The Making of Prince of Persia

“Mechner’sjournals are a unique record from the birth of an industry, in thewords of one of its pioneers—and if that’s all they were, they would beinvaluable. But The Making of Prince of Persiais also an unvarnished window into the creative process, with all itsexcitement, toil, setbacks, doubts and triumphs. A fantastic read.”—D.B. Weiss, writer and co-creator of HBO’s Game of Thrones

“Whenan industry is brand-new, its innovators are generally so busy creatingthe future that they rarely have time to document the present. Luckily,Jordan Mechner did. With these journals, we can track the developmentof Prince of Persia froma few penciled squiggles to a global franchise. For anyone aspiring tocreate a game—or any endeavor that takes months and man-hours—Jordan’sjournal is sobering and inspiring.”—John August, screenwriter, author, host of Scriptnotes podcast

“Mechner’sjournals are a time machine that takes us back to an era when ambitiousyoung creators were making strange new video games all by themselvesand making up the rules as they went. It is not a retrospective;instead, it is a present-tense diary written by the creator throughoutthe creation of his most influential work. It is a humbling andinspiring record of what it was like to make one of the best video gamesof all time. I love these journals.”—Adam “Atomic” Saltsman, game designer and creator of Canabalt

“Prince of Persiawas 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 brandnew, and it brought me back to the early, crazy days of buildingInstagram. The engineer in me loved his description of the technicalchallenges and solutions, and the entrepreneur in me loved the honestchronicle of his emotional adventure. I’m excited to get to revisitthese 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

Jordan Mechner is a game designer, screenwriter, graphic novelist, and author. Widely considered a pioneer of cinematic storytelling in the video game industry, he created Prince of Persia, one of the most successful and enduring video game franchises of all time, and became the first game creator to adapt his own work into a feature film with Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. He also created the games Karateka and The Last Express. His books include the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Templar (a New York Times bestseller); his 1980s game development journals, The Making of Karateka and The Making of Prince of Persia; and his recent sketchbook journal, Year 2 in France. He lives in France.

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