The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993

by Jordan Mechner

  Now it’s 6:30 and I’m waiting for Broderbund to call. The big Prince 2 meeting is today and I’m supposed to “sit in” by phone.

  Patrick left a message: “Hope you’re fine… me, I’m just fucking happy.”

  I called Tomi. I needed to talk to somebody who loved me. She said Florence told her I’m learning French like there’s no tomorrow and that Sallie told her I’m living a life right out of Henry James.

  “You have a dream life,” she said. “You’re travelling, you have friends. What exactly is the problem?”

  May 1, 1992

  I’m behaving like someone who’s convinced they’re going to die young. Like these three months in Paris are months I’ve stolen, and it could end at any moment.

  May 3, 1992

  About sixteen people have told me I’m “timid.” Even Jamil, the other night, remarked: “When you first came, you were very quiet. Now you’re starting to relax more. I can see the difference.”

  What the fuck is that? I’m not timid. Why do I come across that way?

  I should make up a little litany to repeat to myself every time I find myself at a party among strangers or meeting people for the first time: “I don’t have to prove anything. I don’t have to impress anybody. These people are as bored with the usual formulas as I am. All they want is a human connection, to snap them out of themselves. They want to laugh and have a good time and feel something, for God’s sake, the same as I do.”

  Another thing: When I run across a girl I really like (that rarest and most wondrous of occurrences), don’t rush things! Just behave as if I’m enjoying her company and it makes me happy to be with her, but it’s as if we met by chance and there’s no real expectation that we’ll ever run into each other again. Listen, be relaxed and friendly and not, for God’s sake, needy… I’m just moving through the world, always vaguely hoping to come across a kindred spirit, but not really expecting anything. In a word: Be generous!

  May 8, 1992

  Dinner with Patrick in a little Russian restaurant on the left bank that has 65 different kinds of vodka. Patrick and the owner got into a long conversation which, thanks to some miracle wreaked by the vodka, I was actually able to follow. Arthur H. comes there a lot.

  “OK,” Patrick said. “You want me to tell you your life story? I’m drunk enough for it.”

  He said: “You’ll become a director and a producer and all the things you want to be, but you won’t be a star. You’ll never be a guy like Coppola who takes the spotlight, who climbs the steps of Cannes with a crowd watching him and says ‘This is me, I did this. I’m a genius.’ You’ll be the guy in the shadows. The people who know you and work with you will respect you, but it won’t make you happy, because what you really want is to beat this shyness that’s in you. You want to be the cool guy, the hot dude who has the spotlight and who everybody gathers around. But this shyness you have will prevent you. Every time you have a chance to be the center of attention, you’ll deflect it. You’ll say ‘Oh, this wasn’t really my success, I’m just a little guy.’”

  We got back to 8 rue Boutarel at two in the morning. Sandrine was waiting. She jumped into Patrick’s arms like a cat.

  Where in the World?

  May 15, 1992

  [San Rafael] It’s been a good week, Prince-wise. The Mac version has shipped and, though it’s still early to tell, has all the earmarks of becoming a major hit… 16-bit Nintendo version has been approved and is slated to ship in Japan in July… Konami will distribute it in Europe and North America.

  As for Prince 2 (the reason I’m here), it’s a good thing I came when I did. The artists were spinning their wheels mired in confusion and were grateful for my arrival. Once again, I’ve scaled back the graphics load. It didn’t bother me this time. Enough months have passed and I feel distant enough from the project to make the cuts detachedly. The reductions are fairly drastic, but I think there’ll still be enough left to wow ‘em when the product ships.

  The pressure to make cuts, to bring it in on schedule and under budget, is coming from a nervous John Baker, who’s getting pressure from above, of course, from Doug. But when I stopped by Doug’s office to say hello, he said: “Don’t compromise on quality. Don’t let them pressure you. What do you care if it ships in January? If they try to rush you, just give ‘em a Gallic shrug.”

  I’ve scheduled my next visit for early to mid-July. Right before Cuba.

  It’s fun to breeze into town like this for a week, save the day, and leave again before I’ve worn out my welcome. It’s also highly efficient.

  Doug was recently the subject of a Forbes spread entitled “Who in the World is Doug Carlston?”

  Tina LaDeau came into the office looking for her dad. She’s 21 now. Wow. She could make anybody forget anything.

  I called Patrick and read him the French translation of the Mac Prince manual. He confirmed my suspicion that it was not a great translation. We wrote a new version. That is, Patrick did, and I typed it. Hope they use it.

  May 18, 1992

  I had lunch with Doug. He suggested making Prince of Persia into a feature film. He thought we could raise a lot of the money from licensees. In a year or two, it just might be within the realm of possibility.

  May 20, 1992

  Yesterday was my last day at the ‘Bund. It looks like the project is back on track. It’s a good thing I made this trip.

  May 28, 1992

  [Paris] Today I met my next-door editing neighbors at FEMIS. They were tickled to make my acquaintance. I guess they don’t meet a lot of Americans. Anyway, I showed them BNUPS. They treated it so seriously, it was hilarious. The guy was impressed with my “unique” vision of Paris. The girl liked my “vision” of artistic creation: “So simple… so masculine, yet sensitive.” She asked me what it meant. Ah, French students.

  Honestly, up to that point, I’d been feeling like walking away from the whole thing and never showing it to anybody.

  Brian and Jeff just called. I miss Broderbund. I miss Prince 2. Why am I in Paris making a dumb student film, instead of in Novato where the action is? Nobody’s ever going to write me a letter from Saudi Arabia saying how much they loved BNUPS.

  What am I looking for, anyway? I didn’t find it in New York or California or Spain or Paris, so now I’m going to look for it in Cuba… and I still don’t know what it is, or where all this is leading.

  I invited 30 people for Friday night. Hope they’ll all fit in my apartment.

  June 5, 1992

  I read Patrick the pulp serial I’d written for my French class to practice the various grammatical constructions we’re studying. He laughed out loud, multiple times. “You got a great sense of humor, man,” he said. “How come it doesn’t show up in your screenplays?”

  June 14, 1992

  Had coffee with Sophie on rue de Buci, then we went to Les Halles where she helped me pick out a bunch of French music CDs. Mac Prince was in stock, stacked 15 deep.

  June 18, 1992

  My neighbor, the pretty black girl from Madagascar, said: “Hey, I saw you on TV!”

  The guy she lives with is a games fiend. They invited me in to see their PC computer. I signed a copy of Prince for them. Life is good.

  June 23, 1992

  Finished moving my worldly goods, European division, into my new studio at around four o’clock in the morning. Now I’m leaving Paris yet again, on three hours of sleep and nothing but coffee in my stomach.

  The (almost) four months I lived at 1 rue du Four, I felt like a visitor to Paris. I knew the clock was ticking, that I only had the apartment until the end of summer and I had to make the most of it. Now, I feel like I have a home.

  8 rue Boutarel isn’t going away. The rent is so low – $4,000 a year – that barring complete financial ruin, it’s hard to imagine I’ll ever be f
orced to give it up. Unlike New York, unlike San Francisco, it’s not connected to a job or a girlfriend or any other part of my life that might change. It’s a retreat, a little square of earth I can always return to. I’m so happy to have it. And the best part is, Patrick and Sandrine are my neighbors. I hope they stay together. I hope they never leave.

  June 28, 1992

  [San Rafael] Prince 2 is looking good. It feels cool, being the young game designer who lives in Paris and breezes into town for the week to look in on the project that’s going to keep him rich for a few more years. I like the nuts-and-bolts aspects of working on this project, too. I hate to admit it, but it’s more fun than 16mm student filmmaking.

  So, why don’t I do more of it? A question I’m beginning to ask seriously. As in, why don’t I come back in (say) December, rent a one-bedroom in North Beach or south of Market, pitch a new project to Broderbund, and live half the year here and half in Paris?

  In May 1993 Robert will be out of school… he’d join me and Tomi in a flash. It’s something to think about.

  Ken Goldstein (Yale ’84) is working for Broderbund. Man, was I surprised to see him. Small world. I took him to dinner at Royal Thai.

  June 30, 1992

  Lunch with Doug. He wants to do POP: The Movie. He thinks he can raise $4 million from the licensees (Konami, etc.), then get the rest the usual way. $20 million budget, smart screenplay, him as exec producer, me as director. Release the movie (and the novelization) to coincide with Prince 4… which, given 18-month development cycles, I figure should be either summer or Christmas ’96.

  Four years ago, I was in the midst of Apple II Prince and had just finished the last rewrite of In the Dark. I was 24.

  Time is going fast.

  July 9, 1992

  Here I am again at the airport. Seems like that’s the only time I ever get to write any more.

  My last day at Broderbund was predictably frenetic. I was the last to leave at 8 pm, right after Scott. Tom Rettig brought in his favorite narrator, a guy named Mark, and we recorded the narration in under two hours. Nicole read the Princess. The Queen’s still a problem; we may need to bring in a real actress.

  It’s coming together quite nicely. I don’t regret the time I’m spending on it; I’m enjoying it and also I’m learning a lot. In fact, I’d say I’m learning as much about directing on this project as I have on any film I’ve worked on.

  I’m starting to think this computer-games racket is not only more fun than filmmaking but even, in some ways, cooler.

  July 13, 1992

  [In NY] Lunch with David at the Olive Tree. He thinks I should go to San Francisco and make computer games. “Who cares about movies?” he said.

  Broderbund sent me a new 486.

  Spoke to Brian. P.D. has been completely reorganized. Harry Wilker’s in charge of the whole thing now and reports directly to Ed Auer. Yikes. These are dangerous times we live in.

  Getting this visa has been an odyssey. Pepe Horta says it’s all set, but I called the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and they don’t have it. I’ve been trying to send a fax to ICAIC, but the circuits are always busy. I made a plane reservation anyway for Wednesday the 22nd, on the 8:30 am charter from Miami.

  I want to make a 7-10 minute film, with little or no dialogue, that paints a portrait of Havana in this poignant moment of transition. A way of life that most Americans have never seen and never understood is about to disappear, or at least undergo some sort of drastic change, and I want to get it on film.

  July 16, 1992

  Mark Netter is psyched to write Prince: The Movie with me. He also wants to move to L.A.

  Robert wants me to hire him to design Prince 2 levels. It’s an idea.

  July 20, 1992

  Mark Abrams dropped by and I showed him Prince 2. Stayed up till the small hours shooting the bull with him and Linda: true love vs. romantic love and all that. Hours I should’ve spent on Prince 2 level design, but what the hell.

  I fly tomorrow and I have not yet begun to pack. Down-to-the-wire me.

  I guess the next time I write, it’ll be in a different notebook, and I’ll be in Havana.

  Night Train to Berlin

  September 14, 1992

  [San Rafael] First day back at the ‘Bund.

  The artists were happy to see me. They’ve done a lot of work since the last time I was here – most of it good, fortunately. It’s all starting to come together. We’re slated to ship in April. Seven months away. Seems like a lot of time, but…

  Prince 1 is selling 7500 units a month now. Everybody’s thrilled.

  September 16, 1992

  Lunch with Harry Wilker, who’s just been promoted to head up product development (P2 and E2) and thus is now John Baker’s boss. He hates games, but it’s too late for him to do anything about Prince 2 except clench his teeth and pray. He’s nervous about how much it’s costing. I don’t think I reassured him.

  They all want me to come back in November. January will be too late. I hate to leave Paris again so soon… and as usual, I’ll have to buy my own ticket… but there’s a lot at stake, so I guess I’ll just have to do it.

  Not that anybody except me cares or is keeping track, but this month my Prince earnings to date surpassed Karateka’s. Figuring in piracy, there’s maybe a million people out there who’ve played Prince. Maybe two million. That boggles my mind.

  September 17, 1992

  Demoed Prince 2 for Doug and John Baker. Lunch with Ken Goldstein.

  An actress named Sarah came in to read for the Queen. I sat in to direct her. It’s fascinating how actors love being directed. This woman started out very cool and contemptuous of the whole thing, and by the end, she was just glowing.

  Got down to making some levels, finally. Met with the artists (one by one) and with Jonelle, who played me the music she’s been composing. It’s not bad; it sounds like Indian restaurant music. Had fun speaking Spanish to Marcela. I have a good time at Broderbund these days.

  September 18, 1992

  Leila begged me to come back in mid-October instead of November. “By November all the graphics will be done,” she said. Doe eyes.

  September 23, 1992

  My last two days at Broderbund were insanely hectic and rushed, but we got the most important things done. At 5 pm on the last day I sat down with Nicole and we went through the opening sequence that she’d got running for the first time in 8-bit PC-size graphics. It was like cutting a film. She manned the keyboard, I gave directions, and in the space of a hour we completely recut the sequence. Without having to create any new graphics or record any new dialog, we made it work better than it ever had. It looks like it was always meant to be that way. An editing miracle. We were both thrilled.

  Ken Goldstein has been promoted to associate producer. He’s second-in-command to John Baker and is supervising all entertainment product development.

  September 24, 1992

  [Paris, rue Boutarel] It’s been drizzling all day. The kind of day that makes it hard to remember the sun ever shines here.

  Spent the afternoon with Aarón. We dove right in, talking about the film and listening to the music tapes. He’s eager to get started. First priority is to arrange a screening of the rushes for tomorrow.

  Bought a monitor for my computer, carried it back here, and promptly blew out the power in my apartment. Luckily, Bernard’s band was playing that night at the Texas Blues restaurant, and his drummer was able to explain to me how I should connect the computer so this wouldn’t happen.

  September 27, 1992

  Showed Aarón and Patrick and Sandrine the Prince 2 editor. They were duly impressed.

  Sandrine was feeling down, so Patrick and I brought a bottle of wine and three glasses to where she was sitting alone by the Seine writing a letter.
She cheered up slightly, and we drank the bottle as the sun set behind Notre Dame. “We’re like characters in a Jim Jarmusch movie,” Patrick said.

  October 9, 1992

  It’s my one-year anniversary since I came to Paris. I realized this when I went to the United office to try to change the date of my still-unused return ticket and was told that, sorry, the ticket is only good for one year. I’ll have to leave tomorrow morning or not at all.

  October 15, 1992

  I bought a ticket for San Francisco for next Thursday.

  “What are you doing in France?” Patrick said. “Go to San Francisco! Finish the game! They need you. Stay for a couple of months. Nothing’s going to happen here. We won’t forget you.”

  October 18, 1992

  Spent the whole day at rue Boutarel making Level 3, “First Cavern Level.” I’m quite pleased with it. Some nifty little puzzles, not too hard, not tedious either.

  October 19, 1992

  Stayed up till 5 am last night making Level 6, “First Ruin Level.” A good day’s work.

  October 22, 1992

  Edited at Atria until eleven o’clock last night, when Patrick came and rescued me. I had a fax to send to Brian before midnight. Where can you go to send a fax in Paris in the middle of the night? Answer: back on the Ile, at the hotel on the corner of rue Boutarel. The night clerk sent the five pages to San Francisco and only charged me the France Telecom charges. The Ile St-Louis really is a special island within Paris, a world unto itself.

  October 25, 1992

  [San Rafael] “I was taking the night train to Berlin…”

  Thus begins the noir eve-of-WWI adventure Tomi and I are cooking up. Now, finally, I’m excited.

  Ken expects me to come in as an author-for-hire, Prince 2 style, to build Broderbund an adventure game system. But I have a different idea.

  An independent development group. Tomi and me and Robert, maybe Corey, maybe Glenn Axworthy, and a couple of artists, in an office in San Francisco. Two years, $500K, and we could develop an awesome adventure game for Broderbund to publish.