Creator of Witchfire Slams Highguard: "You worked on the game for years and didn't see how bad it was? Players figured it out from one trailer!"
The debate around the failure of Highguard still hasn't died down. Adrian Chmielarz, Creative Director of The Astronauts, the creators of Witchfire, believes the Wildlight Entertainment game was simply weak, and no external factors could have saved it.
The discussion was sparked by a post from the studio's former developer, Josh Sobel, who admitted the team believed in success right up until release. Sobel saw the reason for the fiasco in the harassment from players following the showcase at The Game Awards.
This position surprised Chmielarz. He pointed out a paradox: ordinary viewers understood the game's doomed fate from a single trailer, but inside the studio, where hundreds of people worked for years, no one noticed the problems. In his opinion, references to community toxicity are merely an attempt to escape reality.
Chmielarz drew parallels with Concord and other high-profile failures, suggesting the cause is toxic positivity, where the truth is preferred to be ignored for the sake of a false sense of harmony. Criticism rarely comes out of nowhere, and if players see problems at first glance, then it's not a matter of the community's ill will.