u/dmytro_omelian — reddlx

Nothing in the original Prince of Persia (1989) was invented from scratch. Everything was traced from something real.

Was reading Jordan Mechner's development journal from 1985–1989. The breakdown of where every piece of the game came from:

-- Running and climbing animations: his 15-year-old brother David, filmed in white clothes in the Reader's Digest parking lot in Chappaqua, NY. Mechner traced the VHS frame by frame.

-- The opening sequence: the first ten minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark -- "an athletic hero in a dangerous environment."

-- The setting: One Thousand and One Nights.

-- The sword fight: six seconds of the Errol Flynn / Basil Rathbone duel from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), rotoscoped frame by frame into 6502 assembly.

-- The soundtrack: his dad, who was an amateur composer.

Mechner's own framing: "In all creative fields, innovation comes from combining things that haven't been put together before. If you immerse yourself too single-mindedly in your chosen art form, your work can easily become just a reflection of what others are doing in that field."

Translation for game devs: don't look at other games for reference. Look at films. Books. Family members in parking lots. The 1989 game that defined the cinematic platformer was assembled from movies and a 15-year-old.

---

Wrote longer notes if anyone's curious: link in comments. The book gave me a serious push of energy -- sharing in case it does the same for someone here.

reddit.com

u/dmytro_omelian — 13 hours ago

▲ 1.1k r/notebooks

A guy filled over 100 notebooks since 1982. Reading one of his journals from age 21 changed how I think about journaling.

Jordan Mechner is a game designer (made the original Prince of Persia in 1989). He started keeping a journal at 17 and has filled over a hundred notebooks since 1982. He still does it daily, in his sixties, in a Hobonichi Techo -- one page per day, a decade fits in a shoebox.

Stripe Press republished his 1985–1993 journal in 2020. The format is the diary plus his own thirty-years-later notes in the margins. Two voices on every page.

The single most useful thing he writes about journaling:

"In the four years it took me to make the first Prince of Persia game on the Apple II, my journal did more than record my creative process: it was part of it. I used my notebook as a sounding board -- wrestling with design challenges, discarding ideas and sparking new ones in the act of writing. More than once, my journal brought me back from the brink."

I've been writing in Apple Notes for a couple of years and realized I've been doing the wrong half of journaling. I've been recording. He was thinking on the page. Those are different practices.

If your journal feels like a chore, try writing about the actual problem you're stuck on this week -- wrestle with it on the page instead of just describing it. Different muscle.

---

I wrote a longer piece on what reading the book did for me: link in comments. Maybe it gives someone else a kick of energy too. Would appreciate any feedback

u/dmytro_omelian — 13 hours ago

▲ 95 r/getdisciplined

The guy who made Prince of Persia spent 4 years on it. Only ~2 of those years were actual work. The dormant year in the middle is what made it possible.

Just finished reading Jordan Mechner's 1985–1989 journals. He made the original Prince of Persia at 21, solo, on an Apple II.

Near the end he does the math: 3,800 hours over four years. About two years of honest work, spread across four calendar years.

The other two years were a screenwriting detour, an NYU film school rejection, weeks of staring at the code without touching it. For most of late 1987 he didn't open the game at all.

What got him back to it was one sentence over lunch. A colleague named Tomi Pierce told him: "Think of the game as an old car you're fixing up in your spare time." That was the pivot of the entire production.

I think we romanticize people who grind on one thing for years. The reality is messier. Most long projects have a dormant year in the middle, and the people who recover are the ones who happen to have a Tomi Pierce around to tell them, kindly, to pick up the wrench.

If you're in your dormant year on something right now -- you're not behind. You're in the middle.

I wrote some longer notes after the book if anyone wants more - you can find it in the first comment. Honestly it gave me a real boost of energy and I think it might help someone else feeling stuck.

reddit.com

u/dmytro_omelian — 13 hours ago