Start with the vehicle class and gameplay role, not a specific car’s confidential drawings. Use broad category cues to make the design feel believable, then give it its own proportions, surfaces, lights, cockpit, name, and recurring visual motifs. If exact real-car fidelity is required, secure the appropriate permissions and control access to the reference material. Design changes can reduce the risk of accidental imitation, but no single visual formula guarantees legal safety.
Choose between an original design and a licensed replica
The first production decision is how closely the game needs to match a real vehicle. A fictional car gives the team room to serve the game’s setting and mechanics; a licensed replica can deliver model-specific fidelity, but requires an authorized path for the vehicle and its reference materials.
| Approach | Best fit | What the team needs to manage |
|---|---|---|
| Original fictional vehicle | The game needs a convincing vehicle class or role, but not an exact real model. | Build from category-level references, make deliberate design choices, and check the finished vehicle for unintended resemblance to a particular car. |
| Licensed real vehicle | The game depends on exact geometry, branding, or interior and exterior reproduction. | Identify the relevant rights holder, secure permissions, define approvals and permitted uses, and protect restricted source material. |
Fictional names and badges create creative latitude, but changing a name alone does not establish that a design is legally safe. The designers of Interstate ’76 said they chose fictional makes and models instead of directly replicating and licensing real cars, which let them modify vehicles for the game’s alternate-history setting. That is an example of a creative choice, not a legal rule.
Make a fictional car recognizable without tracing a real one
Define the brief in category terms
Write down the vehicle class, gameplay role, setting, and intended personality before collecting detailed visual references. For example, a muscle car brief might call for a powerful front, long hood, high beltline, 2+2 cabin, muscular rear fenders, and a practical but sporty interior. Those are broad genre cues, not a blueprint for any one manufacturer’s model.
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Ubisoft Ivory Tower vehicle designer Jérémy Sachot described this balance while discussing the fictional Ogmios muscle car. The team studied the history and stylistic evolution of the category, but found that following its conventions too strictly led to designs already offered by real American manufacturers. The Ogmios instead received a distinct identity that included recurring X-shaped forms and yellow details. Sachot’s account appeared in Ubisoft’s official interview on November 13, 2024.
Make original choices across the whole vehicle
Do not treat a new badge or grille as enough to distinguish a design. Make and document deliberate choices in the areas that shape its overall expression:
- Proportions: Set the cabin position, hood length, overhangs, wheel size, and stance to suit the brief rather than matching a reference model.
- Exterior forms: Develop your own front treatment, window graphics, fender volumes, rear composition, and surface transitions.
- Lighting and trim: Choose a coherent graphic language for lamps, vents, seams, and accents; repeat distinctive motifs selectively.
- Interior: Design the dashboard, controls, seats, and materials around the vehicle’s role instead of reproducing a real cabin by default.
- Identity: Create original names, badges, and studio-wide motifs that reinforce the fictional vehicle’s character.
Review the design against references
Compare the developing vehicle with the references used for the category, looking for an unintended match in its overall silhouette or in a distinctive combination of details. If it reads as a particular real model rather than as a vehicle of its class, revisit the design choices that create that resemblance. This is a practical design review, not a legal test: the sources do not establish a universal threshold for how different a fictional car must be.
Keep reference material and permissions under control
Reference handling belongs in the production plan, especially when a project uses manufacturer CAD, licensed imagery, or nonpublic vehicle information. PlayStation’s 2014 account of the DRIVECLUB pipeline described work spanning licensing, reference collation, CAD processing, asset production, physics modeling, and in-game completion. It said the team used manufacturer CAD data. For that specific project, PlayStation reported approximately seven months to create a car and more than 1,000 photographs of each car’s interior and exterior. These are figures from one 2014 project account, not current industry averages.
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For every reference asset, record where it came from, what permissions apply, and what uses are allowed. Distinguish public material from licensed and confidential material, and keep any restrictions attached to the asset as it moves through production.
- Store restricted CAD and imagery in access-controlled locations.
- Give access only to people who need the material for authorized work.
- Check before including source files or confidential imagery in public builds, issue trackers, demos, or promotional material.
- Track the asset’s permitted uses and any approval requirements alongside its provenance.
These are prudent production controls, not a universal confidentiality protocol established by the cited accounts. The applicable agreement and circumstances determine the project’s actual obligations.
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Choose references to match the brief
If a game needs only a believable vehicle category, use public references for general research and develop an original design. If it needs exact geometry, branding, or interior and exterior reproduction, obtain the appropriate permissions before production depends on that material. Do not assume that access to a file also grants permission to use it in a game.
Plan a licensed-car workflow before committing to exact fidelity
Licensing is more than finding the right logo contact. WIPO’s video-game business and legal guide flags practical questions such as who controls licensing rights for a vehicle, whether the manufacturer has a licensing program, what restrictions may apply, and how long approvals take. Those questions do not determine the answers for a particular manufacturer.
In a 2011 interview, Forza Motorsport 4 creative director Dan Greenawalt described developers generally working with a manufacturer’s licensing organization, while noting that licensing, marketing, design, and racing functions may sit in separate parts of a large company. That is a practitioner account from 2011, not a guarantee about current approval structures. He also said the Forza team checked performance claims against independent testing and other technical evidence rather than relying unquestioningly on marketing material.
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Before building production around a real car, establish the following with the relevant rights holder and the project’s legal advisers:
- Who can authorize the vehicle’s use and how the licensing contact is reached.
- Which platforms, territories, and uses the permission covers.
- What approval milestones apply and who is responsible for obtaining approvals.
- How reference assets may be accessed, stored, shared, and used.
- Whether the agreement covers modifications, damage, fictionalized performance, and marketing use.
- How proposed changes are reviewed and controlled during production.
Specific rights, contract terms, and legal duties depend on the agreement and applicable law; obtain project-specific review rather than treating a general production account as legal advice.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Move from brief to a playable vehicle
A useful production sequence is to settle the design intent early, then test the shape in the conditions where players will see it. The following workflow combines sketching and proportion work described by automotive designers with practical game-production checks.
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- Write the brief. Define the vehicle class, setting, gameplay function, and the details that must be original or, if licensed, accurate.
- Sketch alternatives. Explore different silhouettes and major forms before committing to detailed surfaces. Keep category references broad unless exact licensed reference is authorized.
- Build a proportion model. Create a low-detail 3D blockout to test stance, cabin placement, wheelbase, visibility, and camera readability.
- Check gameplay and camera views. Evaluate the vehicle from the distances and angles players will encounter. Adjust the silhouette and key features so they read clearly in play.
- Develop the identity. Refine lights, front and rear treatments, interior, materials, and recurring motifs. For a fictional car, check for unintended resemblance before finalizing distinctive details.
- Complete production assets. Move into final modeling and materials, then coordinate visual, physics, and any licensing or approval work.
Porsche designers described a related virtual concept-car progression: an ideation and sketch phase, a 3D proportion model, and then physical scale models. Porsche designer Fabian Schmölz gave that description in an official interview on March 11, 2022. The designers said their Vision Gran Turismo project took around six months and contrasted it with five years that production-car development could take; neither duration is a general estimate for game-vehicle work.
Use a sketchbook for ideas, not as a secrecy measure
A physical automotive sketchbook can be useful during ideation, but there is no basis here for treating a particular sketchbook as necessary or as a way to protect confidential information. Confidentiality depends on permissions and how restricted material is handled, not on the medium used to draw a design.
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