Wildlight explains how ex-Apex team spent years building debut game Highguard

Wildlight Entertainment, the indie studio founded by developers who helped create Titanfall and Apex Legends, told Polygon that it spent about four and a half years building its debut title, Highguard, after leaving EA to go independent. The studio started with five or six people and gradually grew to about 100, roughly 60 of whom previously worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall, Wildlight co-founders Dusty Welch and Chad Grenier said during a press event interview.

Highguard is a co‑op multiplayer shooter that Wildlight describes as inventing a subgenre: players fight for control of an item that lets them break into the opposing team’s base to destroy objectives — a design Wildlight likens to a MOBA through an Apex Legends lens. The game’s creative swing has been polarizing.

While previews generated positive buzz, Wildlight told Polygon that Highguard currently has a 67 on Metacritic and more than 23,000 “Mixed” reviews on Steam; the studio says it has nonetheless found players who resonate with it. Wildlight said it arrived at Highguard after a period of wide experimentation — at one point inviting staff to pitch a new game idea each day — and described the development as three years of exploration followed by a year of polishing.

The studio also noted challenges: building a new engine, a new IP and a team from scratch, balanced against the advantage of longtime collaborators and the freedom of being independent.

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