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rtpg's review
5.0
An amazing view into the mind of a creator, no game knowledge required.
Super cool book. Jordan Mechner might be best known for Prince of Persia, but this is a man who did much more than what you'd expect from a "simple" game programmer. This is a man who travelled the world, wrote screenplays, made films, and contemplated life. This book is a diary he kept while making PoP, but it's also about so much more. An excellent page-turner, and shows how Mechner is truly unique, as a creator who touches pretty much all media he can.
Super cool book. Jordan Mechner might be best known for Prince of Persia, but this is a man who did much more than what you'd expect from a "simple" game programmer. This is a man who travelled the world, wrote screenplays, made films, and contemplated life. This book is a diary he kept while making PoP, but it's also about so much more. An excellent page-turner, and shows how Mechner is truly unique, as a creator who touches pretty much all media he can.
timdams007's review
3.0
An interesting read. However the title is misleading: making of gives one the expectation to read a gazillion (technical) details of the making of prince of persia. Guess what, you o ly get glimpses. This book would triple in value if the author would commented on his journal entries and gave way more detail and background to his short notes.
xt1's review
4.0
Diary of a young man who wants to be a screenwriter/director but makes computer games instead.
Was hoping for a bit more reflection on the process, but it's amazing to think how simple the tools we had back in the 70s/80s, when the story begins.
Was hoping for a bit more reflection on the process, but it's amazing to think how simple the tools we had back in the 70s/80s, when the story begins.
22_'s review
5.0
§1. In 1996, I was given a pirated copy of Prince of Persia to play on our Pentium 75 MHz PC running Win 3.1 but couldn't get past the first couple of frames because I couldn't figure out how to get around the guard.
§2. In 2014, I came across Fabien Sanglard's code review of the original Prince of Persia Apple source code, where he mentioned this set of memoirs, originally posted online (and still free for anyone to read!), subtitled Journals: 1985--1993.
§3. Later in 2014, and for these two reasons, and because I was in diapers when the first journal entry was made, I finish reading this book.
§4. I like the book! Any programmer will identify with young Mechner's struggles to give birth to something great. The fact that even my most stupendous software project was peanuts compared to Prince of Persia helped underline the point that there never comes a time when Making, giving birth to a technological or cultural artifact, is anything but a mountain of angst, uncertainty, confusion, self-doubt. Personal projects in software, and I imagine in writing, painting, woodworking, etc., are something you do because you cannot help it---you're not surprised when you return to the craft again and again. There's no point at which it becomes easy, only harder.
§5. Some excerpts that moved me:
1985, between Karateka (Mechner's previous hit) and Prince of Persia: "I’ve been having serious doubts about doing another computer game ... the games business is drying up ... There’s no guarantee that there will even be a computer games market a couple of years from now."
'My night thoughts lately have been along the lines of: “Do I have it in me to do another computer game? Is this what I want to do? Can I do it? What if the code-writing part of my brain has atrophied? Will I fail ignominiously? Should I just turn to screenwriting full-time? ... Today made me feel better. ... I’m unutterably happy that I’m getting psyched up for this new game. It fills me with joy and confidence in the future. Then again, maybe feeling good doesn’t necessarily mean that what I write is good. Maybe the best stuff is produced out of blackest despair. Or maybe not.'
'Last night I was kept awake by anxiety about the new game. All the detail I’m gonna have to put in… it just seems so daunting. How did I do it for Karateka? I can’t remember. I’m not sure I can do it again ... You’re taking a step backward. You want to be a filmmaker. It’s time to move on! You brought the Apple-computer-game thread of your life to its climax a year ago ... You caught the industry just before it started to die, before you started to lose interest in games yourself.'
§2. In 2014, I came across Fabien Sanglard's code review of the original Prince of Persia Apple source code, where he mentioned this set of memoirs, originally posted online (and still free for anyone to read!), subtitled Journals: 1985--1993.
§3. Later in 2014, and for these two reasons, and because I was in diapers when the first journal entry was made, I finish reading this book.
§4. I like the book! Any programmer will identify with young Mechner's struggles to give birth to something great. The fact that even my most stupendous software project was peanuts compared to Prince of Persia helped underline the point that there never comes a time when Making, giving birth to a technological or cultural artifact, is anything but a mountain of angst, uncertainty, confusion, self-doubt. Personal projects in software, and I imagine in writing, painting, woodworking, etc., are something you do because you cannot help it---you're not surprised when you return to the craft again and again. There's no point at which it becomes easy, only harder.
§5. Some excerpts that moved me:
1985, between Karateka (Mechner's previous hit) and Prince of Persia: "I’ve been having serious doubts about doing another computer game ... the games business is drying up ... There’s no guarantee that there will even be a computer games market a couple of years from now."
'My night thoughts lately have been along the lines of: “Do I have it in me to do another computer game? Is this what I want to do? Can I do it? What if the code-writing part of my brain has atrophied? Will I fail ignominiously? Should I just turn to screenwriting full-time? ... Today made me feel better. ... I’m unutterably happy that I’m getting psyched up for this new game. It fills me with joy and confidence in the future. Then again, maybe feeling good doesn’t necessarily mean that what I write is good. Maybe the best stuff is produced out of blackest despair. Or maybe not.'
'Last night I was kept awake by anxiety about the new game. All the detail I’m gonna have to put in… it just seems so daunting. How did I do it for Karateka? I can’t remember. I’m not sure I can do it again ... You’re taking a step backward. You want to be a filmmaker. It’s time to move on! You brought the Apple-computer-game thread of your life to its climax a year ago ... You caught the industry just before it started to die, before you started to lose interest in games yourself.'
dorinlazar's review
2.0
Disappointingly, the book has less to do with Prince of Persia, per se, and more to do with Jordan's life around the making of Prince of Persia which is mostly about how he doesn't really want to work on PoP.
And I'm slightly put down by the always complaining author that did one of the coolest things ever. Made me sad, and bored me for a short while. But, after all, it's what his view of things is, that's how he saw them back then, and there are some instructive lessons there, if you can manage to read in negative.
It's ok to read, it's short and it reads fast.
And I'm slightly put down by the always complaining author that did one of the coolest things ever. Made me sad, and bored me for a short while. But, after all, it's what his view of things is, that's how he saw them back then, and there are some instructive lessons there, if you can manage to read in negative.
It's ok to read, it's short and it reads fast.
d_is_reading's review
3.0
The first half: Making of Prince 1 was interesting. After that it became mostly meeting & travel log. A good read, nonetheless.
laci's review
3.0
I must say, I liked it. It wasn't about Prince of Persia as such, but Mechner's personal journals from the time period that mostly intersected with the making of Prince. I'm fine with that; especially given how humane and mortal it made Mechner seem, when he let us see how he struggled with doubt, how he searched for a direction (he wanted to do movies and not games, except did he really?), how he changed his mind and his goals. That's something that probably most creative people experience in one way or another.
I'm not giving it four stars just because of the point where it got cut off. A big part of the book was about Prince 2 (and more movies.) I did enjoy it, and the contrast with Prince 1 was especially noteworthy - but it was cut off _before_ PoP2 was finished, and it felt just so jarringly incomplete.
Still, if you're interested in artistic processes or an artist's doubts and struggles (because I'd argue that's the core of the book more than PoP itself), I'd recommend reading it.
I'm not giving it four stars just because of the point where it got cut off. A big part of the book was about Prince 2 (and more movies.) I did enjoy it, and the contrast with Prince 1 was especially noteworthy - but it was cut off _before_ PoP2 was finished, and it felt just so jarringly incomplete.
Still, if you're interested in artistic processes or an artist's doubts and struggles (because I'd argue that's the core of the book more than PoP itself), I'd recommend reading it.
sbossen's review
4.0
This book is a great capsule of the past for anyone interested in the process of game development. Since the book documents the experience as it is happening, it gives you a special connection through a sense of suspense. As a bonus, this book gave me some ideas for how to be successful in my work life in terms of project management.