The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993--Illustrated Edition

Prince of Persia was the first videogame I ever finished, having only really played arcade games up till then. Played it on a monochrome CGA laptop, but still the great gameplay and wonderful story shone through. Been a fan of the series and Jordan Mechner ever since.The book chronicles Jordan's life through the development of PoP and PoP2. It's an interesting look back to how the idea for the game began and grew, in the midst of the life of an up and coming game developer in his youth. A must read, especially for fans of the game.

An insightful and raw peek into the life of a young game developer in his 20s working on the hit game Prince of Persia before he knew it was a hit. Through the course of the journals Jordan battles with situations that will be painfully relatable to anyone who has worked in or around games in their teens / twenties, particularly solo developers (or small teams). Since it's almost entirely unedited, you get an unfiltered look at Jordan's thoughts as he struggles to reconcile his desire to create hit video games in a time before anyone cared about games, with his desire to make movies in a time where everyone was desperately trying to make movies.Read it in one sitting, great read!

Fantastic little gem. One has to congratulate Mechner for having the foresight (or the massive ego) to keep a developmetn journal for Prince of Persia. The book is a fascinating view of the author's state of mind while developing the game. It helps to understand the process, his motivations and his creative ideas better. I did like that he kept his other personal (non game) entries as they definately had a baring in his state of mind and therefore on Prince of Persia. The only shame is that there aren't many more game developers that have kept a journal like Jordan Mechner has!

A little time travel back to the days when games were still made in bedrooms with exceptional people who put everything they could into it.

Excellent present for a web developer, he said it was a great read to understand what is needed to make a game such as the original Prince of Persia.