Solo Developer Wants Players to Put New TPS Roguelite Through Its Paces

A developer just released a free demo for Drone Arena, a third-person shooter roguelite that ditches the usual sword-and-spell setup for something decidedly more mechanical. The goal is to pilot combat drones through escalating waves of enemy mechas, stacking weapons and chasing synergies.

The demo gives you ten waves to work with and a selection of items and weapons to experiment with.  You’re not drowning in options, but there’s supposedly enough variety to find those wild, broken combinations that make roguelites sing.

What’s interesting here isn’t just that another TPS roguelite exists (the genre is having a moment, sure), but that the developer is explicitly asking for feedback on build variety and synergy design. They know their audience. They’re targeting people who’ve logged hundreds of hours optimizing Slay the Spire decks or stacking modifiers in Hades runs. That kind of specificity matters.

The difficulty scaling question they’re asking is particularly telling. Getting that balance right is where most games stumble. Too forgiving early on and you’re bored by wave five. Too brutal on the other hand, and the run ends before synergies even matter.

If you’ve got opinions about what makes a roguelite’s progression feel good, or if you’re just itching to try something new, this could just be worth an hour of your time.