Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today. This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard. However, I'm excited for my next adventure. If your team or anyone you know needs an experienced Level Designer, hit me up! Check out my Portfolio here to see what I've done the last 7 years as a Level Designer in the AAA space: www.alexgraner.com Cheers!
Tough post to have to write, but respect for putting it out there so transparently. Getting laid off alongside the team is never easy, especially when you’ve clearly put real work into projects that shipped and impacted players. Your experience across Apex, incubation projects, and shipping live content speaks for itself, and I’m sure something solid will come out of this next move. And if at any point you do want extra support re-entering the market, my friends at Offered.ai connect candidates directly with recruiters and only get paid when you land a role, so there’s zero upfront pressure while you explore what feels right. Wishing you clarity and momentum in this next chapter.
Just wanted to say I put over 50 hours into Highguard and its an absolutely fantastic and unique game that was simply a victim of the miserable gamer mentality these days and I was really rooting for it to grow and take over the competitive shooter market. Wishing you nothing but the best!
Sorry you’re going through this - it’s especially tough when you’ve poured creative energy into work that never gets to fully see the light of day. That said, your excitement about what’s next really comes through, and seven years of AAA level design experience is a strong foundation to build from. What I’m seeing more lately is that moments like this are prompting many talented professionals to look beyond just the next role and think about how their skills could translate into new directions, including independent or entrepreneurial paths tied to their expertise. Wishing you momentum and the right opportunity - wherever that next adventure takes you. If you ever decide you want to explore what building something of your own could look like, you might find some useful ideas at practicalbusinessplans.com.
The game launched on Steam with an “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating, at one point showing around 17% positive reviews, largely due to factors unrelated to the actual gameplay. As a free-to-play title, it has very little protection against review bombing, and the impact on perception can be massive. (In practice, it only takes a download and a quick boot-up to leave a review.) Unfortunately, many players who might have enjoyed it likely never gave it a chance. All the best to you, Alex.
I wish you the best, and I'm sorry this happened. With that being said...I genuinely do not understand what the marketing strategy for Highguard was. I'm not criticizing the style of the game itself, although "player exhaustion" for this genre should definitely be discussed (if it's not already clear). The radio silence after the VGA reveal made me believe the game was being cancelled; I was genuinely surprised when Highguard actually released on Steam!
Yeah highguard was already too much on "let's make the money" spectrum, I m sorry got the staff that got lay off but I guess it's an opportunity to join a more game driven studio in the future and fully enjoy the process, I wish you good luck on your search
I am so sorry to hear this. I don't no why there wasn't any communication with the gaming community after the trailer dropped at Game Awards. IMHO this hurt the reputation of the game. Recent reviews showed it has potential. I am feeling sad about this. 😟
I'm sorry this happened, Alex. Here are some resources and job boards: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7345960655121719296/
Yeah the Game was incredible boring. I mean cmon, you could not beleive this would work in any weas ..
How many times do countless developers have to suffer the disastrous consequences of someone pitching a PVP competitive multiplayer game featuring generic fantasy "concept art" looking characters?. Everybody at this point knows that it's a studio death sentence. We need to start having serious conversations about this as a problem that's plaguing our industry. I've started to document how many layoffs have happened so far from projects like these and it's insane. Whole studio shutdowns. Every. Single. Time.