The Making of Prince of Persia

Journals 1985-1993

By: Jordan Mechner

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Hardcover | 28 April 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover
336 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.8 x 2.8

Hardcover

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A deep dive into the origins of the epic, bestselling video game, in the creator’s own words.

The creator of one of the most innovative and bestselling video games of all time gives an unvarnished look into the creative process in this one-of-a-kind compilation.

Before Prince of Persia was a best-selling video game franchise and a Disney movie, it was an Apple II computer game created and programmed by one person: Jordan Mechner. Mechner’s candid and revealing journals from the time capture the journey from his parents’ basement to the forefront of the fast-growing 1980s video game industry―and the creative, technical, and personal struggles that brought the Prince into being and, ultimately, into the homes of millions of people worldwide.

Now, on the 30th anniversary of Prince of Persia’s release, Mechner looks back at the journals he kept from 1985 to 1993, offering new insights into the game that established him as a pioneer of cinematic storytelling in the industry. This beautifully illustrated and annotated collector’s edition includes:

300 pages of Mechner’s original journals
Present-day margin notations by Mechner adding explanation, context, and affectionate cartoons of real-life characters
Archival visuals illustrating the stages of the game’s creation
Work-in-progress sketches, rotoscoped animation, screenshots, interface design, memos, and more
A full-color 32-page “Legacy” section in which Mechner and fans share Prince of Persia memories from the past 30 years, including the Ubisoft games and Disney movie

The Making of Prince of Persia is both a tribute to a timeless classic and an indelible look at the creative process that will resonate with retro-gaming fans, game developers, and writers, artists, and creators of all stripes.

Industry Reviews

"Mechner's journals are a unique record from the birth of an industry, in the words of one of its pioneers-and if that's all they were, they would be invaluable. But The Making of Prince of Persia is also an unvarnished window into the creative process, with all its excitement, toil, setbacks, doubts and triumphs. A fantastic read."-D.B. Weiss, writer and co-creator of HBO's Game of Thrones

"When an industry is brand-new, its innovators are generally so busy creating the future that they rarely have time to document the present. Luckily, Jordan Mechner did. With these journals, we can track the development of Prince of Persia from a few penciled squiggles to a global franchise. For anyone aspiring to create a game-or any endeavor that takes months and man-hours-Jordan's journal is sobering and inspiring."-John August, screenwriter, author, host of Scriptnotes podcast

"Mechner's journals are a time machine that takes us back to an era when ambitious young creators were making strange new video games all by themselves and making up the rules as they went. It is not a retrospective; instead, it is a present-tense diary written by the creator throughout the creation of his most influential work. It is a humbling and inspiring record of what it was like to make one of the best video games of all time. I love these journals."-Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, game designer and creator of Canabalt

"Prince of Persia was the first computer game I ever fell in love with. Thirty years on, we are very lucky to have this window into its creative process. Mechner's journey is a universal one for anyone creating something brand new, and it brought me back to the early, crazy days of building Instagram. The engineer in me loved his description of the technical challenges and solutions, and the entrepreneur in me loved the honest chronicle of his emotional adventure. I'm excited to get to revisit these journals in newly illustrated form."-Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram

"Probably my favorite book on game development."
-Neil Druckmann, writer and director of The Last of Us and Uncharted 4

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