The short version
Father.io AR (Proxy42 Inc.) turns a park or a backyard into a laser-tag arena. Your opponents are other people; the phone tracks them on a radar and registers hits. The full multiplayer game needs the Inceptor, a clip-on sensor sold separately, plus friends who also have one, plus an internet connection. Its App Store listing was last updated on 5 November 2018.
Down The Drone (KIDA Studios) is a first-person shooter where the enemies are rendered into your real surroundings by ARKit. Hostile quadcopters and orbital strike drones hold position in your room, street or garden and come at you from above. It is single-player, free, and has no ads, no in-app purchases and no server — it plays identically in airplane mode. Version 1.2 shipped on 22 August 2026.
Side by side
| Father.io AR | Down The Drone | |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Proxy42 Inc. | KIDA Studios |
| Type | Real-world laser tag (PvP) with a solo drone mode | First-person AR shooter (single-player PvE) |
| What you shoot at | Other players; drones in solo mode | Drone swarms anchored in your space |
| Price | Free app; Inceptor hardware sold separately | Free |
| Ads / in-app purchases | None listed; hardware is the purchase | None |
| Needs internet | Yes, by design | No — fully offline |
| Needs other people | Yes, for multiplayer | No |
| Minimum iOS | 10.3.3 | 13.0 (iPhone 6s or later, ARKit) |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Last App Store update | 5 Nov 2018 (v2.3.7) | 22 Aug 2026 (v1.2) |
| Game Center | Not listed | Yes |
What Father.io does that Down The Drone does not
Father.io is a social, outdoor game. If you have a group, an afternoon, and everyone is willing to buy the hardware, it gives you something no single-player AR shooter can: running around a real space shooting at real people, with a GPS radar showing where everyone is. That is its entire pitch and it is a good one.
The trade-offs follow from the pitch. Without the Inceptor you get what the listing itself calls a small solo FPS against drones. You need a live connection. And the app has not seen an update in years, which for an AR game means it was built against iOS 10-era ARKit and has not been tuned for the phones people carry now.
What Down The Drone does that Father.io does not
- Plays alone, immediately. Open it, scan the room, and the first wave is in front of you. No lobby, no friends required, no hardware.
- Enemies live in your space. Drones are placed at real positions and persist there. Turn away and back, and the drone is where you left it. Father.io does not render enemies into the room at all in its multiplayer mode.
- Runs offline, with nothing attached. No ads, no in-app store, no account, no tracking. Put the phone in airplane mode and the game plays exactly the same.
- Built for current ARKit. It is a 2026 release maintained against current iOS, not a 2018 build.
Which one should you install?
Install Father.io if the thing you want is laser tag with friends and you are prepared to buy the Inceptor for everyone. It is not really a substitute for a single-player shooter, and it does not try to be.
Install Down The Drone if you searched for an alternative because you wanted an AR shooter you can actually play right now, on your own, in an ordinary room, without an accessory or a connection. That is the gap it was built for. If you want the wider field, the round-up of free AR shooting games for iPhone covers every current option.
We make Down The Drone, so read this as a comparison from someone with a stake in it. Facts about other apps and services come from their App Store listings, official pricing pages and published reviews as of 2026-09-15; listings change, so confirm anything decision-critical on the store page itself.