Highguard’s developers say the team did not anticipate the backlash that began immediately after its surprise reveal at The Game Awards, but remain confident the shooter can succeed in a crowded market because of what they see as its unique hook.
Speaking to Dexerto at the Highguard preview event before launch, creative and design director Jason McCord said the studio was “very excited that night [of the reveal]” and focused on getting the game in front of as many players as possible.
Asked if they had foreseen the reaction to the trailer, given the hero shooter discourse, McCord said, “I don’t know, not really. We were very excited that night. We were all partying at the TGA party afterwards. We were just excited to get the game out there, you know?”
The team had discussed a shadow launch, similar to Apex Legends, but McCord explained that the approach was not realistic for a new studio without the same level of recognition.
“We had talked about shadow launching it,” he said. “The problem there is that no one knows who we are.”
McCord added that securing the final trailer slot at The Game Awards was a major opportunity to put the game on players’ radar.
“The most important thing for us as a live service game… is to get eyeballs on your game,” he said.
While hero shooters have faced high-profile failures in recent years, including projects like Concord, McCord said the team’s focus has always been on building something players cannot find elsewhere.
“There’s always a concern that the market is saturated,” he said. “People are always going to ask, why should I care about this game? And you need to have an answer to that.”
He also stressed the studio did not begin development with the goal of making a traditional hero shooter, with heroes added later because they improved the game.
“We didn’t set out to make a hero shooter,” McCord said. “Heroes were introduced because they made the game better. They came in much later.”
Lead game designer Carlos Pineda echoed that sentiment, saying rival failures prompted internal reality checks but ultimately reinforced their belief in Highguard’s identity.
“It always comes down to the fact that we had a game that you couldn’t find anywhere else,” he said. “So we felt very confident in that.”
McCord acknowledged that even the studio struggled early on to define the project, but said years of iteration helped narrow it into something players can understand.
“For the first few years, we were like, what is this game?” he said. “Then we simplified it and simplified it.”
Despite the genre’s volatility, McCord said the team believes shooters still have room for creativity, as long as developers avoid repeating what has already been done. “You just can’t go make a game that’s been made before,” he said.
Highguard is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and is free-to-play.
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