Prince of Persia has become one of UbiSoft’s mainstay franchises, with lots and lots of sequels and spin-offs.

Although he was not the primary game designer anymore, Mechner was involved with both Prince of Persia 3D and The Sands of Time. Since then, he hasn’t gotten involved with any more game sequels, but produced two Prince of Persia comic books and wrote the original screenplay that formed the basis for the 2010 movie adaption. In his journal, we can read about the moment when Jordan Mechner first caught fire for his new game, still in the very early concept stages:

August 28, 1985

Then a strange thing happened. I started getting images in my head of the characters: The Sultan. The Princess. The Boy. I saw the scenes in my mindas if it were a Disney movie.

Twenty-five years later, it is a Disney movie; And incidentally one of the most prolific video game series around.

Prince of Persia is one of the early attempts of telling a video game story like a movie would. Inspired by films like The Thief of Bagdad, Mechner deliberately borrowed elements from tales of The Arabian Nights – the Evil Grand Vizier Jaffar has double-crossed the Sultan in his absence and issues an ultimatum to the princess: “Marry Jaffar… or die within the hour.” The young man who happens to be romantically involved with the Princess is tossed into the dungeon to rot. Not intent on dying in captivity, he must escape and defeat the evil Jaffar, marry the girl and become heir to