The Making of Prince of Persia

I finished reading The Making of Prince of Persiaamazon.comThe Making of Prince of Persia (Mechner Journals Series Book 2) - Kindle edition by Mechner, Jordan. Humor & Entertainment Kindle eBooks @…The Making of Prince of Persia (Mechner Journals Series Book 2) - Kindle edition by Mechner, Jordan. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking an… this morning by Jordan Mechnerjordanmechner.comJordan Mechner - Video games, graphic novels, and moviesJordan Mechner is an author, graphic novelist, screenwriter and video game designer, best known as the creator of Prince of Persia. Follow his latest projects here.. Could not put the book down, has not happened to me in a while.

It is not a book per se (which makes it even more interesting, IMO). It is the collection of entries from Jordan's journal leading up to and during the creation of POP 1 and 2. What a story, on many levels:

• 80% of the work was done by Jordan alone: animations, level design, soundtrack, the storyline.
• Game development is hard work. Game development in the 90s was insanely hard (digitising the game using Super 8, Moviola and video camera). Still, I guess it was possible (albeit very hard) to make 80% of the game yourself? I cannot see that happening now.
• Everyone has doubts - even the creator of POP.
• Creative work on POP happened in bursts during 3 years of development.
• Jordan is definitely not a stereotypical "developer."

Here is a quote that put things in perspective for me. I was not even 1 year old at that time. Let alone wanted to be a part of the "computer" industry - bloody hell.

Roland came over for breakfast, and we installed an extra 1 MB in my Mac. Roland tested it out by creating an 8,000-page document in MS Word.

P.S. Prince of Persia was the first-ever game I saw. My Dad showed it to me on MS-DOS. What a beauty. Thanks, Jordan!