The 404 Punching Machine

Last year, I saw the 404 contest and thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could compete?" Fast forward a year later, my Framer skills have significantly improved, and I decided to enter this year's contest.

In everything I create, I strive for compelling storytelling. I knew I wanted to try my hand at a spline integration, but I didn't want it to be like every other 404 page.

Did you know that 95% of 404 pages feature either an astronaut, a maze, or a black hole? That's not an actual statistic, but during my research, I noticed this was a common theme. I wanted to break away from that.

I envisioned something analog to showcase a machine malfunctioning. That's when I remembered an old "Boxing Machine" that I saw many douchebags punch to impress people with their strength... Lol.

I didn't want to place it in a typical "bar" environment. This led me to think about a boxing gym, where this machine would make perfect sense as an arcade feature. I'm pretty sure there's no such machine in any real boxing gym, but I liked the theme and environment.

My first draft included everything: modeling the actual boxing machine, creating the interaction, and setting the scene. When I was done, it looked ugly. That's when I pushed the theme further and set it into a toon shading with purple and orange as the main colors. The rest is history.

It's a good-looking Easter egg/404 page that could be perfect for anything related to sports or a SaaS in sports management.

404 Punching Machine - Framer Website

Remixable Spline Scene

My Contra profile if you'd like a design like this one for your own website!

That's it for me. Hope you like it, Cheers!