Creating atmosphere and building style

Pressure has always had strong visuals, even in its early days. I really wanted to lean into an early 2000s vibe with the new Pressure, inspired by movies like The Hunt for Red October and games like Metal Gear Solid.

My biggest inspiration for Pressure is the game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The game revolves around a plot surrounding soldiers, ninjas, and advanced AI weapons. The interior of the game’s semi-final setting is my biggest inspiration, the Arsenal Gear. The Arsenal Gear is an AI controlled mega-submarine.

The Philosopher is heavily inspired, but I’ve tried to distance myself from the inspiration by leaning into the aesthetic of the machine looking alive by making the machine be alive. Within Pressure the brain of the Philosopher isn’t just a giant computer, it is a literal lab-grown brain in control of a giant metal fish body, hyperaware of all of the invaders worming their way through its body to steal its brain.

Visuals are just one part of the show though, and without fitting audio it just feels empty. I’ve gotten my friend Henry who makes music to help me with the sound design of the game, and he’s already made some tracks to tell the story through sound.

The evasion theme is layered track that updates based on the events on the game, getting progressively more intense as things go on.

Henry also helped me make some concept voice lines for the enemies using layers beeps and voice lines, giving depth to the enemies.