DRONECOM · Press kit

Factsheet

Title: DRONECOM
Developer: Big Beard Games (Peter Ellis Jones, solo)
Based in: London, UK
Genre: Real-time naval sensor-warfare sim
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux (Steam)
Release: Late 2026
Price: $14.99
Players: Single-player, online co-op, online PvP
Engine: Bevy (Rust)
Store: Steam
Website: https://dronecomgame.com/
Contact: [email protected]
Social: Steam · Discord · X · Reddit

Trailer

Download 1080p (MP4) Download 720p (MP4) Thumbnail (JPG)

About the game

A real-time naval combat sim where stealth and detection decide whether you live to fight another day. Every emission that finds the enemy helps the enemy find you. Design your own subs, ships, aircraft and missiles, launch them from carriers, and hunt through physics-driven radar, sonar and heat.

EMCON is everything

DRONECOM is a real-time sensor-warfare game played from the seat of a Combat Information Centre (CIC). Nothing can be seen until a sensor detects it, and every emission you make to find the enemy can be used to find you. Turning a radar on extends your view and advertises your position at the same time; running silent keeps you hidden and leaves you half-blind. The game is built around managing that trade-off, which navies call Emissions Control (EMCON).

Physically modelled sensors

Whether a sensor sees anything depends on the emitter's power, the target's signature, the range, the terrain in between, and the curvature of the Earth.

Four sensor domains: radar, sonar, IR and optical, active and passive.
Run passive, track on bearings: radar warning receivers, Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and passive sonar give you a bearing with no range. Turning bearings into a firing solution takes target-motion analysis over time, a cross-fix from two or more receivers, or Frequency Difference of Arrival (FDOA) geolocation between paired ESM sensors.
Real propagation: earth-curvature radar horizons (fly low to stay under them), terrain line-of-sight masking, and look-down ground clutter with a Doppler notch.
Deep acoustics: thermocline layers, convergence zones, shallow-water loss, and speed-dependent cavitation that gives you away when you push your boat too hard.
Authentic CIC displays: read the plot in Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) symbology, and watch contacts develop on a B-scope and a bearing-time recorder (BTR) waterfall.
Battle damage assessment: a contact you've struck stays uncertain until another sensor confirms the kill.

Design your own fleet

There are no fixed unit rosters. A built-in blueprint designer lets you assemble submarines, surface ships, aircraft, helicopters, missiles and torpedoes from chassis, sensors, warheads, engines and flight models. Every design is a compromise between payload, speed, signature, sensor power, range and stealth, and the submarine you design plays by exactly the same rules as the torpedo hunting it.

Carrier warfare

Launch, recover, refuel and rearm your drones from one or more drone carriers equipped with flight decks, well decks, VLS cells and torpedo tubes. Manage your inventory, your fuel and your economy, find the enemy carriers before they find you, and destroy them.

Friend or foe

You have to identify a contact before you can trust it. IFF works on detection confidence, allied teams share a datalink picture, and misreading a contact can put your missile into a friendly unit.

Solo, co-op and head-to-head

Take the CIC seat across procedurally generated archipelagos, alone or with others. Every mode plays by the same sensor rules: single-player against an AI that has to hunt for you under exactly the rules you play by, online co-op against the AI on a shared datalink picture, online PvP against another commander, and spectating from the CIC. Play over Steam, hosting or joining through the Steam overlay and invite links.

A moddable sandbox

Every unit is data, so a text editor is enough to mod chassis, sensors, warheads, flight models, AI tuning and even the NTDS symbols. Map seeds are shareable procedural archipelagos. The setting is a grounded near future that sits between historical simulation of real hardware and outright sci-fi.

Where it fits

DRONECOM aims for the sensor depth of Cold Waters and Sea Power, the tactical picture of Command: Modern Operations, and the design-your-own-fleet freedom of Nebulous: Fleet Command.

Screenshots

All stills are 1920×1080 PNG. Click any image for the full-resolution file.

Tactical overview: one picket radiating, enemy contacts resolving on bearing lines. 01_tactical_overview.png

Sub hunt: a submarine holds a passive track, then a torpedo mid-run with the solution plot and evidence ledger open. 02_sub_hunt.png

Blueprint designer: a design mid-edit with its payload, speed and signature trade-off visible. 03_drone_designer.png

Carrier deck operations: a launch deck cycling drones out while a recovery deck lands a returning flight. 04_carrier_deckops.png

Strategic overview: the whole archipelago and both fleets' sensor coverage. 05_strategic_overview.png

Gameplay loops

Short captures of the game in motion, as WebM and MP4.

Radar on: the detection arc sweeps, contacts resolve, and an enemy bearing swings onto the radiating picket. WebM · loop_01_tactical_overview.mp4

The passive-sonar kill chain: bearing-only track, active ping, firing solution, torpedo run, kill. WebM · loop_02_sensor_depth.mp4

Both halves of the deck cycle: launches fanning out to their destinations while a flight recovers. WebM · loop_04_carrier_deckops.mp4

Logos and capsules

Logo (1280×720, transparent) logo.png

Header capsule (920×430) header_capsule.jpg

Main capsule (1232×706) main_capsule.jpg

Vertical capsule (748×896) vertical_capsule.jpg

Library capsule (600×900) library_capsule.jpg

About the developer

I spent 12 years as a devops contractor in the finance industry before quitting to build DRONECOM alone, in Rust, on the Bevy engine, under the name Big Beard Games. I develop in the open: the Discord is where the day-to-day design decisions get debated and where playtest feedback goes straight into the build, and that is how the game has been made since the first prototype.

Contact: [email protected]
Based in: London, UK