Highguard was “doomed” from its first trailer, says indie veteran, but the developer is still in denial about making a “bad game”

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Adrian Chmielarz, the creative lead at The Astronauts—known for Witchfire and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter—contends that Wildlight Studios’ Highguard was fundamentally flawed and lacked the competitive edge needed to survive today’s saturated market.

Responding to a public statement by former Highguard tech artist Josh Sobel, who noted that internal sentiment before launch was overwhelmingly optimistic, Chmielarz reflected on the industry’s recurring “mystery.” He questioned how projects involving hundreds of people and years of development can reach completion without anyone acknowledging they are simply not working.

Sobel’s critique of the game’s performance and debut strategy was somewhat reserved, though he admitted that even without the surrounding controversy, the path to success was steep. “I am not suggesting our failure rests solely on player pushback, but the negative discourse certainly played a significant role,” Sobel remarked.

Chmielarz offered a more blunt assessment. “You have developers who still cannot accept that the game itself missed the mark,” he stated. “Instead, they blame ‘gamer culture,’ The Game Awards, or provocative influencers for its downfall.”

On that specific point, Sobel noted that it is nearly impossible to determine if the launch would have fared better without the intense scrutiny following their trailer at The Game Awards.

However, Chmielarz remains focused on the product’s internal issues: “It wasn’t the external noise. It was the uninspired world-building, generic character designs, sterile corporate UI, and a genre that has already been exhausted.”

Sobel argued that consumers exerted “absurd amounts of effort” to disparage the title, which ultimately succeeded in sinking it. Chmielarz, however, finds the internal disconnect baffling. “It only took one trailer for the average player to see the writing on the wall,” he said, citing Highguard and Concord as examples of projects where massive teams seemingly ignored obvious red flags.

He concluded by asking whether this stems from “toxic positivity” or a deeper structural failure in large-scale development. Chmielarz, formerly of People Can Fly (Bulletstorm, Painkiller), speaks from a long history of high-octane development experience. While Highguard certainly faced its share of bad-faith criticism, it also struggled to find a foothold in a genre where even excellent titles often fail to survive. Tragically, the fallout has been severe, with most of Wildlight’s staff now facing layoffs.

Wildlight’s CEO recently commented that the “toxicity is challenging,” questioning whether the high-profile reveal was a strategic error—a question he says he continues to ask himself.

 

Source: gamesradar.com