Lessons from 'The Making of Prince of Persia' by Jordan Mechner

I read the book 'The Making of Prince of Persia' by Jordan Mechner.

Here are the lessons I learnt.

Lesson 1:

Don't rest on your laurels, continue to innovate and be persistent.

• After success of Karateka (his first game), Jordan went ahead and created Prince of Persia with more improved visuals and animations.
• He also added sword combat in Prince of Persia, along with an alternative prince

• Above is the cover for original game^

Lesson 2:

If you want to create something groundbreaking, the hours you put in don't matter.

• Jordan focused on creation of the first Prince of Persia for quite a lot of time, the amount of effort, he gave, is quite inspirational.
• Continuous updates, modifications are needed to make something amazing!
• The fluid animations of the prince and others made it a game to play!
• "Great things take time & effort"

Lesson 3:

A Team needs to be created for anything to ship.

• Jordan had the backing of the teams and people at Broderbund Software, who meticulously tested and helped him with creation of Prince of Persia.
• "Everything needs to come together" from QA to artists to create any game.

Lesson 4:

Keep a journal, helps in articulating thoughts and make your vision clear.

• A journal helps to see things clearly and objectively keep the goals you want to accomplish easier.

Lesson 5:

Porting of a game is important, make sure you focus on the newest consoles to launch.

• Apple II was used to create POP, but it's users were dwindling. The game itself needed to be ported to make sure maximum users could play it.

Lesson 6:

Important to create/use a brand like Broderbund Software, who have bandwidth to launch it world wide.

• The market to games is no longer constrained, need to have vision to launch it for the world.
• Important to formulate strategic relationships to make sure game is released officially everywhere.

Lesson 7:

Importance of contracts and the written word.

• Contracts are important and should be thoroughly vetted, before you enter into them.

Lesson 8:

Learn to let go of your creations but license them, so that newer technology could be used to give a better experience.

• Jordan licensed Prince of Persia to Ubisoft, Broderbund Software and even Disney to create new games, comic books, full fledged movie and lore to create a universe like no other.
• Better to take the help of amazing people in the world to deliver something truly great!
• Prince of Persia : Sands of Time, Warrior Within, 2 Thrones were one of the most popular games of all time when released.

These were some lessons I learnt from the book.

Hope you get some insights from this article. Please do provide feedback for my improvement.

Thanks & I will see you soon!