The Making of Prince of Persia
by Jordan Mechner · 2020
The TL;DR
Jordan Mechner's reconstructed journal from 1985-1993 chronicling the creation of one of the most influential video games ever made. Written in real time as a young developer in his early twenties, the diary captures the raw uncertainty, creative breakthroughs, and relentless persistence required to build something original. Mechner had no guaranteed publisher, no team, and no template — just an obsession with cinematic storytelling and a belief that games could feel like movies. The journal documents his discovery of rotoscoping animation, the fight to keep creative control, the lonely grind of debugging, and the terror of shipping. It's a portrait of a creator betting years of his life on an unproven vision, and a masterclass in trusting your taste when everyone around you sees only risk.
Core ideas
- 1Build what you want to exist, even when no one else sees the vision yet.
- 2Original work comes from combining disciplines others keep separate.
- 3Creative control is worth fighting for — compromise on vision kills the magic.
- 4The long grind between idea and finished product is where most people quit.
- 5Trust your taste before the market validates it.
Key quotes
"I'm 22 years old and I've just spent two years making a game nobody asked for."
"The most important thing is to keep the creative control. Everything else is negotiable."
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward."
Apply it this week
- →Start a project journal to capture decisions and doubts in real time.
- →Identify the one non-negotiable element of your vision and protect it.
- →When nobody believes in the idea yet, let that be fuel, not a signal to stop.