, and Arc Raiders dominate the Steam charts, Highguard needed to make a strong impression. That didn't happen, and within weeks, Graner and several colleagues were fired.

During the Quad Damage podcast, Graner shared his concerns during the development of Highguard. 'I can only speak from my perspective as a level designer, but when I joined [Wildlight], we were trying to figure out the direction for this ambitious new game, and the team was always pushing the boundaries,' he said. 'You shouldn't try to create something that doesn't work, but unfortunately, that happened. Throughout development, we really focused on the competitive aspect, and that's always been one of my biggest fears as a player.'

Graner, who previously worked as a level designer for both Apex Legends and Battlefield 6 before joining Wildlight in 2024, stated that Highguard's core game mode has been 'constantly improved' during development. However, he asserted that 'Highguard's biggest problem is that it leans too heavily towards competitive arena play. That has always been my biggest concern when we decided to focus entirely on the 3v3 format.' You can hear his comments below, starting at minute six.

He pointed to the "huge attention" Highguard received after its screening at the Game Awards, saying it added pressure to convince people to play immediately. "You need to grab the player's attention from the very first game. Apex was a huge success because the battle royale genre was nascent at the time. It was easy to understand after you played one game, and easy to explain to your friends, 'Hey, just be the last team standing, that's all.'"

In contrast, Highguard is far more complex. 'Highguard has a lot of different rules and phases, like, 'Oh, you want to loot, now we have to chase this target, now we have to plant that bomb, now it's overtime… It has all these rules, which I think are effective at a high level, but when new players join, it's very difficult to grasp.' Wildlight's new Raid Rush mode might be the answer to that complexity, but for many developers, it's too late.