Why So Many Video Games Cost So Much to Make

[JarlFrank]

literal thousands for a professional to do it for me

Find cheaper professionals.

I'm having a couple short stories and my first novel illustrated in full color by various artists, with the purpose of publication in printed books. The most expensive of them charged 600$ for one full color painting, and he uses oil colors on real paper. The digital artists I got charge anywhere from 80-400 per piece.

Just search art websites for artists whose style you like, send them an email asking for their rate, and you'll easily find affordable ones. Many also openly post their usual rates. Especially Russian and South American artists tend to be very affordable compared to western ones.

 

[JC'sBarber]

literal thousands for a professional to do it for me

Find cheaper professionals.

I'm having a couple short stories and my first novel illustrated in full color by various artists, with the purpose of publication in printed books. The most expensive of them charged 600$ for one full color painting, and he uses oil colors on real paper. The digital artists I got charge anywhere from 80-400 per piece.

Just search art websites for artists whose style you like, send them an email asking for their rate, and you'll easily find affordable ones. Many also openly post their usual rates. Especially Russian and South American artists tend to be very affordable compared to western ones.

I've had a hell of a time finding artists like that, I've been browsing websites like ArtStation and Deviantart for years with very little luck. If you can provide links to the ones you're working with, I'd appreciate it.

 

[JarlFrank]

literal thousands for a professional to do it for me

Find cheaper professionals.

I'm having a couple short stories and my first novel illustrated in full color by various artists, with the purpose of publication in printed books. The most expensive of them charged 600$ for one full color painting, and he uses oil colors on real paper. The digital artists I got charge anywhere from 80-400 per piece.

Just search art websites for artists whose style you like, send them an email asking for their rate, and you'll easily find affordable ones. Many also openly post their usual rates. Especially Russian and South American artists tend to be very affordable compared to western ones.

I've had a hell of a time finding artists like that, I've been browsing websites like ArtStation and Deviantart for years with very little luck. If you can provide links to the ones you're working with, I'd appreciate it.

Gordon Napier, made a special deal with him for my novel. He only charges 80€ per interior illustration (basically a bulk deal because I want 15 in total), cover artwork will be 200€
https://www.deviantart.com/dashinvaine

Russian girl whose strong use of color I quite like. Has a list of commission prices, 60$ per character +15-60 for background depending on complexity. For an illustration with 5 characters (2 in front, 3 in the back) and a complex background she charged me 280$.
https://www.deviantart.com/wwwwhaah

Eugene Jaworski does some great oldschool fantasy art on physical paper with watercolors. 600$ per painting, regardless of complexity; he also does pencils only if you don't need color, for cheaper, but I didn't ask him the rate for that as I only wanted color. Excellent stuff, early D&D art vibes.
https://eugenejaworski.wixsite.com/gallery
This is the piece I commissioned from him: https://eugenejaworski.wixsite.com/gallery?pgid=iud5v05g-ffaaeaf7-0460-4c94-8f14-a6c98cd9edee

 

[JC'sBarber]

literal thousands for a professional to do it for me

Find cheaper professionals.

I'm having a couple short stories and my first novel illustrated in full color by various artists, with the purpose of publication in printed books. The most expensive of them charged 600$ for one full color painting, and he uses oil colors on real paper. The digital artists I got charge anywhere from 80-400 per piece.

Just search art websites for artists whose style you like, send them an email asking for their rate, and you'll easily find affordable ones. Many also openly post their usual rates. Especially Russian and South American artists tend to be very affordable compared to western ones.

I've had a hell of a time finding artists like that, I've been browsing websites like ArtStation and Deviantart for years with very little luck. If you can provide links to the ones you're working with, I'd appreciate it.

Gordon Napier, made a special deal with him for my novel. He only charges 80€ per interior illustration (basically a bulk deal because I want 15 in total), cover artwork will be 200€
https://www.deviantart.com/dashinvaine

Russian girl whose strong use of color I quite like. Has a list of commission prices, 60$ per character +15-60 for background depending on complexity. For an illustration with 5 characters (2 in front, 3 in the back) and a complex background she charged me 280$.
https://www.deviantart.com/wwwwhaah

Eugene Jaworski does some great oldschool fantasy art on physical paper with watercolors. 600$ per painting, regardless of complexity; he also does pencils only if you don't need color, for cheaper, but I didn't ask him the rate for that as I only wanted color. Excellent stuff, early D&D art vibes.
https://eugenejaworski.wixsite.com/gallery
This is the piece I commissioned from him: https://eugenejaworski.wixsite.com/gallery?pgid=iud5v05g-ffaaeaf7-0460-4c94-8f14-a6c98cd9edee

Nice, thanks for the help King!.

 

[CanadianCorndog]

Sounds reasonable, but why has the cost increased tenfold? Are they redesigning ten times as much now as when better, classic games were made?

It's because they work on a fully functional prototype instead of simply designing a game on paper or making a basic skeleton.
And then they scrap a full year's of work to re-design everything from gameplay systems to artstyle to level design.
And then they do it again next year.
And then they do it again next year.
And so you end up with years worth of aborted labor that will never see the light of day, but that people were still paid full salaries for. Complete waste.

Speaking of designing on paper first (or having a real design document), directors or lead designers should probably take up drawing. At least get good enough that they can present ideas visually. Often better than relying on a concept artist to understand what you want, and obviously cheaper and quicker. Almost no one draws anymore because of technology.

Ridley Scott's sketches:

Were Team Ico's storyboards drawn by the director? I know the book is called "The World of Fumito Ueda," but I don't have it and am unclear on what he drew.

https://teamico.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Colossus'_Alternate_Ending

Drawing might as well be black magic to me. And it's a shame too because I do have ideas I feel are great, but have no way to depict them without spending literal thousands for a professional to do it for me.

There are lots of ways to plan your shots out. For example, you could use toys and a digital camera to plan that sequence with the humvees.
For games, you could build with Legos or similar if you have an idea for level design.
But these plans aren't helpful if you toss out the work every six months to a year. Re-re-re-re-re-designers love making plans, but they hate finishing.