When Highguard debuted as the “one last thing” at the end of The Game Awards in December, the internet responded to the new hero shooter with a resounding “meh.” After the reveal, Wildlight Entertainment then went dark for nearly two months as it geared up for its late January launch. Official Highguard promotion stopped as soon as it started, which prompted a swell of spectators (largely on X, the misery app) to declare Highguard the next Concord and question if it would be delayed or cancelled outright.

Speaking with Wildlight at a hands-on event in Los Angeles last week, several Highguard devs admitted they wished the reveal had gone down differently, but made it clear that the mixed reception didn’t alter their release plans.

“Look, I wish Highguard had been received better. I wish the feedback had been better,” Wildlight Entertainment CEO and founder Dusty Welch told PC Gamer. “Part of that’s on us, right? We didn’t put our heads in the sand. We, as a team, saw the feedback. We’re gamers ourselves. We’re online ourselves reading the feedback.

“I think, ultimately, we could have made a different trailer—a better trailer that wasn’t about entertaining, which is what we think [The Game Awards] was about. We could have made something that did a better job of highlighting the unique loop of the game. So that’s on us. We take that, but the team is resilient.”

Welch explained that, contrary to assumptions at the time that Wildlight paid a hefty fee for its inclusion at The Game Awards, host Geoff Keighley simply believed in the game and wanted it in the show.

“Geoff’s a friend of the studio. He came in and he played the game a couple of times, and he loved it. So when he said ‘Look, I’d love to do something different and put an indie studio and a free-to-play game up here and put it in the show,’ I mean, as an indie who was unknown by choice, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to do that? Here’s the biggest platform [in gaming], right?”

As for the silent treatment following the reveal, design and creative director Jason McCord told PC Gamer it was always the plan to go dark leading up to launch, similar to what the core of Wildlight’s ex-Respawn team achieved with Apex Legends in 2019.

“The trailer at The Game Awards was meant to be an announcement trailer. The plan was to announce, go dark, and then the next thing that we want players to see is the game,” McCord said. “If the reception had been totally different, it would have been the same plan. The key is, you’ve got to play the game.”

Having played Highguard for a few hours, I can confirm that first trailer did a terrible job of communicating what it actually is. Yes, it’s a hero shooter, but like Apex Legends’ battle royale focus, Highguard is really defined by its unique format: a multi-phase, 3v3 tug of war where teams fight over the right to raid each other’s bases and blow up generators. It’s got a bit of Rainbow Six Siege defensive tactics, a smidge of battle royale looting, and a whole lot of Apex Legends teamfighting.

None of that came through at The Game Awards, which is why Wildlight has prepared a pile of dev diaries and explainer videos that are going live alongside the game—which is right now, if my watch is correct.