Build Story · VR training pitch · BG / EN
Firstlight: a VR crew-training pitch, in one evening
A Bulgarian-first scroll story that pitches VR rehearsal for counter-drone crews, with an early Quest prototype behind it.
In one look
The problem
New counter-drone systems are arriving, and the crews who will run them get only a handful of live drills a year. The page argues that live drills need airspace, real drones and weeks of planning.
What we built
Firstlight is pitched as a place to rehearse. It scans a unit's real console and site, loads its own procedures, and lets an AI instructor change the threat on every run. The path is crawl, walk, run, debrief. The page tells it as one story about one crew, scrolling sideways through 11 chapters, with a source on each claim. It opens in Bulgarian, and English is one click away.
Where it is now
Live at dronedefense.d9.army, with the story, an evidence page that gives each source and its caveat, and a printable six-week pilot plan. Demo figures are labelled sample data, and the request form is a demonstration: the page says requests are not sent or stored. Behind it sits an early Quest prototype, not a released product. The page was last edited on 14 October 2026.
What this would have cost in 2024
About $7.4k and 5-7 weeks
2024 team: 2-3 people: a web developer, a Unity XR developer and a part-time 3D artist, with a Bulgarian copy editor. Built here by one founder working with AI in 1 evening for the page, 12 days for the prototype.
| Piece | 2024 hours |
|---|---|
| Sideways scroll-story engine: 11 chapters, parallax layers, evidence cards, lens effect | ~42 |
| Story, bilingual BG/EN copy, evidence page with sources, buyer questions, printable pilot plan | ~36 |
| Quest prototype: console training, drill with drone and flyable interceptor, hands, instructor station, voice commands | ~85 |
| 3D content and scenario data: console, station, drones, procedures, validator, Quest 2 tuning | ~34 |
| Total (PERT) | ~197 |
Method: PERT (O+4M+P)/6 per piece; low = O × $25, likely = PERT × $37.5, high = P × $50 (Accelerance 2024 Eastern-Europe band). These are estimates of what a team would have needed in 2024, not invoices.
How it was built
From first commit to current build in 1 evening for the page, 12 days for the prototype
- A remix becomes Firstlight
A copy of an earlier scroll-story site was made. The founder's first brief kept its engine, the sideways scroll, parallax and evidence cards, and rewrote it as a defence-training pitch.
remix at 18:22 UTC · first AI edit 19:05 UTC · 8 AI edits by 21:19 UTC - One crew, one mission
After scrolling the first version, the founder found it read as a catalogue of twelve uses. The story was rebuilt around one counter-drone crew, and the hero was cut to a single line.
story rebuilt 19:40 UTC · hero trimmed 19:50 UTC - Buyer questions and Bulgarian
A buyer-questions section, a printable six-week pilot plan and Bulgarian as the default language went in. A buyer-style read-through then found four places where the copy contradicted itself. They were fixed in English, then in Bulgarian.
4 contradictions fixed 21:09 UTC · Bulgarian matched 21:19 UTC - A Quest prototype
A Unity app for Meta Quest started the night the page went up: a console to learn, a drill with a drone and an interceptor you fly, tracked hands, an instructor station and push-to-talk voice commands. An early run on a Quest 2 held its frame rate. It is a prototype, not a product.
24 commits on 5 days, 14 to 26 October · 72 frames a second for 40 seconds on a Quest 2
Who did what
The founder decided
- Rebuild around one crew, one mission and one pilot, not a catalogue of uses.
- Say what it is not: no targeting or weapons systems, unclassified material only, and AI always disclosed.
- Claim equal, not better: the evidence page says XR training matches conventional training, and is worth most where real training is unsafe or too costly.
AI built and checked
- The page was built in Lovable from the founder's written briefs: 8 of the 9 edits came from its AI agent.
- The Quest prototype was built in Claude Code sessions, and a scripted bot plays each drill as a test.
Stack
Want something like this for your team?
From one call to something live. The same method is in the Claude Operator Pack.
From the founder
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