Game development is 'like Tetris', explains Turn 10's Dan Greenawalt.

Forza Motorsport 3 screenshot

Forza 3 is set to be one of the best-looking racers of the year, boasting realistic crash damage, a highly-detailed physics system and fluid 60 frames per second motion. But according to Turn 10's Dan Greenawalt, the game's director, there's still plenty of juice to be squeezed out of the Xbox 360.

"Have we maxed out the 360? Of course not," said Greenawalt, speaking to VideoGamer at a Microsoft event last week. "It's a really powerful system."

There's a common misconception about the way games are built, explained Greenawalt. Gamers will often speak of games failing to use the full power of a given console, but the reality of development is quite different.

"When it comes to hardware you always use 100 per cent. Even to make a little arcade game, you'd use 100 per cent of the hardware. But when you're first party, and when you've got a really clever development staff that's world class, hired from all over the industry, then you learn tricks. It's like Tetris.

"With Forza 2 we were the first game on the 360, at least that I know of, that could do 60 frames per second. And we did a lot of things wrong when we built our model. We did some things right, but just like a jigsaw puzzle, the first time you build it, it takes an hour, and the second time you build it, it takes half an hour. Eventually it just takes 15 minutes, because you learn how to build it faster."

You'll be able to read more from Greenawalt in our full interview transcript, later today.