High Pressure Arena by HexStart

[raw]
made by HexStart for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

banner_ludum.png

Can you survive under high pressure?

High Pressure Arena is a submarine arena shooter. Fight in the depths for as long as you can!

Make good use of boost [Shift] and drift [Space], they are key to survival in the arena.

Controls

  • WASD and Mouse - movement
  • Hold Shift - boost
  • Hold Space - drift
  • Hold Left-click - shoot
  • Hold Right-click - look around
  • ESC or P - pause menu with settings

s01.png

Created by

Together we create Tano Collective - Bluesky, Itch

s02.png

Attribution & Resources

See the in-game widget.

Ratings

Overall 144th 3.935⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 76th 4.032⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 273th 3.516⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 69th 4.29⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 60th 4.5⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 297th 3.179⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 192th 3.968⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 41🗨️

Feedback

nextnoon
08. Apr 2025 · 13:34 UTC
Love the colours, and the models are so well made. I had a problem with a glitched collectible that wouldn't collect but otherwise pretty smooth experience. I honestly wish the game was a bit harder, I felt like I was way tankier than the other subs.
derllie
08. Apr 2025 · 13:42 UTC
I love this open 3D world, it feels like I'm playing some high-class game!
dithom
08. Apr 2025 · 13:44 UTC
Wow thats polished! Nice gameplay!
Norb
08. Apr 2025 · 13:48 UTC
You did this in this short time frame? Insane. A lot of fun! WOuld have loved to be able to do barrel role.
🎤 HexStart
08. Apr 2025 · 14:02 UTC
@vera-stepanyan the collectible restores health, so if you had a full healthbar already (on the right side of your sub) - it won't collect. Re: difficulty - the beginning is rather forgiving, but after a couple of "waves", it ramps up.
BatTheCat
08. Apr 2025 · 14:11 UTC
pretty nice intro design... i love the artstyle... its simple but very pretty!!! for some reason, this game reminds me forsaken of the classic n64
Saryah
09. Apr 2025 · 09:54 UTC
I love the music and art style was great. Playing as submarine was awesome. Amazing entry as always, appreciate the level of polish this has.
Flinge
09. Apr 2025 · 11:54 UTC
Really cool visuals! The controls feel great — really gives you the sense that you're actually piloting a submarine underwater. Would be awesome to see some gameplay progression, like new enemy types behaving in different ways other than just giving more score. But for a jam, it’s all great — you’ve done an awesome job!
Andreadbx
09. Apr 2025 · 17:47 UTC
Amazing job as always from you guys! Loved the artstyle (and for this jam we are "no ui unless is on the character" brothers) great game!
Sevadusk
09. Apr 2025 · 17:58 UTC
I like pink underwater submarine combat! The atmosphere was really nice, but there are definitely some improvements that can be made. The collectible has too small of a collection radius, I think it should have some sort of magnetic effect that eases that short radius. I also would've liked more action-gameplay elements, maybe different weapons that add more juice to the gameplay and etc.
SvenErik
09. Apr 2025 · 19:08 UTC
Totally my subculture vibes~ I really enjoyed the combat—it had just the right pace and a good number of enemies for a jam-length game. Though I think adding just one more enemy variety, maybe a bigger fella, could’ve helped make the encounters feel a bit more distinct. Still, jolly good game! ![sub-score_sub_cuoturelove.png](///raw/e14/c1/z/6bc77.png)
jddoesdev
10. Apr 2025 · 01:20 UTC
This was such a good time to play. The combo of keyboard and mouse for movement were a little confusing at first, but once I got the hang of it, I had a great time playing. The graphics were on point and felt a lot like Party Animals, which is amazing! Would like to see more enemy types with more mechanics, but for a jam this is amazing!
elZach
10. Apr 2025 · 17:44 UTC
Awesome graphics and really well tuned controls. Really not much to criticize, other than the difficulty could scale in a little sooner.

Played it on stream with hex2start in the chat, here's a link to the timestamp: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2428950737?t=1h36m17s
Rhoka
10. Apr 2025 · 22:14 UTC
Very nice entry! Really enjoy the movement model you created. It feels very smooth to transition between normal propulsion and the drifting decoupled mode. Creating a satisfying flight model within the time frame of a jam is quite difficult! The little bubble vfx were also very cute as was the overall vibe and color pallet of the environment. Very pretty while keeping things simple.
My only major nitpick was that I didn't even notice my health bar until I was almost dead. The healthy color of the health bar being purple blended in with the rest of the submarine. I think just adjusting that to a more typical green to red gradient would help.
Other than that, great job! Here's my score!

![HighPressure.png](///raw/d64/31/z/6bef5.png)
Rincs
11. Apr 2025 · 09:43 UTC
A fun, short romp! I wish that there were things to discover in the world or some kind of upgrade system, but I had fun!! :3

![highpressurearena.PNG](///raw/ccf/64/z/6bf7c.png)
Dissonance Generator
11. Apr 2025 · 17:23 UTC
Satisfying gameplay! I wish the audio felt better connected to the game.
🎤 HexStart
11. Apr 2025 · 18:59 UTC
@dissonance-generator can you elaborate? Any particular sounds that felt disconnected to you?
Dissonance Generator
11. Apr 2025 · 19:19 UTC
The torpedoes have a nice sorta underwater-ish sound to them but it doesn't otherwise feel like we're underwater. I guess I'm expecting some sort of occasional bubbling ambience or something, even if that's not necessarily what you'd hear if you were inside a real submarine.
🎤 HexStart
11. Apr 2025 · 19:24 UTC
@dissonance-generator thanks for clarifying! Agreed. There's >some< ambience, but it's very subtle, could def be better.
MrAntoineSt
12. Apr 2025 · 02:12 UTC
Very cool game ! I really liked the mood on this one. The controls were a little weird, but overall i liked it !
Tetracold
12. Apr 2025 · 04:38 UTC
Very fun, I didn't get a very high score but I love how it plays, it's very polished

Also the presentation is great too love the color palette and style
Cure
12. Apr 2025 · 09:04 UTC
Great idea for an arena shooter! Love the style too.

`https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFk44q7aTqE&t=7710s`
outstar
13. Apr 2025 · 20:36 UTC
I rarely have chance to play arena shooters on Ludum, so thank you so much for making a game in one of my favorite genres! It was a bit of a juggling in between mouse, WASD and space, but once I got a hang on it and learned how to turn fast, it became much more enjoyable :D I think a potential way to make it even more fun (but definitely out of the scope of the jam, so don't worry about it for the Ludum :D) would be to make other submarines attack each other too, so you can try to match with them and win the short-spanned deathmatch :D Great effort for the jam, loved the main menu music too!
kuboi
13. Apr 2025 · 21:06 UTC
Very fun game, good job!:)
Empyreans
14. Apr 2025 · 16:34 UTC
https://youtu.be/TqW8Jtak43A

From the stream :)

Absolutely not jelly of your widget 😏

I'm taking notes this time! 😤

Keep on cooking :sunglasses:

~Xp
Jordanfb
20. Apr 2025 · 00:18 UTC
Whoah! Had a ton of fun, didn't score very well at first but eventually managed to drift and boost around the terrain and ended up with a 9825 high score after _many_ attempts. Witnessed on stream which was a lot of fun! I had to pick my engagements which really felt very "submarine" like, I couldn't just stand in the middle of the map and tank everything I had to dodge and weave around towards the landscape and then juke around it and face them head on. Only improvement I could think of would be a way to distinguish my missiles exploding other missiles harmlessly nearby me from their missiles hitting my hull and my health going down via sfx -- sometimes the screen shake wasn't quite clear how many missiles were causing me damage I just knew that I was in trouble. Very nice UI and loved the graphics in game as well the subs and seaweed were very cute, the colors very zen (and the different color subs very useful to know just how much of a pickle I was in). Lots of fun, definitely got into flow there zooming around. Nice work incredible job during a game jam!
Teo Yong Jie
21. Apr 2025 · 05:30 UTC
really nice looking game! personally would like just some more power ups to spice up the game abit more and i think it will add more replay value?
A0405u
21. Apr 2025 · 11:36 UTC
Looks good! Reminded me of Gear Up! Feels nice to play, but not very responsive. Love the boats, AO works really well! Gameplay loop is fine, but I wish it had more progression! I hope you'll a release after the Jam, good luck!
Dios
21. Apr 2025 · 15:18 UTC
Very cool stylization, VFX, and in general the entire visual side of the game! The controls seemed a little awkward, but maybe it's because I played on a laptop touchpad. It's really cool that there are detailed settings
XpMonster
21. Apr 2025 · 22:26 UTC
![brave_9RPTsyeZRu.png](///raw/67f/f3/z/6c628.png)

Went back and played a bit more :heart:

5 elites demolish you in seconds lol

*Also this game is criminally underrated and one of the most polished experiences out here.
Wadoral
25. Apr 2025 · 21:48 UTC
This looks and feels great! I wish there was some kind of upgrade system and things to find in the ocean. Enemy variety was a bit lacking as well. Overall great vibes, well done!
LDJam user 410492
26. Apr 2025 · 04:15 UTC
very polished game! Graphics are especially solid, really like the explosion effects!