Note: The following blog post was originally posted and featured on Gamasutra by our game designer Rob Lockhart.
I recently finished reading ‘The Making of Prince of Persia,’ which is the journal Jordan Mechner kept between 1985 and 1993. For those of you who don’t know, Jordan Mechner is the creator of the ‘Prince of Persia’ series of games. He even wrote the first draft of the screenplay for the film.
I was expecting and hoping that this would be an inspiring success story. I was half right. The story did inspire me — it’s part of the reason I’m writing more regularly. I’ve also begun to keep a private journal. I’ve put more than usual energy into my game design process.
But a success story it is not. It is a story of a success, but not a “success story.” I’ll explain. When the journal begins, Jordan’s first game “Karateka” is already the #1 selling game. He’s already been published by Broderbund. The story these journals tells is of parlaying one success into another.
