How We Made: Prince of Persia – Jordan Mechner and Doug Carlston

4 months ago

Jordan Mechner taught himself programming in the 1980s, submitting games like 'Deathbounce' and 'Karateka' to publishers.
Inspired by 'The Castles of Dr Creep' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' Mechner created 'Prince of Persia' with rotoscoped animation.
Mechner manually digitized animations by photographing video frames, retouching them in black and white, a process that took months.
The game's development took four years, with Mechner moving to San Francisco to work at Broderbund's offices alongside programmers like Will Wright.
To overcome memory limitations, Mechner used byte-shifting to create the Shadowman, adding combat elements to enhance gameplay.
Despite the Apple II's decline, 'Prince of Persia' succeeded on other platforms, influencing later games like 'Tomb Raider' and 'Uncharted.'
Mechner's later projects included the commercially unsuccessful 'The Last Express' and adapting 'Prince of Persia' into a 2010 movie.
Doug Carlston praised Mechner's attention to detail and perseverance, noting the game's intangible quality and eventual commercial success.
'Prince of Persia' was a genre-defining hit, selling over 2 million copies and bridging the gap between video games and Hollywood animation.

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