Pre-Production Document: Stage 1

My game is called Mechanical Marathon, I thought this would be a suitable name for my game as it is based on the mechanical side of fantasy, like the main feature of the vehicles and the steam punk theme is also very mechanical. Marathon also can mean a long or difficult activity as well as a race which fits the genre and plot. I've decided to go with Fantasy as my theme for my game. I started off looking into steam punk as my style and immediately thought of Howl's Moving Castle as it fits into that category well (top left on the mood board). After looking into Studio Ghibli vehicle designs I thought as I've looked into a film of this theme, I should look into a familiar game which was when I thought to take inspiration from the Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy is a fantasy/steam punk game which links perfectly with my game idea. When looking into Final Fantasy, I came across many unique vehicles, however the air ships and motorbikes specifically grabbed my attention as their designs were the sort of thing I was going for, there fore I gathered images of some examples of these vehicles for inspiration and reference. I also like the idea of my vehicle being air based, because it's the most unusual kind of vehicle, like wise to fantasy which is also unique and unrealistic. My games target audience can be any one above the age of 12 as it involves violence which would be un suitable for any one below that age. Apart from that, any one of either gender who enjoys fantasy, arcade or racing type of games may be interested in playing this game.




This is my colour pallet for my game, I based it on steam punk colours which revolve around old colours like shades of brown, gold and silver. I got inspiration for the steam punk colour scheme from the images in my mood board. 

Plot/Synopsis:

This game is a light hearted, racing and shooter game based in a fantasy world, however it's not an open world as it's a planned route through out the game. The plot of the game is that there are two teams fighting to take lead of their land which they share (you're put on one of the teams). They decide on an idea of how to chose which team rules the land, the idea is to split both teams between air ships and bikes, then a race would take place both on land and in the sky, to collect 20 gems which are also spread across the land and within the sky. These gems are needed in order to take lead of the land. However both teams collide into a fight during the race which is the main struggle of winning the race. There are also obstacles along the way to interfere with the race. The winning team is the team with all 20 gems.


First vehicle:

My first vehicle is an air ship which is in the steam punk style. I also want It would fit in within the colour scheme of steam punk, like browns, blacks, gold, silver. The air ship is small because the only characters to be flying the air ships would be the smaller, weaker ones. I decided this because I thought that the bigger, tougher characters would be better placed on bikes/land as it involves more contact within fights during the race, which means they'd need to be tougher. Also, characters in the air ship wouldn't come in personal contact with other players, as the air ship is almost like a bubble around them, in the sense that they're protected by it. The air ship has a single ship like sail at the top (resembling air "ship") which would be an off white colour. I was thinking off white would be better than a normal bright shade of white as it'll create an older sort of effect, likewise to the steam punk theme which in general follows a rusty, old sort of theme. The sail would be attached to the space ship by ropes like normal ships would be. The rest of the air ship would be shaped like an old ship, and the texture would also follow an old ship theme, like wooden stripes on the hull and the old fashioned decorations. In the picture below it shows the kind of ship I'm basing my air ship off and it shows the sort of texture I explained (wooden striped hull). I want the control room of the air ship to be at the front with complete glass windows all around it, covering the front part of the air ship. The picture below the ship image shows an air ship with a similar idea of glass window fronting. At the very front of the airship I want there to be a long stem supporting the sail, the bottom image shows what I mean at the front of the ship shown. Finally, the air ship needs a built in weapons at the roof of the ship, I think a plasma turret would suit the fantasy theme, it would also rotate 360 degrees so the characters inside can aim it at enemies at any angle. I was hoping all these features would create an old, traditional looking ship but made futuristic by it being an air ship. This fits in well with fantasy as fantasy follows a theme of old features being used for futuristic models.

Second Vehicle:

My second vehicle is based on a motor bike, however the two wheels are about twice as wide than normal so that they can ride on most surfaces smoothly, it will also make the bike appear chunkier and make it more aggressive like the characters riding it. The motor bike is very large as it is built for the bigger/stronger characters. It also needs weapon/gun holders at the front of the bike on both sides so that the character riding it can fight off the other team whilst racing. I also think that have double guns would add to the power of the character riding it, which makes up for not being protecting like they are inside the first vehicle. I want the bike to be quite low so it forms a more streamlined shape and therefore goes faster. The back of it would have a huge engine and exhausts on show to make it appear more of an aggressive vehicle. I think it would suit metallic gold and silvers because as well as those colours fitting in with the steam punk colour scheme, it would look smarter and more towards the futuristic side of fantasy, opposite to the first vehicle. The body of where the seat is isn't the largest part of the bike, the wheels and other features like the engine take up the most space of this design. The handle bars in front of the seat would be tall to fit better to characters suggested to be riding it, they would also be quite wide but not extremely. The bike generally fits as one shape, everything is level with each other other than the exhausts and handles, this will also add to the streamlined feature so it flows faster. I like how both the vehicles are based on the same theme of fantasy steam punk, yet take off completely different directions within this theme (futuristic and historic) because it provides a variation for the game but fits in nicely.

The image to the left is a perfect example of what I explained with the large exhausts on display.