DRONE CORE COMMAND
A drone companion game where you command a responsive combat unit through hostile alien territory. Guide and strategize as you and your drone secure zones, adapt to threats, and carry out Command's escalating objectives. Drone Core Command is a short story gallery shooter designed for use with hand tracking.
Now Available in Early Access on the Meta Quest store!
Statement of Work
CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT
This game started as a viability study to better understand how simple hand gestures could be used to influence drone movement in a shooting-gallery style gameboard. Production involved using a variety of a.i. tools to ideate through concepts and rapidly build 3d models and functional prototypes all of which could be used in game. The game supports both touch controller and hand gestures and has been designed with this sort of parity in mind.
GAMEPLAY
The design of the core loop is a familiar concept that involves selecting a loadout based on mission intel, deploying to the battlefield for mission engagement, and returning to base to repair your drone, gather more intelligence, and upgrade both your drone and weapons arsenal.
NARRATIVE
Building Drone Core Command was an opportunity to tell a short story. Acquire territories at the request of your command group with little to no information as to why you’re doing it. They simply ask for results, dismiss you upon receiving said results, and with increasingly ambiguous verbiage. Not only do they dismiss you, but they ask you to leave the game when all is said and done. Whether or not you choose to stay ultimately changes the nature of the game.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
See the Feature Dev Roadmap for a detailed list of what's in the works.
Mission Engagement
Operate your Corelink Weapon Rig with touch controllers or hand tracking to engage directly with the environment, or take control of your mech's targeting system.
Puzzle Repair Games
Complete puzzles in the Repair Bay to fix your mech and upgrade its defensive capabilities
Loadout Strategy
Interact with Core Recalibration to customize your inventory and upgrade your weapons.
Reconnaissance Missions
Play a top-down shooter mini-game in your HUB to earn credits toward weapon upgrades.
XR Gameplay
For players that like to bring games into their physical surrounds, Drone Core Command has an augmented gameplay mode in development.
Build Notes - July 31, 2026
Drone Core Command - Build 1.0
What's New:
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Launching out of Early Access and on SteamVR
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More granular puzzle interactions
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Battle perks for Ground Ops can be earned from Reconnaissance Runs
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Systems balancing to honor numerous play styles
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5 unique mech skins to choose from
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Recon ships match their mech
See the Feature Dev Roadmap For Additional News
As always, feel free to reach out with any thoughts or concerns, and thanks for checking out Drone Core Command!
Feature Dev Roadmap
The following is loose roadmap of what's in development for continued build-out of Drone Core Command post-launch:
Art & Animation
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Continued detailing and sculpture exploration
Design
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Recon runs could use more variation and obstacles.
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More puzzle types
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Level variations that include more verticality
UX/UI
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Ambidextrous gameplay
VFX & Destructibles
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Some of the destructible effects need to be re-cut for better explodi-ness
Engineering
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A few more actors need to be pooled to smooth out some hitches
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Continued optimizations
Audio
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Soundtracks in the game are off the shelf. I'm looking to build more custom soundtracks for the various gamestates outside of typical gameplay
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Most sound fx are off the shelf too for the most part. Would love to customize these as well. Slowly i've been going through and iterating sound fx, but it's lower on the priority list at the moment
Narrative
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Would love to get some more narrative passes integrated that gives command more of a corporate branding that plays along with the pace of the story
A.I.
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Potentially some new enemies
Marketing
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Continued social posts outlining further development and exploration