14 DAY TRIAL // Have you ever wondered how do model-builders come up with the PGR cars? It's not an easy job, especially if they are for a next-gen-console-kind-of-game. Everything in a game (concerning what players see) is made up of polygons. Lots and lots of polygons that stick together to give you the impression that you're actually driving a car and not a set of wires, or that your fighter is human and not a bunch of sticks running around.
In fact, even the gun held by the main character of a FPS game is made the same. First, designers draw the gun. Then they make its wireframe (like we were taught in kindergarten to start a drawing with helping lines), after which they give it 3 dimensional properties. It is only after that when designers stick predefined images on the polygons formed by the wireframe and the gun looks pretty much like in real-life, with its handles, accessories and trigger and even shadows.
OK, you don't have to say thank you for the science class because you know you'll get one every day no matter what, I can't help it. Now, back to our discussion. As I was saying earlier, a model-builder's job is especially hard if the task is for a next-gen game. Consoles running next-gen games have tremendous processing speed and visuals have been significantly improved concerning games for platforms like Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. A good example would be car games.
Virtual Mechanix give us some clue to what their work is all about, when it comes to making cars for different games and platforms. In their interview with IGN folks at Virtual Mechanix, they said: "On average cars for next-gen consoles are taking 6 weeks or more to build. Cars for handheld games are generally around the same complexity as you would have seen in a PC game about 6 or 7 years ago and these can vary from a few days to a week to build." Still wonder why some games are so damn expensive?