New fantasy FPS Highguard has a full year of post-launch content "deep in development," split up into episodes to counteract "live-service fatigue": "We're building a game that people want to come back to"

After closing out The Game Awards last year and a slightly scant marketing campaign since, Highguard is now available on Steam. The fantasy FPS managed to attract nearly 100,000 players on launch, and the devs at Wildlight Entertainment have a solid 12-month roadmap in place for updates.

The team speaks about its plans in a showcase video to mark the shooter’s release. "We knew when we started that we wanted to make a shooter, and we knew that we wanted to make something that was live-service," Jason Torfin, VP of product and publishing and game writer, says.

"We were planning for that for a very long time," he adds. "In fact, we already have a year's worth of post-launch content already deep in development." That's a lot of additional work to roll out, and Wildlight is keenly aware that how you deliver things these days can be intrinsic to cutting through the noise.

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"There's a lot of live-service fatigue," Carlos Pineda, lead designer, states. "These games tend to hit you with a FOMO, which I think players have gotten wise to. We’re building a game that people want to come back to."

Torfin then outlines the release strategy. It's all separated into episodes, each lasting two months and consisting of two halves. The first episode is specially packaged to flesh out what’s already there, providing five maps, eight wardens, and 10 weapons. Don't expect the rest to match those numbers, but they'll each have their own particular reasons to boot up.

Time is the great decider for releases like Highguard, but Wildlight has the right idea in many respects. If you'd like to try it, you can find it on Valve's marketplace now.

"I wish Highguard had been received better," CEO admits, after cancelling a planned Apex Legends-style shadow drop when Geoff Keighley said "let me do something"