Simon South

Just last night I learned Jordan Mechner had posted on his website transcripts from a journal he kept during the years he was working on the original Prince of Persia computer game.

Prince of Persia was a work of art: a haunting, beautiful game that broke new ground in terms of character animation and interactive storytelling. All my friends in the early 90′s were hooked on it. The game’s enduring popularity led to a franchise that continues to this day. There is even a movie coming out this year.

In short, Prince of Persia was a big deal.

Reading through the journal, a handful of things stood out for me:

• Mechner didn’t really want to be writing computer games. He wanted to sell a screenplay and enter the movie business. That didn’t happen (not the way he’d originally hoped, at least), but his side-project for Brøderbund went on to make him famous.

• Mechner was a procrastinator. For much of the game’s development he worked on it only sporadically, even taking an eight-month hiatus at one point while he tried to sell his screenplay. Mechner ended up putting in plenty of long days on Prince of Persia, especially towards its release, but it was hardly a continuous effort.

• The game was essentially a one-man project, with Mechner controlling the quality of the work. In addition to the programming, Mechner created all of the animations and level designs as well as most of the graphics. He helped compose the music and even contributed to the design of the game’s packaging. Mechner was determined to make the game live up to his vision: In places he writes about handing off work to others, being disappointed with the results, and redoing the work himself so it would meet his standards. At one point it seems the PC version might not happen at all simply because Mechner can’t find a programmer he trusts to do a good enough job.

• Even Mechner sometimes doubted himself. Seeing the project through to completion was hard enough: Occasionally when describing his plans for the game Mechner ends his posts with, “All I have to do is finish it,” as if to wonder aloud whether he’ll really be able to stick with it to the end. When the game fails to take off shortly after its release, Mechner dourfully notes,

  Prince sold 500 units last month on the IBM, 38 on the Apple. That’s about as dead as can be.

Mechner’s “dead” game went on to be a tremendous commercial success and one of the most significant games of its generation.

The journal is a fascinating read for anyone who, like me, has fond memories of Mechner’s work. I’ll have more to say about it in my next post.