Hi,

Modern tech is advancing so fast, that now you can conduct combat military operations not only from your home PC, but also from the comfort of your sofa and big screen.
Ironic, isn't it?

In this update:

• Gamepad support and control guides
  
• Minor bug and crash fixes

Being mostly a keyboard and mouse player myself, I believe that I managed to fully transfer the essence of the gameplay to gamepad without compromising even a tiny bit of comfort or functionality.

Current scale of the game-design with four squads to control fits on the gamepad perfectly, like it always meant to be played this way.

Try it yourself, and tell me in the Discussion how it feels.
(As one player to another - pay attention to shortcuts bound to Left Trigger, they are necessary to be a pro player).

This update doesn't bring new content to the game, yet, but it opens up my ability to port this game to Steam Deck and other platforms, and also helps to make sure that upcoming features will be done with respect to both types of input.
One step at the time.


Another big thing in this update:
I addressed drone movement feedback from the Discussions and introduced a "high speed mode" for the scout drone.
- If you hold [Shift] your scout drone will be flying faster.

Games have to empower players instead of limiting them, and I am grateful to the vocal part of our community for reminding me that.
Remember - our discussions help me to make this game better, and I will always listen to your feedback and will address it.


If you've read my update this far and want to support the project, I have a small favor to ask: please consider leaving a Steam review for the game.
When you release a game without a publisher, sales numbers tend to balance at the very bottom edge of sustainability, and when I say community support matters, I truly mean it.

If something prevents you from leaving a positive review - just tell me that in the Discussions, and I will see what can be done.
Thank you!

Next stop for us will be localization pass and level editor iteration - with Dynamic Trenches in the level editor being the most anticipated feature.
As usual, I will keep you updated about my research in Dev Diaries on Discord.
Stay safe!

Always yours,
Demetri


PS I also want to take my chance to celebrate operators who reached the good ending, with some players being so fast, that I can't even imagine how they did that.
(Do you guys stream or maybe have youtube channels? I genuinely want to see your playthroughs).

Morgan!
RabidGoldfish
Devil of the Rhine
Petrtorch
SMALLS0022
Bashar Al-Assad
GamerChad420
Shrekka
niccris04
elchapstick
LordSassy
ATH392
MgrBoniface
Mayor of Gamertown

Salute to you all, folks! My respect!

Hi,
The first update didn’t take long!
I’m excited to introduce Steam Leaderboards integration in Drone Perspective.

There are now many drone operators conducting missions worldwide, and while we all wait for multiplayer, it’s nice to have a way to compare our skills.
Leaderboards will help us to do that.
(They will also help to understand mission completion time to adjust difficulty in the future).


In your Connection Tool, you will now find a tab called "Best Employees:", showing the top 50 results for the selected mission.

(It is just me on the leaderboard for now, so come and claim your spot before the pro players do.)

Scores are calculated as "Level Completion Time + 1 additional minute for each casualty."
That feels like an honest and challenging compromise - we want to determine both the fastest and the most careful among us.

I was expecting Steam to use IDs instead of nicknames, but it seems they’ve changed their policy, and now we can see each other's nicknames there.
If you think this is a problem, please write to me, and I will add an opt-in/opt-out option.

• I did small adjustment to make sure that your Squad Selection Tap always register. (it was conflicting with "Hold" functionality, which is a cinematic Zoom At Squad)
  
• Exotic crash in cover selection is fixed
  
• Level HELP was made a bit easier (it was good for the demo, but unnecessary for the full game).
  
• Unit Echo is now available in the Level Editor.
  
• Game is stable overall.

There are still some GPU and occasional Chaos Physics crashes happening.
These are largely between Epic, Nvidia, and AMD.
On my side I promise to update the game to UE5.5 in the nearest future.
Until then, make sure your graphics drivers are up to date - it helps!

If you experience a crash, hit "Send Report"—I do see them.
(You can also leave a message—it helps with troubleshooting, or just say hello.)
We also have a whole subforum here for your bug reports.


Next up: gamepad support and, why not, an additional level to keep the content flowing.
I will be adding these during my vacation, hopefully from some seaside spot - it's been a while.
You also can help me with prioritization, just drop your message here in Discussions, or on Discord.

Wishing you all a great start to spring.
Stay safe!

Always yours,
Demetri

Finally, after more than a year in the making, I am able to share Drone Perspective with you.

The time has come to complete the first act of the story about brave soldiers defending their homeland from a brutal invasion.

This is what you can expect from the solo campaign:

• Ten challenging story levels (four of them you saw in the demo)
  
• Two secret levels - to give you a new perspective on the in-game events
  
• One bonus level - for those who manage to finish the story
  
• Non-linear, mind-bending story - you may need to go back in order to move forward
  
• Machine gun unit Echo - also your medic
  
• Heavy bomb drone - to increase your odds in especially difficult missions
  
• In-game level editor with Workshop support
  
• More lore integrated tools to help you navigate the story and the combat
  
• Various sets of in-game files to deepen the game’s lore
  
• An absolutely stunning soundtrack by James Tenshi, available in your VEIL OS music player

Because of realistic metrics, this game is as hard as a real firefight, so you have to be tactical to avoid losses.
My main recommendation is to avoid sprint during combat, ensure that all enemies are suppressed when maneuvering, and be mindful of the lines of fire.
Do not rush on the battlefield.


This Early Access allows me to showcase Drone Perspective as a modern firefight simulation platform, and hopefully, with your support, I will be able to continue expanding this foundation in multiple directions:

• Multiplayer as the ultimate goal of the Early Access - both Coop and PvP. In order to get there, we have to carefully steer existing systems towards replayability.
  
  
• Variety of approaches - this solo-campaign is a median baseline required for the initial balancing. In-game subsystems are already prepared to accommodate more weapons, explosives, abilities, and drones. I just have to add the inventory UI and balance (which is the hardest part).
  
  
• Sandbox scenarios - bigger maps with loose objectives. Each solo-campaign mission is a handcrafted experience, however for the game longevity new levels will be featuring sandbox approach more and more.
  
  
• Combat AI - Development of the good AI takes time, and I had to take certain compromises to have Drone Perspective released. I can't share a lot here, but I have a very strong player on the emerging AI scene helping me.
  
  
• Vehicles - There are prototypes already, but I had to cut them from this release to have a more polished experience. I hope you can see how nicely existing input system translates to vehicles. Now it's just a matter of time to introduce them.
  
  
• More quality of life features - Accessibility, optimizations, gamepad support, new platforms, more detailed settings - everything that makes the game smoother.

I hope you can feel the synergy between these component.
"Embark on a journey!" - they say ;)

You can click on this picture to access the project roadmap:

[miro.com]Your participation is pivotal in the next stage.
Since this is a solo project, there are no extra layers between the developer and the community, and things are moving quickly.
I welcome you to join the project Discord or Steam Discussions - I will be happy to hear your opinion and incorporate good ideas into the game.

Your support makes this project real.
Thank you!

Always yours,
Demetri Lind

Hi everyone,
Long time no see!

The full build is finally complete and set for release on March 26th.

In the meantime, I’m updating the Demo build one last time - giving you a chance to experience the latest state of the game and decide if you want to support Drone Perspective Early Access launch.

Full Build Features:

• New story levels - bigger, longer, and tougher than those in the demo.
  
• New machine gun unit, Echo - also your field medic.
  
• Heavy bomb drone - to even the odds in key battles.
  
• Mind-bending story - every element of Drone Perspective is deeply justified in its universe.
  
• Various fixes across subsystems for a smoother experience.

And of course…

• A killer soundtrack by James Tenshi (available through your VEIL OS music player).
  UPD: for legal reasons soundtrack in the demo will be available on launch day, 26th of March.

Check out the pre-launch teaser to see what’s coming:

If you like the concept and gameplay, remember - your support matters and allows me to keep this build completely independent and community-driven. Every single review makes a difference.
And if you need anything, I’m just one message away on Discord!

Always yours,
Demetri

PS Post-launch roadmap is available here[miro.com].

Hi everyone,
I am proud to present to you the next iteration of combat subsystems for Drone Perspective.

Squad positioning and line of fire control is now much more thoughtful: Hold Right Mouse Button for the precise unit placement both in covers and in the open.

Be cautious about the lines of fire - crossing line of fire will make friendlies cease firing, however if they don't see where they are shooting you now risk to hit friendlies.

I believe I fixed most of the pathfinding issues - from now on your units are never supposed to get stuck.
(if it still happens reach me on Discord, please).

Also don't miss the Vertical Sync option in the settings menu - it makes the game incredibly smooth.


Now you also have an option to play upcoming levels before launch with Limited Patreon Early Access[www.patreon.com].

Patreon version features new level MOVE, and introduces Light Machine Gun unit Echo.
(Now your squad is complete, and the line of fire feature makes more sense, right?)
Most of major features of the base game are getting done, so I am planning to release new level every 1-2 weeks.

Your support will help me to deliver Drone Perspective without resorting to any publishers and will keep this game truly independent and community driven.


Always yours,
Demetri

Being a solo-indie developer means I have to choose my priorities very carefully, and focus until this moment was on the game itself.

However, quality of life features like keybindings also make the difference, and I am happy taht this week I had enough time to address them, especially after I realized that people with AZERTY keyboards can't play at all. (I apologize, my friends).

Press [F1] to open controls menu, or [F9] to open settings and then click Controls.

There were also other minor fixes addressed - for example, I've update a van model in the tutorial mission, because community noticed that previous asset was using a proprietary 3d model from one old iconic game.

There is still a way to go, for example it would be nice to have help messages being dynamically updated based on updated controls. Current Watsonian explanation is VEIL can't read your secured data, and only can tell you about the default control scheme through chat.
Step by step we will fix that as well.

Always yours,
Demetri

Hi everyone,
I’m happy to present the next update, which I believe brings the game closer to its final vision.

Bomb Drone movement model was reworked to give you an ability to fly in all three dimensions.
However, be careful, because enemies now can spot you, open fire and damage your drone.
That manual mode is now optional - by default bomb drone is using autopilot, to not distract you from controlling your squads.

You can activate manual control mode using [ Tab ] key while bomb drone is active.
After the drop, drone will automatically return to Charlie (or Delta) for reloading.

That feature addresses community feedback and adds a missing depth into the drone dropping gameplay.
It is still not a flying simulator, but I hope you will have some cool moments evading enemies bullets and aiming those grenades.

Best,
Demetri

Finally, after days of internal testing, grenade gameplay reached the public demo.
Grenades bring extra variety in resolving existing tactical problems, and are just fun to use.

Note that grenades now are using [ G ] hotkey, and squad ability is on [ T ].

Level HELP was also tweaked a bit to address community feedback, and made harder.
If you played it before - try it again, and tell me if you like it more or less.
Your feedback helps a lot.

The best news is that in order to integrate grenades, I had to correctly write a proper inventory system, and now we're all set for the future improvements in the loadout system.

There are still things to improve, I would love to have better trajectory control, and introduce a throwing spread, but what is in there is good enough, and the rest will come with time.
Last essential feature left is a drone movement update, and after that I can focus on content expansion.

If you encounter any issues - don't hesitate to report them on Discord, and I will fix them right away.

Always yours,
Demetri

I was hesitating to update the game build that late in the Festival (who would do that?), but I can't hold such a nice build hidden.

To celebrate the last hours of Next Fest and also to bring a bit of Halloween spirit, I am happy to present you a small horror style exploration in the universe of Drone Perspective.

TO find this code, you have to follow the in-game story and track the lifetime of some characters.

Level is experimental, intentionally made different and featuring another type of gameplay than in the main solo-campaign.

It is useful to see how existing weapon subsystems perform in new conditions, to find all potential imperfections and fix them.

Next Fest was an amazing experience, and brought a lot of new learnings.
Thank you everyone who discovered this game, and put their trust in it.

Spooky night!