A Candid Look At The Making Of Prince Of Persia

Author: by Staff

Gamasutra's latest feature brings together excerpts from Prince of Persia developer Jordan Mechner's new book with a fresh interview, and stretches across all three years of the classic game's development. "This is going to be the greatest game of all time," Mechner wrote in his journal on December 5, 1988. "It's empty and lifeless," he had written just a month earlier. These are quotes from journals Mechner kept while developing the seminal Prince of Persia, which he has edited and collected into a new e-book entitled "The Making of Prince of Persia." Gamasutra has pulled together extracts from the book, selected by Mechner himself, along with a brand new interview in which he elaborates on some of the observations he makes in his journal. Regarding the book, Mechner tells Gamasutra, "In a way, I feel that that gives a lot truer picture" of the development of Prince of Persia than a newly-written book would. "If I were to write my memoir of Prince of Persia now, with hindsight, I would put everything in perspective, give everything the appropriate weight. But since these journals are what I actually wrote on that day, at that moment, there's a lot of ping-ponging back and forth. One day this is going to be the greatest game of all time, and then two days later I don't know if I should even finish it." The full article, which comprises excerpts form 1986 to 1989, is live now on Gamasutra.