Attention, pilots!
Ever since we started our work on Drone District we knew we wanted our claim to fame to be: ENTRY LEVEL FPV DRONES GAME. There's a lot of fantastic FPV games on (an off) Steam already. Liftoff, DRL, VelociDrone just to name a few. But for someone with no experience in flying drones most of the available games can prove very difficult to get into, due to steep learning curve.
Flying a drone in real life is not easy and intuitive, and games that aim at simulation (as all of the ones mentioned above do) carry this challenge into the virtual world. Someone who just wants to play out their fantasy of flying a drone and performing stunning tricks will in many cases give in to frustration before they learn how to handle a drone.
We thought our drone game should feel like one of the arcade racing games, which can be enjoyed by people of all ages, not necessarily just those with a real-life drivers license, seasoned from countless hours behind the wheel. We wanted our players to be able to jump right into the action! This update takes the game even further into that specific direction by adding a flight tutorial and - prominently - introducing a total overhaul of the ARCADE flight controls model.
Entry-level Drone game
As of today, launching the Drone District demo you'll be presented with two flight control settings: ARCADE and PRO. The latter can be used by seasoned pilots who've already earned their wings playing all sorts of FPV simulation games or flying real-life drones. This is the standard way most FPV games work. It's the ARCADE mode that makes us special!
In ARCADE mode you'll have a much easier time keeping the drone from crashing, making it go where you want it to go, and just enjoying the flight. Your machine will automatically retain height. level, and stop in place when no directional input is provided. It will feel much like one of these high-tech filming-focused drones with all kinds of flight assistance.
On top of that, there are two drone models to choose from:
V5 Easy - top speed limited to 37MPH (60KM/h)
V5 Expert - top speed at 57MPH (92KM/h)
The EASY model makes it much simpler to make that tight turns, align your flight with your target route, and fit in all those tight spaces without ever taking your finger off the thruster. Is all this realistic? Well... it depends. As mentioned before, there are some drones available in retail that will offer the extent of flight assistance that feels similar to flying the V5 EASY model in ARCADE mode of Drone District. But we're not really chasing after realism here - not more than our beloved Tony Hawks Pro Skater games aimed to be a skateboard simulator.
Then again, THPS games were the spark that made many people swarm their local skateparks with passion and excitement for the real thing. We hope to be that spark for FPV Drones someday. A gateway to real-life drone piloting as well as playing fully-fledged simulation games.
For now, please enjoy the demo, wishlist the game (there's a handy widget for that just below), and consider dropping us your feedback through the built-in survey accessible through the game's menu screen. And if you're feeling social - please join our Discord server and follow our various so-me profiles listed at the bottom of this post!
View game pageThat's it for today. See you in our playground in the sky!