In 2021, a variety of Apex Legends builders departed from Respawn Leisure to exit on their very own and begin one thing new.
That one thing new is Wildlight Leisure, and the studio’s first sport is lastly right here a number of years later. Highguard, Wildlight’s free-to-play, three-vs-three hero shooter (they name it a “raid shooter” due to its distinctive mechanics), made some unlucky waves with its less-than-stellar debut trailer at The Sport Awards and subsequent silence on social media afterwards. However the sport is lastly right here now, and I believe it’s legit. I performed it final week at a particular occasion in Los Angeles, and likewise tried to seek out out extra about its improvement.
Fairly just a few different former Respawn devs joined together with Welch and Grenier to assist construct out Wildlight, and so Apex’s DNA could be felt all through the bottom gunplay, nevertheless it’s additionally one thing completely new, and constructed for fulfillment as a sport as a service (GaaS). That’s as a result of, as VP of product and publishing/sport author Jason Torfin and lead designer Mohammad Alavi instructed these of us readily available, it’s been constructed for the lengthy haul with a whole lot of expertise behind it.
“We all know the live-service shooter house is tremendous crowded and everybody has the ‘endlessly sport,’ and we need to make it possible for we’re constructing a sport that you just need to come again to recurrently with your pals that has the strategic depth, the fixed innovation that retains pulling you in,” Torfin stated.
So far as what the studio has realized about tips on how to run a live-service title, Alavi says “how ready we’re” is the most important think about how assured they’re in Highguard out of the gates.
“Apex was our first live-service title,” Alavi stated. “Certain, Titanfall, and Name of Obligation earlier than that, however Apex was a real sport as a service. And we actually weren’t prepared, and we didn’t know we weren’t prepared within the ways in which that you must be prepared. However coming into this, we went by way of that fireside. Simply from the roadmap, having that plan and having the instruments in place, having the telemetry in place, having every little thing able to be agile. That’s a very powerful half. You need to have the ability to get that neighborhood suggestions after which instantly act on it, which is humorous as a result of, as a workforce, usually we’re tremendous agile within the improvement course of. We didn’t understand on earlier video games that we would have liked to proceed into the live-service, however we do now. So, we’ve obtained every little thing in place to be able to react actually shortly.”
Wildlight devs say they’re not solely prepared for post-launch help by way of balancing and updates, but additionally extra post-launch content material. The sport launches right now with 5 maps, six base layouts, eight playable characters, three mounts, and 10 weapons. There’s much more stuff within the loot pool for gamers to find, however on day one, they’re assured in what’s on provide. However that’s simply the beginning.
“So, there’s fairly a little bit of content material on launch day, however we’ve been making ready for a live-service for a really very long time,” Torfin stated. “We have already got a yr’s price of content material deep in improvement. Our subsequent Episode goes to launch two weeks after our launch day. It can embody a brand new Warden (playable character), new map, ranked mode will come on-line, and a brand new mount kind free for all gamers.”
And after that, the common cadence of Episode (season) releases can be each two months, with even splits month-to-month, and new content material updates each single month over the following 12 months. So if Highguard is a success with gamers, and I’ve loads purpose to imagine it may be after enjoying it, there’s a whole lot of stuff to stay up for, and that features the season passes (known as Struggle Chests, which can be priced round $9 and don’t expire), store cosmetics (nothing over $20 at launch), and extra playable characters, plus extra.
“So, we got here prepared, we got here appropriate to make it possible for we’ve obtained stuff that individuals need to see,” Torfin stated.
Dusty Welch (Wildlight co-founder and CEO) and Chad Grenier (co-founder, studio head, sport director) echoed these sentiments, saying that the studio was constructed with live-service in thoughts.
“When Chad and I shaped the studio, we knew we have been going to make a shooter and a live-service,” Welch stated. “How will we construct a company, capabilities, pipelines, exterior relationships, and a mindset on this firm that’s about live-service? And so, we’re deep in improvement, if not accomplished, on that roadmap and really feel actually good. However importantly, once we launch, we’re going to seek out out new issues and the viewers may steer differently. And so, we now have to have sufficient free dev time in order that we will reply and react to that. The issues that we’ve made, we expect persons are going to like, however there’ll be new issues that we didn’t know that they play it in a different way that we’re gonna need to react to.”
Grenier defined, all through Highguard’s improvement, that “making an attempt to foretell what the panorama is gonna be 4 years earlier is almost unattainable, so we got down to create a sport that we expect is superior,” whereas additionally taking “micro-learnings” from different video games on the identical time.
“Attempting to make a sport, I believe, we study not simply game-to-game, nevertheless it’s even smaller than that,” Grenier instructed me. “We study, ‘does this mechanic work effectively on this sport?’ Or ‘this one does work effectively.’ And you’ll typically have a look at a sport as a complete and study from it, but additionally, we have a look at particular person components of video games and what’s working. ‘What are folks into?’ I’ll say we additionally have a tendency to only gravitate in direction of what we expect is absolutely cool.”
All through my talks with the devs, they talked about enjoying a whole lot of video games whereas first concocting what Highguard was going to be. They particularly talked about the push of base-raiding in Rust, and when gamers go surfing for Highguard right now, that can really feel obvious shortly. To me, the base-fortification in a match jogs my memory of Rainbow Six Siege, whereas base destruction feels impressed by Fortnite, and a few hero skills convey Overwatch to thoughts.
“We’ve stayed targeted on simply making an attempt to create one thing new and distinctive,” Grenier stated. “And once you create one thing new and distinctive, you’ll be able to study some classes, however they don’t essentially apply completely to what you’re making.”
At its base, I can say that I believe Highguard is certainly very enjoyable. The sport’s frenetic however assorted pacing includes looting, battling over an goal, after which raiding or defending a base to destroy it. It’s easy in its description however deceptively advanced in follow. I believe it does really feel distinctive and new, and it has a whole lot of room for enlargement in technique and meta techniques, so I believe it can discover a whole lot of gamers who take pleasure in its pull.
Earlier than enjoying the sport, I used to be skeptical about Highguard, too. One other live-service shooter in 2026? However my opinion modified after simply a few hours as soon as I grasped the gameplay loop and hook. And I believe others will right now, as the sport is out now and playable free of charge on PC, PS5, and Xbox Sequence X/S.
For extra on Highguard, try Destructoid’s protection right here:
Wildlight Leisure supplied journey and lodging for the hands-on gameplay occasion in Los Angeles.
