IN10
The King of Prince of Persia
By Jorge Figueiredo - September 14th, 2010
The opening and keynote session for IN10 was interesting; not only was it a fascinating look at one of the most successful franchises in video games; it was also a glimpse into the mind of a really great person. After a brief welcome from Ian Kelso, President and CEO of IO, and a short introduction by Karen Thorne-Smith, President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation, the keynote speaker walked out into the spotlight.
Jordan Mechner comes across as a warm, soft-spoken guy. His talk was supposed to be about “creative and strategic alliances for the future of the industry”; he admitted to the audience that he didn’t know how to address that, and instead decided to stick with something that was very familiar to him: The Prince of Persia.
He played both a trailer of the movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, as well as a clip from the very first iteration of the game for the Apple II. The contrast was hilarious, of course, but it was also very interesting to see how the idea had grown.
Bringing the Prince to life was no small feat.
Jordan’s brainchild was inspired by his love of movies: Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad, Raiders of the Lost Ark (particularly, the first 10 minutes); he wanted to create a game that would allow the player to feel the adventure, even on the limited platform at the time. He looked at the Apple as a way to play games, and make them – to create and share with friends. As someone who loved comic books, and wanted to be a Disney animator, he had big dreams; sadly, he didn’t think that he was particularly good at drawing; he also wanted to make movies, but that was a huge undertaking beyond his means; he needed another outlet.
So he started on one of his greatest projects (something he wouldn’t realize until later): The Prince of Persia. I found it amazing how much work he put into this game. One thing that struck me about his work ethic was the story of the smooth movement he achieved: in 1985 he filmed his brother performing various movements, photographed the results from the playback on his television, printed the photos, painted them, and then digitized them to get the most realistic looking movement on the Apple II.
Jordan and his brother using “mocap 1.0″.
With a 3-4 year development cycle, no real audience (yet), and a shoestring budget, Jordan’s focus on making a game that was fun to play drove him to complete his project, even after a huge re-write to introduce combat into the experience (he stole a small clip from an old movie and broke it down into 8 frames, using them in different order depending on the sequence).
He was very happy with the final product (as was Broderbund, his publisher); unfortunately, the Apple II was on the way out. It could have been the end of Mechner’s story, were it not for the fact that Broderbund sublicensed to other platforms. Within a short timespan, the Prince was back on the shelves worldwide, and was so successful that it allowed for a sequel.
By the mid to late 90′s, first person shooters and 3D titles were starting to dominate. Tomb Raider, with similar shtick (albeit with a bustier leading character) gained a powerful foothold in the market. Jordan tried a 3D version of POP that didn’t do so well. Again, it looked like the end for our hero.
Along came Ubisoft with an idea…
A few years later, Jordan was approached by Ubisoft with an idea for a new adventure for his beloved character; he was justifiably skeptical – after all, his previous foray into 3D had not gone as planned. They worked on it anyway, and produced one of the coolest games that year: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. While it was not exactly like the original (no time limit), the spirit of the original was infused within the new product. With appeal to both old fans and new players, Sands of Time went on to be a blockbuster.
Jordan was doing well; he had succeeded beyond his wildest dreams; a simple “garage project” had now spawned a development team that created a wonder. The unfulfilled dream to make a movie must have risen to the surface, because he decided to approach Jerry Bruckheimer to use the Prince of Persia as source material for a movie (Tomb Raider had broken ground here). Jordan dissected the Ubisoft trailer for the Sands of Time game and rejigged it to be a bit more vague; the main hook was also a bit different: in the game, the Prince unwittingly causes a cataclysm that he spends the rest of the game trying to fix; in the movie, he works to prevent this cataclysm from ever happening. Bruckheimer told Mechner that he should write his own game’s adaptation (which is interesting, as most of the time the actual creator is the last person to have anything to do with the movie version); Jordan did.
Currently the highest grossing videogame movie of all time.
Mechner was mindful of the usual pitfalls of video game movies; translating from one media to another wasn’t something that was simple. The Prince was created before the current gaming characters, who are almost always created with transmedia potential (which isn’t easy to begin with). Jordan returned to his original formula: make the movie with the feeling of adventure, with more of an emphasis on the story (which is different for every medium). And so, another hit was born.
By the end of his time on stage, whether unwittingly or not, Jordan really showed what the future is all about. Even now, where video game creation has gone from the garage to large development houses with large budgets and specialized teams, anyone can create anything, provided they don’t lose their focus; the next big thing can come out of left field, even from some unknown kid who comes up with a great idea.
Video games are both solitary and social; sharing and creating should always remain at the heart of the process of making a successful game. If you create a game with a powerful idea behind it, and keep the feelings of your audience in mind, your games will work. Partnerships formed with others will always bear fruit if you defend and maintain the “DNA” of your game; keep in mind that this fruit may be satisfaction, monetary gain, or both.
Sage advice.
Jordan Mechner is a man who is always finding reasons to be excited about what he does. None of this success was ever on his radar when he started plugging away on his Apple II in 1985. Now the Prince of Persia franchise has spawned multiple game sequels, comics, graphic novels, iPhone apps and even LEGO creations.
He stated at the beginning that he wasn’t sure what the future was going to be, but something he said really struck a chord with me: Playing games and watching movies are different; playing a game is almost like two stories, and the experience of the game can enhance both the game’s story itself (plot), and the real story: the story of the player (development).
