Sit down dear friend, because today we will
tell you an incredible story that unfolds like the wings of a giant bird over the god-forsaken
dunes of ancient deserts... In times when the stars were brighter and covered the whole sky, the
sun was painfully hotter, and a drop of water was worth more than all the gold in the world …
Stop. This is a slightly different story... But today we will go back in time 3 decades to
explore all the ups and downs of the legendary "Prince of Persia" game se
ries. After all,
this series recently turned 33 years old, and it still seems modern and makes everyone
want to repeat this legendary technique: The game that brought an incredible number of new
game mechanics and narrative techniques to the game industry and turned an ordinary children's
fairy tale into an adventure epic that still lives in the minds of many generations. What if not
desert landscapes, mysteries, games with time, weapons and parkour, encourages players to
conquer the world
of "Prince of Persia"?! In our today's video, we’ll try to explore
how "Prince of Persia" conquered time. What difficulties and obstacles did its creator,
Jordan Mechner [ˈʤɔrdən mɛknər], manage to overcome on his way to success? And did
"Prince of Persia" sink into oblivion? You are watching PressX. Do not forget to apply
sunscreen and take more tea or water with you. Because we're getting started!
The birth of a franchise Before we begin, we need to borrow a magical
dagger from the main
character of the series, the Prince (if that is his name), that will take
us back in time. Don't worry, we will definitely put the dagger back where we are done.
Considering that the game is already 33 years old, we need to go back in time to the beginning of
the birth of modern computer systems and game worlds. When all gaming rooms and cafes were lined
with slot machines, and probably everyone, large or small, dreamed of never leaving them. Then in
1977, the ground began to shake under th
e gamers’ feet - the world was shaken by a technological
revolution in the form of the Apple II. It was the first personal computer serially
produced by Apple Computer. The Apple II was the direct successor to the amateur computer Apple
I, which was never produced in large quantities, but already contained many of the ideas
that made the Apple II a success. So, just as every self-respecting inventor and
programmer does not leave his work unfinished, Steve Wozniak [ˈvɑzniæk] did not leave hi
s
invention, making Apple II. He is one of that legendary couple of Steves from the garage,
who together with Steve Jobs [ʤɑbz] invented the Apple company. Therefore, if you are watching
this video from an iPhone, then you know exactly who provided you with such an opportunity.
Wozniak wanted to make the Apple II computer even more functional and faster than the
previous model. He also wanted to change the colorless display to a color one, and
combine the functions of the terminal and memo
ry. And the most interesting thing is that he
did it not for the sake of technological progress or increasing attractiveness for buyers,
but for the development of our favorite computer games. Here is what Wozniak recalls:
Inset quote: "A lot of features of the Apple II went in because I had designed Breakout for Atari.
I had designed it in hardware. I wanted to write it in software now. So that was the reason that
color was added in first — so that games could be programmed. I sat down one
night and tried to
put it into BASIC. Fortunately, I had written the BASIC myself, so I just burned some new ROMs with
line drawing commands, color changing commands, and various BASIC commands that would plot
in color. I got this ball bouncing around, and I said, “Well, it needs sound,” and I had to
add a speaker to the Apple II. It wasn’t planned, it was just accidental… Then I thought I
needed game controls, and added forward, back, and other buttons. Therefore, all functions
in Apple
II appeared through the development of antediluvian ping-pong." (Steve Wozniak)
Therefore, precisely because of the invention of Apple II, in the late 80s and early 90s,
the world of the game industry began to change rapidly. Personal computers from Apple and
home consoles NES and Sega Mega Drive began to displace arcade machines from the gaming market.
Therefore, on this wave, there was a boom in all the legendary game franchises that we still enjoy
playing today: DOOM, Heroes of Might and
Magic, The Elder Scrolls, Super Mario Bros and Legend
of Zelda. Among them there was our hero of the Persian deserts - "Prince of Persia". Probably,
few people now recognize in the very first game of the franchise, its successors. But it was
Prince of Persia in 1989, which became one of the first games on the Apple II, conquering the
world with a new approach to computer animation and setting the trend for 3-person games.
The father of the cult franchise was the son of Jewish immigrants - J
ordan Mechner, who
was born in 1964 in New York, in the family of the famous psychologist Francis Mechner
and the mother-programmer. Since childhood, he loved flipping through comics, reading
magazines and watching movies. As Mechner says: Inset quote: "If computers
hadn't appeared in my childhood, I would have been making comics, cartoons,
or something like that". (Jordan Mechner) So when his parents bought him an Apple II
computer at the age of 15, Mechner really wanted to create animati
on on the computer. In
an interview years later, he recalled that he "did simple things at first, like creating a
small red block followed by a green block." The rapid development of the digital games
cult at the time inspired 18-year-old Jordan to study programming and computer technology. So
while a student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut [nju ˈheɪvən, kəˈnɛtəkət], Mechner
wrote several games for the Apple II. The first in development was Asteroid Blaster, a clone
of the wel
l-known arcade Asteroids, which was submitted for consideration by the studio Hayden
Software. But because the original "Asteroids" was released in 1979, and it was almost impossible
to break its popularity, the company rejected the offer of "Asteroid Blaster" from Mechner. The same
fate befell Mechner's second game - "Deathbounce", presented to the Broderbund company, which
would later play a big role in his life. "Deathbounce" is an arcade shooter similar to
Asteroids. The game takes plac
e in an arena where the player controls a ship that encounters
various bouncing balls and other enemies. But, unlike "Asteroids", there are walls on all
sides of the screen, from which the ship and balls bounce when they collide. After destroying
all enemies, the player receives a bonus and new enemies appear, for the destruction of which
you need more hits, and so on. The game ends when the player loses all three lives.
Of course, for the Broderbund company, "Deathbounce" was not commercial
ly attractive,
so they turned Jordan down. But the company saw young Mechner’s great desire to develop games.
So along with the rejection, Broderbund sent him a copy of “Choplifter,” which was one of the
best-selling games in the industry that year, according to Computer Gaming World. Broderbund
decided to show Mechner what projects were interesting at the time to users and the
company itself. It was through “Choplifter” that he realized he could create original game
concepts instead of re
hashing existing ones. After two years of studying at the university,
Mechner planned to avenge his first failed attempts to conquer the gaming world. And
he came up with an idea for a new game. Mechner focused on the karate-themed game, which
was influenced by Choplifter's graphical features, his ongoing film studies and film clubs at Yale
University, and the karate classes he attended. He drew inspiration from Japanese engravings of the
17th-19th century Ukiyo-e, which became a hallmark o
f Japanese culture. And the cinematographic
works of the brilliant Japanese director Akira Kurosawa [əˈkirə ˌkʊroʊˈsɑwə], whose pictures,
according to him, "convey such powerful emotions and atmosphere without a single word."
This is how "Karateka" was born. The game plot was very simple. Princess Mariko
is kidnapped by the evil lord Akuma, and a nameless hero goes to her rescue. On the way
to Akuma's palace, the hero encounters enemies who try to stop him. Therefore, to pass further, he
h
as to fight in karate duels with the guards. The events of Karateka take place in a
two-dimensional space. The hero walks from left to right. The player's health and
the health of the enemies are displayed as bars at the bottom of the screen, losing one
mark for each hit taken. The player's health slowly regenerates outside of combat. The game
ends when the player loses all health and has to start over. A kind of homage to the roguelike
genre, but without bonuses after losing. By the way, w
e have a separate video about death
mechanics in games, so to learn more, follow the link in the upper right corner of the screen,
or you can just find the video on our channel. But behind this, at first glance, trivial arcade
mechanics of "Karateka", there was a lot of hard work. After all, in those days, the Apple II was
the main platform for creating games. But despite the fact that Steve Wozniak, the developer of the
Apple II, tried to improve it as much as possible, compared to the App
le I, the Apple II still
had a large number of limitations for game creativity. Poor sound speaker, the screen could
display only 4 colors and had a resolution of 280 by 192 pixels. Limited memory - the program
had to fit in 48 kilobytes. But that's not all. Now you can draw anything in Photoshop, or make
an animation in After Effects, but then none of this existed. Therefore, to work with graphics
and animation, you had to do everything manually, and separately create animation for each pi
xel.
Such not very rosy circumstances with graphics and animation did not suit Mechner, and did
not fit into his consciousness. Therefore, Jordan found an ingenious solution to get out of
this situation. As a fan of early Disney animated films, Mechner decided to use an old animation
technique - rotoscoping. This method was invented at the beginning of all animation, due to a
significant lack of artists and animators who could reproduce reliable and realistic movements
of their characters.
It was also complicated by the fact that all movements had to be repeated
24 times, frame by frame, to create 1 second of animated video. Therefore, animators, tired
of this titanic work, found a simple way out. They began to use the possibilities of a film. The
film captured the movements in separate 24 frames, and then the artists took it and redrew all
the movements on paper. One example of such a cartoon is "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
from 1937. In it, the necessary movements of t
he heroes were first filmed with real actors,
and then they were traced with the help of copy paper. Mechner did the same. He arranged with
his karate coach to do all the necessary moves and punches on camera. Then Jordan replayed
everything on his monitor frame by frame. Moreover, rotoscoping influenced the fact that
cutscenes became a game feature, with which Mechner "encrusted" the game plot. Many other
game developers in those years could not afford to create cutscenes. These scenes add
ed to Karateka
the cinematic character of the story, imitating images from the works of Akira Kurosawa.
They say "everything ingenious is simple." Thus, "Karateka" at first glance seemed simple,
but at the same time, behind this was hidden Mechner’s colossal work and ingenuity.
In the summer of 1984, Mechner offered the American company Broderbund to become the
publisher of "Karateka". And the Broderbund could not refuse him. After all, the character
animation and cinematic inserts in the g
ame, which were unique at the time, simply glowed with
future success. And so it happened. "Karateka" was released in December of the same year 1984
and took first place in the software chart of Billboard, a popular weekly even today. The game
was ranked higher than "Fly simulator" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". This brought
the project and young Mechner, who was only 20 years old at the time, great popularity!
Therefore, in the summer of 1985, after the stunning success of "Kar
ateka", Broderbund offered
Jordan a contract job. And of course he accepted that offer, because it gave him the opportunity
to do the work he had long wanted to do! And it also gave an opportunity to earn money and not
worry about looking for a job after university. A few years before, in 1981, Mechner went to the
cinema for the movie that had just been released in cinemas - "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost
Ark", by the famous director Steven Spielberg. Mechner saw the opening scene of t
he film, where
Indiana Jones ran, jumped over a deadly chasm, barely made it and hung over a trap. The spikes
from the walls and other deadly traps in the film impressed the young Mechner so much that after
that he only thought about how it could be used in his game. At the same time, platform games such
as "Lode Runner", "The Castles of Doctor Creep" began to gain popularity. For the game designer,
it was a reason to think about the future game. Analyzing game projects of the time, Mechner
realized that the character in platform games seemed to have no weight. If he jumped from a
high place, he did not receive any penalty or damage. It was as if you were playing
for a balloon. Then Mechner thought: So, all of Jordan's thoughts came together and
formed the foundation of the idea of a future platformer with puzzles and traps, realistic
character movements, and paying with one's own life for every failed jump. In Mechner's new
project, the player had to really feel pain. This
is where the long story of the ups and downs
of the time lord "Prince of Persia" has begun. Prince of Persia (1989)
The story of the first game of the franchise from Mechner took four long years.
But, in contrast, the development story may seem a bit trivial. Because in public it boils down
to the fact that Jordan, inspired by the famous collection of Eastern fairy tales "One Thousand
and One Nights" and the successful Oscar-winning film "The Thief of Bagdad" in 1940, decided
to work on a g
ame in this direction. However, if we delve into this story a little deeper…
… we’ll find answers, why the plot tropes of "Prince of Persia" are so fundamental that they
conquered people all over the world. It can be said that the story of the "Prince of Persia"
was invented at the dinner table by the manager of the Broderbund company, and the young Jordan
Mechner, as if it were a real Persian legend. Mechner, who grew up in the American culture of
comics, movies, bright pictures and people
who liked to tell stories, of course could not avoid
the themes of the Middle East. There, retelling of stories and legends are one of the cultural
foundations even today. Of course, his choice was influenced by the fact that he did not want to
use a Japanese setting in his new game to differ the experience of Karateka. Therefore, Mechner
was absolutely serious about the study of "1001 Nights" fairy tales - not as children's bedtime
stories, but as a material with a lot of narrative techni
ques and unique characters. One of them
was "Adventurous Tale". Great-great-grandfather of the future "Prince". Have you heard
of this? I think you’ve seen Aladdin: No, not this one... This one:
So, in terms of content, most "adventurous" tales are urban fables. Therefore,
these short stories usually tell love stories, the heroes of which are rich merchants, daughters
of rich kings, who are almost always doomed to adventures due to the cunning plans of their
lovers. And the peculiarity of
such love stories is that the beloved princesses were mostly very
poor or homeless at all. And these adventures of silly but kind homeless people still attract us to
the screen, making us empathize with the problems of the same Aladdin. Perhaps it has been Mechner’s
epiphany that a HERO is not always a positive character who fights evil (as Marvel movies
constantly teach us), that a HERO can be anyone, even a criminal with a big heart.
Maybe this is far-fetched, but here is what the develope
r said in an interview
about the creation of "Prince of Persia”: The first version of the plot of "Prince
of Persia" was based on a fictional story. Its events took place in Persia. According
to legend, the nameless Sultan was at war, so, taking advantage of his absence, the wily
vizier Jafar tried to seize the throne and take possession of the princess. Jafar imprisoned the
princess and gave her an hour to think either to become his wife or die. Therefore, she had nothing
left but to wait
until her true love, the Prince, came to the rescue. In this game series there
were some problems with names. Sultan, Princess, Prince... Why not give them all real names?
So this very Prince, whom the Princess really loved, was thrown into the dungeons of the
palace as a prisoner. Now, to free her, he must escape the dungeons, reach the top of
the palace tower, and defeat Jafar before time runs out. So Mechner invented a rather unique
system of real time in the game. This created tension
for the player - every jump in the
game was very important, and every missed minute could cost the princess’s life.
But the know-how in the game production did not end there. Mechner realized that
even though he had used the rotoscoping engine in the animation process for Karateka, the
animation still looked rather choppy. Therefore, now the main thing that bothered him was how to
make the movements of the future Prince smooth and as realistic as possible (at that time).
The only solution f
or Mechner was to add as many animations as possible to the game and that
each of these animations of jumping, running and falling had its own graphical representation.
To begin with, Mechner made storyboards of all the necessary movements for the planned
gameplay on ordinary sheets torn from a notebook. These drawings are still preserved.
The process of developing animation for "Prince of Persia" began in 1985. It was during the
boom era of VHS cameras. But, of course, they were not cheap
- $2,500. Therefore,
in order not to spend so much money, Mechner decided to rent it for 30 days. And this
time, his younger brother became the role model for the game instead of a karate coach.
But everything was not as simple as they wanted. At that time, there was no mechanism for
transferring images from a VHS camera directly to an Apple II computer - it didn't even have a video
connector. Therefore, Mechner began to experiment and invented a way to double digitize the
material. He took
the video player and played the footage of his brother jumping on the TV. After
that, he put a camera with 35 mm film in front of the TV, turned off the light and took pictures of
his brother's movements frame by frame. Thus, this time everything was much larger. If in "Karateka"
the animations were limited to a few movements that Mechner could recreate with his own hands by
writing the code, now it was necessary to somehow deal with a significant array of film material.
The option to do ev
erything manually immediately disappeared. The world was developing very
rapidly - technical progress was inevitable, so it was necessary to do everything as quickly
as possible so that the game did not lose its relevance. So Mechner decided to use his last
money to buy a digital converter. A piece that had a mechanism for capturing a real static
image and transferring it to the Apple II. And it's becoming more interesting.
Jordan took the film, developed it, and began to outline his brothe
r's silhouette in
each frame with a corrector and a black felt-tip pen to achieve maximum contrast. This made it
possible to easily cut the silhouette in the animation program, and then, re-registering
each pixel for a separate jump and make the picture moving. Therefore, for the next 3 weeks,
Mechner taught the computer to reproduce images, and as a result, everything turned out great. He
realized that the game would be a masterpiece, because no one had done it before!
Now the Prince of Pe
rsia really seemed to be alive.
Mechner wanted to add more and more animations. But at the time, Apple II computers had only
48 kilobytes of memory. For understanding, 48 kilobytes is less than a modern email sent. But
Mechner had nothing left but to push the universe called "Prince of Persia" into 48 conventional
units of space. Because as soon as the animation of the Prince's movements was ready, all the
memory on the diskette immediately ran out. After only 2 years of trial and error in
development, Mechner made the game work. Almost everything became alive, as Jordan
wanted: a free-moving main character, mechanisms for interacting with the interior,
pressure plates, a bunch of traps, falling with hero’s damage, and even glasses with an elixir
to replenish health. However, time did not play into Mechner's hand, becoming the main problem.
These 2 years became decisive for the project. Computer technology has developed faster than
ever before. This meant the death of the App
le II, like the dinosaur of its time. Porting the game
to the Sega, Amiga, Compaq platforms was another insanity. And if he released the game in the state
in which it was, it was unlikely that anyone would buy it. "Prince of Persia" looked rather empty,
and in comparison to the action games of the time, it would simply remain unnoticed. Jordan
Mechner's colleague, Tomi Pierce [pɪrs], who was developing her educational program in the
same office, shared the same opinion. Every time she was p
assing Mechner's monitor, she said:
This directly conflicted with Mechner's idea of making the character completely peaceful,
and dissolved the concept of a puzzle game, turning it into just another fighting game. In
addition to ideological problems, there were also practical problems. All the memory was already
used - there was no way to add new characters. Therefore, Mechner rejected this idea...
But one beautiful day in June 1988, Tomi Pierce, a modest and fragile girl, accidentally
chan
ged the course of the story of "Prince of Persia". She had an idea: "Why not use the
same solution for the enemies as in "Karateka", where the enemies had exactly the same graphic
model as the main character?" That’s how "Prince of Persia" got his enemy - Shadow. This added
a significant story twist to the game. However, as much as Mechner wanted to add
mechanics to Shadow, he still had to remove almost two-thirds of all the mazes and traps. To
give you an idea of the amount of work, Shadow
cost the game designer 30 extra levels! Instead
of them, there appeared a large mirror, which the player could not bypass, and when passing
through, a Shadow ran out of it. The shadow was an extension of the main character, and if it
received damage, then the hero also received it. Also, Jordan made players who played “Prince
of Persia” hate the Shadow. After all, he could independently click on the interactive plates
in the floor and thus frame the main character, leaving traps for him. A
nd to get rid of the
shadow, you had to think carefully. Few would have guessed to sheathe their weapons
and run to meet him, just to regroup. "In for a penny in for a pound", Mechner thought
and added a few more enemies to the game: Jafar guards and an immortal skeleton. But using
the image of Shadow again for making them would be unprofessional and boring. It would be "Karateka
2". Therefore, the inspiration for the animation of these characters again came from the movies.
After seeing t
he scene of the fight in the movie "Robin Hood" of 1938, which was filmed almost
in front, the developer decided to use it. There was very little time left until the
release date. Everything looked great, the game was actually fun to play. Gameplay
and story solutions were innovative for that time. But technical progress caught up
with Mechner. Apple II was almost buried, because modern PCs and platforms were
much more technological. It practically killed "Prince of Persia", embodying Jorda
n's
greatest fear - that the game he had spent so much effort on would fade into oblivion.
On October 3, 1989, Prince of Persia was released on Apple II. Of course everyone
hoped for a miracle, but unfortunately, the miracle did not happen. In the first month
after the game's release, it sold only 500 copies. It was a total failure. And not only
that the game was created only for Apple II, even the game stores began to remove it from sale,
due to customer complaints about the game cover! Th
e cover of "Prince" was a real bone of
contention not only among the players, but also among the marketers of the Broderbund company. It
especially caused negativity in the female part of the company, due to too much frankness and sexual
objectification. Because of that, the producer of the first part of Prince - Andrew Pedersen
[ændru ˈpɛdərsən], who worked for Broderbund and had experience in producing such games as “Take
No Prisoners” and the game series “Dr. Seuss", had to write an expl
anatory note that took up
two sheets of paper. It stated that the cover of Prince of Persia did not promote anything immoral
at all, in order to calm down angry women. Sellers and buyers also expressed complaints about
the sexualization of the women on the cover. What could have been worse for Mechner at that time
is difficult to imagine... Given that America has experienced 60 years of the “sexual revolution”,
the period of New Hollywood in cinema (when all censorship in the cinema was abo
lished
and everything was allowed to be filmed), and in addition, America was one of the first
countries to publish intimate magazines such as Playboy and Hustler (which are still the
largest erotic magazines in the world)... ... So hearing such reviews about the cover
was strange and seemed nonsense at the time (although it’s noticeable that the fight
against sexualization was already beginning then). Especially since that image completely
fitted into the aesthetics of the culture of the
ancient East! But instead of understanding
those "difficult" issues, conscientious players and parents of children simply refused to
buy the game. Who knows what can be expected from a game that depicts some episode of the
terrible Jafar's harassment of the Princess? As you could understand, that also limited
buyers by age. Because if a parent found their little child playing a game with such a
cover, they would call all computer games lewd! The solution to the problem was that the artists
quickly painted a green cloth on the naked girl’s body, which covered everything that was
needed. Unfortunately, this did not save sales, the game was actually buried in the ground.
But Mechner made a strategic decision: he spent a lot of money and, nevertheless,
ported the game to the game platform, NES, which at that time had the most popularity.
And this decision turned out to be correct and decisive in the history of "Prince of Persia".
When the game was released on the NES platform in
Japan, Prince of Persia simply blew up the entire
eastern market! Already in 1991, the game topped the Japanese game market, selling 1,200 copies per
month. For all the profit from the game, "Prince of Persia" was prepared for release on other
devices, such as PS, Sega, and GameBoy. Thus, the game had already captured the American
and European markets of the game industry. However, after everything that happened to Mechner
during these intense 6 years of development, he thought about it fo
r a long time.
And this was what he understood: Probably every game and every developer has to go
through hell before getting to the Olympus of the game industry. Perhaps this is one of the reasons
why Prince of Persia objectively conquered players all over the world. Because as you run through the
tangled corridors and try not to fall into a trap, or finally defeat the guard Jafar, you feel the
sweat and pain, all the sleepless 1000 and 1 nights that young Jordan Mechner spent in front
of
an 8-bit Apple II monitor to give us the opportunity to play Prince of Persia.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993)
In the wake of the game's success, all players wanted a sequel. Moreover, time dictated
the conditions for the technology development, and fans of "Prince of Persia" wanted better graphics
from the game. Therefore, the next game about the Prince - "Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the
Flame" did not have to wait long, as was the case with the first part, but wa
s released already in
1993, 4 years after the original. It was in the interval between the first and second parts of the
game that PCs appeared on the computer technology market, which played high-quality sound effects,
music and could transmit a wide color palette. Therefore, Mechner's goal was to use all the
possibilities of new technologies, so as not to step on the rake and keep up with the times.
At the beginning of the sequel’s development, Mechner had already lived in Northern Califor
nia
for 4 years, surrounded only by offices and industrial landscapes. Tired of working in
windowless offices, he decided to move to France, gain strength and inspiration to work on a new
game. But while he lived in France, the California company Broderbund took up the development of
the game. Mechner played an indirect role in the development. He created levels on floppy
disks and mailed them to California. And more from him at this moment was not needed.
Mechner's role was no longer so s
ignificant, due to the fact that the game bible already
existed. He didn't have to invent anything. All the technologies and mechanics of the characters
were known. And it was not difficult to improve the graphics and change the characters models.
The game was released in 1993 and immediately received a lot of positive
reviews. Journalist Charles Ardai [‘ɑrdeɪ] wrote in Computer Gaming World:
Inset quote: "Prince of Persia 2 not only is in every dimension better than Prince of Persia,
but ..
. is the cruelest, most infuriating, least merciful—in short, the best—game of its
type I have ever played, with an appeal that is absolutely irresistible" (Charles Ardai)
In June 1994, Prince of Persia 2 won Computer Gaming World's "Action Game of the Year" award.
The editors wrote that it "definitely surpasses its predecessor" and called it a "smoothly
animated side-scrolling thriller with cinematic scope, vivid action and terrifying puzzles".
Of course! This time, Mechner was able to impl
ement all the traps and levels that were
not included in the first part of the game. So what was it about the new "Prince of
Persia" that attracted critics so much? The story of "The Shadow and the Flame" was
further inspired by the plot of "The Thief of Baghdad" of 1940. In the film, the evil vizier
Jafar wanted to seize the throne in Baghdad, framing King Ahmad. Ahmad and his friend, the
beggar Abu, managed to escape, but they got into adventures with sorcerers, pirates and a huge
genie.
With the help of a genie, they restored the princess's memory and destroyed Jafar's
plans. Finally, Ahmad returned to the throne, and Abu went on new adventures. It was from this
story that the developers borrowed many details. The plot of Prince of Persia 2
“Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame” takes place eleven days after the
events of the first game. During this time, the Prince has been glorified as a hero who
defeated the evil Jafar. But the Prince refused all the wealth and
instead, as a reward,
asked for marrying the Princess. To which, the Sultan of Persia reluctantly agreed. The game
begins with the Prince entering the royal chambers of the palace. Before entering, he disguises
himself as a beggar. No one recognizes him, and when he tries to speak to the princess,
a man who looks exactly the same steps out of the shadows. It turns out that this is Jafar,
who has magically reincarnated, and orders to get rid of the prince. The prince jumps out the
window, a
nd Jafar's guards chase after him. As a result, the Prince flees the city on a ship.
Falling asleep on the ship, the Prince dreams of a mysterious woman who asks him to come to her.
At this time, the ship is struck by lightning, which was thrown by Jafar. When the prince
regains consciousness, he finds himself on the shore of an unknown island. He ends up in
a cave full of reanimated human skeletons and is forced to fight them. In the end, he is saved
on a magic carpet. Meanwhile, in Persia,
Jafar seizes the throne in the guise of the Prince.
The princess falls ill under Jafar's spell. The magic carpet transports the prince to
the ruins of Basra, filled with screaming, flying goblin heads, snakes, and traps. Arriving
at the ruined throne room, the prince touches the sword on the ground and loses consciousness
- he sees another vision. A mysterious woman appears before him again, who turns out to be his
mother. She explains that the Prince is descended from royalty. He is the o
nly survivor of the
"Army of Darkness" massacre when his parents sacrificed their lives to save him. The Prince's
sword used to belong to his father. His mother begs him to take the sword and avenge the dead.
The prince rides a magical horse to a red temple populated by warrior monks who wear
bird heads instead of hats. There, he discovers that the Shadow, created during the
events of the original game, can now leave his body at will. He uses his shadow to get the magic
flame of the temple.
At this moment, the bird warriors kneel before him. On a magical horse,
the hero flies back to Persia and encounters Jafar. With Shadow and Flame, the Prince
incinerates Jafar, thus killing him for good. When Jafar's spell is broken, the princess wakes
up and the couple rejoice that they are able to see each other again. The Prince orders Jafar's
ashes to be scattered. The game ending is a scene with an old witch watching the happy couple
through a crystal ball. According to Jordan Mechner
, the plot about the old witch and the
"Army of Darkness" was supposed to be revealed in the final part of the trilogy, which
never happened. But more on that a little later - first let's consider what "The Shadow
and the Flame" was like in terms of gameplay. Gameplay and transition to Prince 3D
The mechanics of the game "The Shadow and the Flame" did not differ much from the first
part of "Prince of Persia", where the character made his way through various deadly dangerous
places, running
, jumping, crawling, avoiding traps, while simultaneously solving puzzles and
drinking magic potions. But if you look closely, Prince of Persia 2 has become more focused on
fights. In the first game, enemies appeared only occasionally and always alone, while in
the sequel, thanks to technical possibilities, up to four enemies could appear at the same time!
Sometimes they would appear from the flanks, and even when the hero killed them, reinforcements
could instantly come to replace them. As
in the original Prince of Persia, the player's
goal is to complete the game within a strict time limit of 75 minutes, played in real time. The
number of lives is unlimited, but time cannot be turned back (like in real life), with
the exception of returning to a previously saved game (this is what real life lacks). More
significant improvements have been made in other areas. For example, the graphics have become much
more complex, compared to the rather simple look of the first part. The st
udied territories and the
number of locations also increased significantly. At first glance, everything was so
good that Mechner could not believe it, after the experience with the first "Prince
of Persia". According to Jordan, Prince of Persia 2 was a commercial success, selling
750,000 copies by 2000. But for some reason, with commercial success on their hands and a
brilliant franchise that could be developed further, Broderbund and Mechner never managed to
make a 3rd part of the game. S
o what happened? God knows what - this is what happened inside
the company... Starting with the scandals with the cover of the first part of "Prince", things
have already been quite strange. Things finally went sour when a bidding war broke out between
Brøderbund and SoftKey. Briefly, on December 8, 1995, SoftKey acquired The Learning Company
in a hostile takeover for $606 million, including taking its name. And having increased
the fortune, in June 1998 the SoftKey company, which was now c
alled TLC, also acquired a rival
company, Broderbund Software, for $416 million. After that, 40% of the Broderbund workforce was
laid off. Now Jordan Mechner's former company, which was the first shelter of the developer,
has been renamed Red Orb Entertainment, and the rights to the Prince of Persia series have
automatically passed to the new company - TLC. All these disturbances between companies
overlapped with the rapid development of computer games. In 1993, the first 3D game - "Star Fo
x" -
was released by Nintendo for the SNES platform. The game first used a new processor, SuperFX, with
which polygonal models appeared in games. In 1994, the first PlayStation console was released,
which supported games in 3D. And 1996 was a breakthrough in the development of 3D graphics.
The company 3dfx interactive released a video card "Voodoo" that supported 3D acceleration. In
the same year, the absolutely legendary 3D games were released: "Tomb Raider", from the British
studio Core
Design under the leadership of Toby Gard [ˈtoʊbi ɡɑrd], who invented the main
character of the game Lara Croft ("the most successful heroine of computer games" according
to the Guinness Book of Records). And also the equally legendary 1-person shooter “Quake”,
from id Software, in which the system of dynamic lighting sources was used for the first time.
As you have already understood, the 2D world has collapsed - the era of two-dimensional games has
come to an end. Glory to the 3D! And that
meant that making a continuation of "The Prince" in the
form in which it existed until then made no sense. However, this was not the end of the series.
Prince of Persia 3D (1999) It was 1998. The updated company TLC really
wanted to make a statement. Therefore, keeping their plans a complete secret, they decided to
make the Prince of Persia game in 3D. The head and producer of the project was Andrew Pedersen,
who also produced the first part of the series. Jordan Mechner, the father of the s
eries,
was invited to the project as a creative consultant and screenwriter. In fact, Mechner
simply gave tacit consent to the development of certain mechanics in the future "Prince of
Persia 3D". It was probably the best decision from Mechner's point of view. Because due to all
these frauds with dismissals and the transfer of rights from company to company, it became
impossible to catch up with the lost time, in which technologies and the world developed
rapidly. Mechner immediately under
stood that the new "Prince" would be a failure upon release.
The new company wasn’t able to do anything better than "Tomb Raider", and it was a shame to
publish Lara Croft in a turban and baggy pants. Given the small development budget, brutal
deadlines and the lack of interested management who would like to make the new
game a masterpiece, this led to completely understandable consequences. Prince of Persia
3D was released in 1999 and was not quite what fans of the series expected from a n
ew game.
The plot of Prince of Persia 3D does not follow the author's canon, but is, in fact, a
remake of the original game from 1989, again exploiting the theme of the usurpation
of power and the kidnapping of a princess. In the center of the plot, which unfolds some time
after the events of the second part of the game, is the continuation of the story about the
nameless Prince, who unexpectedly finds himself again involved in a coup d'état. The Sultan,
together with the newly married prot
agonist Prince and Princess (daughter), visit the
kingdom of the Sultan's brother - Assan, in the south of Persia. The Sultan had previously
promised the hand of the Princess to Assan's son, Rugnor. And Rugnor in general is
...half man half tiger. And of course the Sultan breaks his promise. After all, the
Prince has already married the Sultan's daughter. If you don't understand anything, don't be
surprised. There is no answer to the question of why the Sultan gives his already married daugh
ter
for his brother's son. Apparently, this was established in ancient Persia. And why this Assan
has a half-tiger son who looks like a bad version of King from Tekken, I don't know what to think.
But that's still half the battle. After Assan learns that the princess is already engaged, he
tries to kill the Prince, but kills the Sultan when he gets between them. Before his death, the
Sultan asks the Prince to save the Princess. But since Assan accuses the Prince of killing
the Sultan, he is
forced to flee. Meanwhile, Rugnor kidnaps the Princess. The princess
refuses to obey Rugnor, even cuts off his hand with a sword! Rugnor then decides to kill the
Princess by tying her to a large cog in his lair. After this plot, it really becomes clear
that Mechner was not involved in the project at all. Probably no one would
believe him if he wrote such nonsense. The game mechanics have also radically departed
from the original. The developers thought and decided that they should focus on
the combat
system. Therefore, they specially invited two experts, one of whom found weapons for the
developers, and the second was responsible for the correctness of the character's movements. Now
the Prince had more than just one saber, he got a whole arsenal of weapons. Indeed, he was not a
hero at the beginning, but as the game progressed, a sword, double blades and a double-edged
staff became available to him, each of which had its advantages and disadvantages.
The staff is inferior to
the sword in maneuverability, but surpasses it in terms of
impact and range. And the presence of two shock blades makes it possible to quickly repeat an
attack blocked by the enemy. And most importantly, the Prince now has a bow that could summon
a swarm of insects directed at the enemy. Even though the developers used new technologies
to animate the combat system, it left much to be desired. Among the limitations during combat was
the camera becoming static and turning the game into a sce
ne from the 1938 film Robin Hood.
Yes, it was this movie from which Mechner drew the animation for the first "Prince of Persia".
But those were not all the strange limitations and problems that arose during the game. Besides the
fact that the number and unpredictability of traps in the game remained unchanged, another difficulty
was added. It seems that the designers of some game levels simply forgot about the lighting
in certain places of the map. In the game, there are really completely dar
k areas
of space that prevent you from passing the level. And this does not look like a
special technique. It looks like negligence. But in order to faithfully recreate Persia of
the 12th century, the game's visual designer Chris Gruhn [krɪs ɡrun] delved into the study
of the corresponding era in the history of Iran. This resulted in a rich selection of artistic
solutions. Gruhn's work was also influenced by the illustrations for the "Thousand and One
Nights" fairy tales, made by artists o
f the early 20th century, Kai Nielsen and Edmund Dulac
[keɪ ˈnilsən ænd ˈɛdmənd dəˈlæk]. But all those efforts were completely enslaved by absolutely
banal problems with management and lighting. As a result, the game, expectedly for Mechner
and unexpectedly for fans of the "Prince of Persia" series, was a failure. As the father
of the series said, the game was dead at the beginning of development. After its release,
he stated that he did not consider this game to be an official third part o
f the series. But
some critics still found some advantages in the game. For example, the publisher IGN praised
the unique soundtrack of the PC version, smooth animation and high-quality graphics,
as well as jumping mechanics. However, unlike IGN, players weren't happy with the
jumps in the game, so it's always best to draw your own conclusions about games.
As funny as it is, the only award that the third part of "Prince of Persia" received was
"Worst game of 1999" from the publishing house
PC Accelerator. However, somehow it happened
that in the story of Prince of Persia, failure always leads to something better.
Disappointed by"Prince of Persia 3D", Jordan Mechner distanced himself from the gaming
industry. He began working on “Chavez Ravine”, a documentary film that told the story of
a Mexican-American village that had been destroyed by the construction of Dodger
Stadium in Los Angeles. It was unclear to friends of the game designer and fans of the
Prince of Persia series
when Mechner would return to making games... If he returned at all.
Inset quote: "I was in one of my several-year-long 'in-between-game' phases. I needed to
charge up my batteries by doing something completely different." (Jordan Mechner)
While the father of our favorite game series, Jordan Mechner, is preparing to shoot a movie, and
we are preparing to move to the next stage of the development of "Prince of Persia", we remind you
that you can subscribe to our channel and support the release
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Prince of Persia & Ubisoft After the commercial failure of Prince of Persia
3D, TLC was on the verge of bankruptcy. This led
to the total dismissal of studio employees
and changes in its management. Therefore, in order to at least somehow save the
situation, the directors of TLC offered to sell the shares of the studio to Mattel. Yes,
this is the same American company that gave childhood to many girls... Well, and even boys.
It is a manufacturer of toys, and still produces Barbie dolls, Monster High, Ever After High and
much more. In case you didn't know, the Hot Wheels line of toys is also the work of Mattel.
And
since video games mostly captured male audience, Mattel, with the idea that girls can
also play computer games, decided to capture a female audience in this way. Mattel has agreed
to acquire The Learning Company through a stock exchange. The amount of the deal was 4.2 billion
dollars! In 1999, the name of the combined company was changed to Mattel Interactive. The studio
began to develop games about Barbie - as unique content, games were sold on discs together with
Barbie dolls. And they t
old Barbie stories there. Everything should have been fine, but TLC hid its
catastrophic losses after Prince of Persia 3D. Therefore, in 2000, due to financial losses,
Mattel sold The Learning Company to "The Gores Group", a private investment company specializing
in partnerships with mature and growing enterprises. The total amount of Mattel's losses
was about 3.6 billion dollars. As the directors later said: "acquiring TLC was one of the worst
decisions in Mattel's corporate history." Sim
ultaneously, the development company Ubisoft is
developing rapidly in France. In the early 2000s, the company began its fast globalization, focusing
specifically on video games. At that time, Ubisoft had already released a dozen different
games, from the action adventure "Zombi" to "F1 Racing Simulation''. Among them are 2 parts of
"Rayman", from Michel Ansel [mɪˈʃɛl ənˈsɛl] - one of the first game designers of Ubisoft, and
today one of the most iconic personalities in the game industry. Si
nce Ubisoft had already
had some experience in game development, they managed to acquire the American studio Red
Storm Entertainment. This studio developed games based on the books of Tom Clancy [tɑm ˈklænsi],
an American writer working in the techno thriller genre. Then, after the acquisition of Red Storm
Entertainment by Ubisoft, they began to create the legendary series of games "Splinter
Cell", based on the works of Tom Clancy. In 2001, the company acquired Blue Byte Software,
known fo
r The Settlers series - games built on the mechanics of city planning and real-time strategy.
In the same year the market became aware of the problems of TLC, with their abandoned "Prince
of Persia". The future general and operations director of Ubisoft in Montreal, Yannis Mallat
[’jɑnis mɑlɑt], who was an ordinary producer at the time, offered the management of Ubisoft to
purchase the rights to the trilogy "Prince of Persia" in order to replenish the game
library of the not-so-young compan
y, which was about to turn 15 years old.
Interestingly, before Yannis joined Ubisoft, he spent his youth in West Africa. Namely
in Côte d'Ivoire [kəʊt diːˈvwɑː] and Burkina Faso [bərˈkinə ˈfɑsoʊ]. There he
received in a sense a fateful experience, because he got acquainted with the diversity of
cultures and formed his leadership qualities. For some time he was part of the people who provided
humanitarian aid to African countries. And later he returned to France and received an economic
edu
cation in the field of agronomy. However, Yannis understood that this was not what he wanted
to do. His true passion was video games. So when the Ubisoft office opened in Montreal in 2000, he
jumped at the opportunity and joined the team. Thus, Yannis’s idea of reviving "Prince of
Persia'' in 2001 opened Ubisoft's path to a bright future. However, everything was not so
rosy for the young company. The intellectual rights to the "Prince of Persia'' franchise
still remained with the father of
the series, Jordan Mechner, who did not want to return
to this business at all. As they say, "the question is out of time." So, in order
to officially start working on a new game, Mechner's permission had to be obtained.
The ideological leader, Yannis Mallat, wanted to revive "Prince of Persia" because he saw
great potential in it. In his opinion, the game, which has experienced so many ups and downs,
could not simply sink into oblivion. Therefore, the main thing was to convince Mechner that
there was a way out to qualitatively revive the series. Mallat began working on building
a team and developing a new game design. After several months of work, Mallat invited
Mechner to meet at E3. Jordan reluctantly agreed. Mallat offered Mechner to make "The Prince" again
in 3D, which immediately pushed Mechner away... It seems that the very combination of Prince
and 3D became Mechner's nightmare. However, this was not the only reason. The Bible of the
future "Prince", which contained 3
00 pages, had nothing original. There was nothing innovative
- all the same enemies, traps and running around. As a result, the conversation lasted about
3 hours, but after it Mechner did not give a final verdict. He agreed to come to Montreal
in a few weeks to put an end to this matter. During this time, Yannis Mallat decided to
fundamentally change everything and took a very risky step. He fired the old development team and
recruited a new one. Creating a new game team was not a very diff
icult task, since Ubisoft Montreal
already had more than 500 employees in the company at that time - it was the second largest studio
in the world, right after Canada's Electronic Arts. Although it should be noted that there were
a few people who believed in the reincarnation of the "Prince of Persia" series. Yannis recalls:
Inset quote: "People from other projects would walk by the team and say, 'Hey, that's Prince of
Persia, it's a dead franchise.' (Yannis Mallat) Mallat still managed to f
ind 6 desperate
people who agreed to risk coming up with something brilliant in 2 weeks until Mechner
arrived. The only thing that Mallat understood at that time was that the main feature of the new
"Prince of Persia" should be the unique gameplay. And this gameplay soon appeared after all.
Inset quote: "The real step forward was when we came up with the idea of the
Persian Ninja." (Yannis Mallat) Basically, the gameplay came down to the idea
of a very acrobatic game environment. Instead of
a Prince who could only jump over traps, the
team imagined a Prince who would perform the movements of the hero from the movie “Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. And, the most exciting idea was what the team called the "vertical
wall", that is, the prince’s ability to run along the edges of walls, like in "The Matrix".
With Mechner's trip to Montreal fast approaching, the development team realized there was no time
to build a demo. Instead, they decided to create a series of animated tests t
o at least show Mechner
something. Animator Alex Drouin [æləks druin] was entrusted to work on a series of simple tests.
He already had experience as an Art Director in the game “Batman: Vengeance”. And he also knew a
little kung fu. The tests showed a silhouette of the Prince running through a blocky environment.
There, the developers demonstrated vertical walls and gameplay ideas. For example, the Prince's
ability to swing on the bars like a gymnast. When Mechner arrived in Montreal, he d
idn't know
what to expect. But he knew that he definitely did not want to hear about the creation of
another Tomb Raider clone. Mechner's arrival was one of the most important things happening in
the company at that time. Everyone's knees were shaking. When the video of the animation
tests ended, Mechner turned to the team, looked them all in the eye, and said one thing:
Inset quote: "Guys, what I've just seen has reawakened the joy of making video
games to me." (Jordan Mechner) The ice was
broken. Mechner gave the go-ahead
for the game and signed a contract with Ubisoft to develop and publish the game, using his
intellectual property. From this moment, the development of the already legendary
"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" began. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Development
The whole team was happy to hear the words Mechner told them. But at the same time, they perfectly
understood that the real difficulties were just beginning. Now they had to somehow turn
the a
nimation into a full-fledged game. In September 2001, the real work on the design of
the new "Prince of Persia" began. Mechner became a consultant on Prince's development and worked from
his home in Los Angeles, but visited Montreal from time to time. Therefore, Yannis Mallat acted as a
producer, and most of the day-to-day work fell on the back of the young creative director,
Patrice Désilets [pəˈtris dəsi’le]. Later, it was Patrice, inspired by the "Prince
of Persia", who gave us the equal
ly legendary Assassin's Creed series and became a famous game
designer. And at that time, Patrice was only 26 years old, and behind him were only a couple of
trivial games, such as “Hype: The Time Quest” and “Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers”. So the development
of the new "Prince" became a real challenge for Patrice. Despite the fact that Ubisoft was already
a prestigious company at that time, in addition to working as a game designer, Désilets worked as an
improvisational comedian. Therefore,
improvisation became one of the methods of his development:
Inset quote: "In improv you have to say yes a lot to what people give you because if you say no, the improv is over. Game design is like that
for me. I try to say yes to everyone's ideas and build off of them." (Patrice Désilets)
During his work sports games became the main source of Désilets’s inspiration. He wanted
to adopt the mechanics of context-sensitive character control. In this case, the player's
interaction with the environ
ment created 70% of the gameplay. Désilets envisioned the new Prince
as an action adventure with the atmosphere of the "Tony Hawk [ˈtoʊni hɔk]" games, only with swords
and big pants. So that the hero could jump and climb the walls like a flea on a dog. Over the
course of several months, the team brainstormed different gameplay ideas. For a while, ladders
and structures were supposed to play a major role in the game, that would allow players to
interact with them, like in Jackie Chan movies.
It was the Prince's ability to perform some
crazy acrobatic moves that was supposed to create the spirit of "Sands of Time". In fact,
this mechanic later became a classic for game designers and developers of future games
in the Assassin's Creed series (which we will definitely talk about later), and all
projects that somehow involved parkour. Another gameplay concept was a magic carpet, and
an episode was planned where the player would ride a horse and fight enemies in the desert. So,
aft
er several months of initial design work, it was decided that the game would basically
consist of three main elements: fight sequences, acrobatic stunts, and a few adventure puzzles.
However, according to game producer Yannis Mallat, this was not enough for the new "Prince".
He wanted to add something so unique that it would set Prince of Persia apart from other games.
Like Australia is different from the North Pole. Patrice Désilets supported this opinion,
and he had an idea. Désilets, like
any self-respecting gamer, hated dying in games.
Inset quote: "I remember playing the Donald Duck game, and when I died, I wanted to just
go back in time a few seconds instead of having to replay the whole level." (Patrice Désilets)
Yannis immediately liked this idea of a short-term return in time. In general, it can be assumed
that if there was no "Donald Duck" there would be no "Prince of Persia" that we know today. Now
the only question was how to make the mechanics of time manipulation w
ork? After all, this
mechanic included an almost continuous game, which entailed large volumes of internal data.
And on the recently released Playstation 2, the required memory volumes
did not exist at that time. For the answer to this question, Mallat turned
to Claude Langlais [klɔd ləŋˈɡleɪ], the lead programmer at Ubisoft. In a way, it was
the perfect time to explore such questions: programmers were deciding what technology
would become the basis of a game engine. For several months, th
e team gravitated towards
using the Unreal game engine, but in the end, the programmers led by Mallat decided to use
Ubisoft's internal technology called JADE, developed in France for the game “Beyond Good
& Evil”. The upside to this was that Langlais believed he could make the rewind
function work with JADE technology. And he was right. In the first tests of the
engine, the developers managed to achieve the desired result. Now, with a ready-made game engine
and a prototype game that every
one was happy with, the first thing in line was the problem of
the plot of the Prince of Persia world. The team understood that it was necessary to bring
something new to the Prince’s story. After all, the old idea of a linear plot was no longer
included in the game concept. At that moment, Jordan Mechner joined the
development team. He offered his help in writing the script of the game.
Inset quote: "My first task as a screenwriter was to come up with a story related to the gameplay.
That
is, it was necessary to use the manipulation of time in the narrative. In the game, you can
turn back time, and in the story - to correct the mistakes that caused someone's death. It
was about saving loved ones in the characters' lives and removing the consequences of your
actions. I think that helped the player identify with the characters." (Jordan Mechner)
Jordan didn't want to turn Prince into a time-manipulating superhero. Therefore, according
to the plot, a unique artifact - "Dagger o
f Time", the only thing other than the "Hourglass of Time"
that can hold the powerful "Sands of Time" had this ability. The Dagger-wielding
Prince could now slow down, stop, and rewind time. Also, the item could give
the Prince the ability to see the future, which would help the player follow
the correct course in the location. This is how the concept of the future main
character appeared on paper. But this was only on paper. Now the question hung in the air,
what should the new hero look
like? So Yannis Mallat was actively involved in the further
big work, and began to replenish the team. After a long search, the team found Raphael
Lacoste [rɑfaɪˈɛl lɑˈkɔst], who before becoming the art director of Prince of Persia and
Assassin's Creed, and gaining fame as a concept artist who created amazing 3D worlds,
worked as an ordinary photographer and sometimes studied 3D graphics. He immediately began
working on the game's overall visuals and character design. Dozens of designs were
created
for the Prince, from a boy in a turban to daring looks with a buff and shirtless. Eventually,
the team agreed that they didn't want to create an animated Aladdin world for Prince.
Inset quote: "Everybody just kept repeating: 'Sharper, more mature, and nothing specific. But
everyone unanimously wanted to see a new prince, with noble facial features that would
be covered by the dust of antiquity and the sweat of battles." (Raphael Lacoste)
The next question, which has been related to
the artistic decision, what will the universe
of ancient Persia look like? It is clear that no one from the team wanted to repeat the
experience of TLC with "The Prince" in 3D, and the idea of creating a game in the cartoon
world fell away even after choosing a visual solution for the main character. Therefore,
the team decided to delve into the history and culture of the Middle East as much as possible.
Everything was in use. Each of the team members began to read and be inspired by the pri
mary
sources of the series - the "1000 and 1 Nights" fairy tales, study mythology, learn about
the peculiarities of national ornaments, and in general, what culture was based on.
Raphael Lacoste understood, he definitely would not want to play in a recreated world
in which you feel every polygon of the map, and understand that all this is not true. The main
idea was to turn the world of "Prince of Persia" into a picture in which the player would truly
experience the story told by the artis
t. As if you entered a picture gallery, and your imagination
began to play with the characters drawn in the pictures. Lacoste therefore immediately began
pushing for more visual effects in the world, including fog, streams of light, and
the physics of objects and fabrics. The last element of the game that needed to
be refined was the combat system. The team thought about how to improve the acrobatic
movements of the prince, which were present in the first 3D part of the franchise:
Inset quo
te: "We started saying things like, 'Well, if the prince can run up
walls, why can't he run up enemies too during a fight?' (Patrice Désilets)
After all, the combat system was inspired by documentaries about capoeira,
a Brazilian fighting style that combined martial arts and stylized dance.
After the Prince's movements and combat capabilities were captured in the prototype
stage, the main focus was on level creation: artwork, design, and puzzles. At the beginning
of production, a large proje
ct board was hung in the office, which contained an overview of
the entire game. Each level was represented by a colored index card that could be moved around
the board as the order of the levels changed… Kind of like how TV executives use index cards
on a board to juggle their prime time schedule. Since "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"
was conceived as a very acrobatic game, the level design had to be something more
original than a bunch of big rooms. The levels were meant to be physi
cal puzzles that required
the Prince to avoid traps, time his every move, and swing on pillars to advance. In order to
create such complex levels, the team went through a series of so-called level drawing sessions.
Inset quote: "Those designs were literally done from 30,000 feet in the air. We'd look at
the top-down view of a level and say, 'OK, over here there will be a fight, and then over
here there will be some acrobatic gameplay with columns.'" (Patrice Désilets)
After the design was co
mpleted, the team created more than 250 rooms in draft
form. Artists created textures and game objects, while level designers began detailed
work on creating the actual gameplay. As with any 3D video game, the in-game camera
has become an important design element with its own set of challenges. In the first half of the
project, the team planned to keep the camera in a fixed position, like in Devil May Cry. But by
the end of 2002, everyone began to understand that the camera should move with
the player
in order to achieve maximum comfort for him. The camera change was minor. Therefore, the team
faced a real obstacle later, in early 2003. In January, the programmers realized that the JADE
graphics engine, which worked well in the game prototype, was no longer able to support the
game's huge levels and detailed visual effects. Yannis Mallat mentions in an interview:
Inset quote: "The programming team came in and basically said, 'Yannis, we have some
bad news. We need to create a
totally new rendering system for the game. Here we were
only months before our debut to the public, and we no longer had a graphics engine. I
definitely was getting worried." (Yannis Mallat) While the engine change hadn’t affected
the level design or core gameplay, Mallat and company were walking the fine
line of making such significant changes to the game three months before its first public
unveiling at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Still, while the team was preparing a demo for
E3
that featured several polished puzzle levels, no one knew how fans would react to the new
Prince of Persia. The father of the series, Jordan Mechner, as a veteran of E3, believed in
Mallat's team and was sure that the game would be of the highest quality. Support for young
guys who were only 22 to 30 years old, and who were one step away from a masterpiece, was simply
essential. Given the history of their projects, such as the little-known adventure "Laura's
Happy Adventures" or the platfo
rmer "Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers", no one expected that E3 would
have a crowd of people playing their game demo. Members of the Montreal team were used to
being practically ignored at the show. Inset quote: "The only guys who came to our booth
before were the people looking for somewhere to rest, because there was a place to sit down
near the Donald Duck game." (Alex Drouin) Finally, the decisive day has come for the Prince
of Persia team and for the future of this game in general. Dressed
in red Ubisoft T-shirts, the team
waited anxiously at the booth to see the first reaction. The crowd flew to the stand like flies
on... like people after a brand new iPhone. By the end of the first day, the “Prince of Persia”
gaming table section was filled with dozens of fans elbowing each other for a chance to play the
game. It was a resounding success, but it was too early to rejoice. Yannis Mallat understood:
Inset quote: "OK, we have a good demo...and that's all we have right now." (Ya
nnis Mallat)
Mallat did not want to be the bearer of bad news. The problem was that Ubisoft expected the game
to hit store shelves by November of that year. That is, only after six months. No one in the team
considered this release date realistic - everyone planned to postpone the game release to 2004. And
this was impossible, because in the imagination of Ubisoft's directors, there was already a disc
with "Prince of Persia" on their desk, which was beating all the sales ratings and tops of
holiday sales. Thus, after a frantic take-off, the "darkest hours" were coming for the project team.
According to Jordan Mechner: “It was a turning point. The whole game could easily fall apart.”
However, in order to release Prince in time for the New Year's holiday in 2003, the game's content
had to be cut by about 15 percent. They cut out all the incomplete content, such as the battle on
the chariot (which, a small spoiler, we will see in the 3rd part of the series), the ability to
fly on
the magic carpet, and all the levels and locations that did not greatly affect the plot. An
even more radical decision was to divide the game into two parts. The first half was to be released
as planned, in the fall, and the second - next year. Mechner immediately rejected this idea so
as not to destroy the integrity of the story. The most painful thing for the team was cutting
the story line with the giant mythical griffin, with which the Prince had to meet three
times during the game, an
d in the end have a full-fledged duel. But there was also good
news. We know that everything that happened with "Prince of Persia" happened for the better.
According to Mechner, after all the cuts, the game became better! After removing all unfinished and
trivial things, it became whole! In October 2003, the team had only 24 errors to correct.
Inset quote: "While 24 bugs aren't many, everyone knows that the last bugs are
always the most elusive. Yesterday was the last time I said to myself t
hat we should
push the game to 2004. But after that phrase, I got a big smile on my face.” (Patrice Désilets)
Finally, with one last bug left and only a few minutes to fix, Mallat ordered the programmers
to write what could be the final version of the game. And sent it to Sony for review approval, who
would check the game one last time before it was allowed to be released on the PS2. Two days of
waiting had passed, but none of the team could believe that they had finally finished the game.
Every person on the team had the feeling that they had missed some kind of mistake. Soon, Sony sent
an official letter saying that “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” was approved for release.
The development of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" can be considered an example
of "Through the Thorns to the Stars". The team led by Yannis Mallat and Jordan Mechner could
finally sleep peacefully. Speaking about the game development in an interview, Mallat said:
Inset quote: “Two years ago, me
mbers of the “Prince of Persia” team were the people
responsible for unforgettable children's games based on the Playmobil and Donald Duck
toy series. But now, almost in an instant, these young, inexperienced people have become
celebrities. And their game, “Prince of Persia”, is considered by many to be one of the
best games of 2003.” (Yannis Mallat) Now, it seems, the time has come to return
the Dagger of Time that we have borrowed from the Prince at the beginning of our story.
The plot of
“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” It's time to consider what
the new "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" from Ubisoft was about. What
did fans of the series see while unwrapping their Christmas presents, and what was on the disc?
According to the plot, the events of the game take place in Persia, in the 9th century AD. The main
character named Prince, addressing the player, talks about his adventures. How he, with his
father Shahraman's army, traveled through India to visit the Sultan
of Azad. On the way to Azad, the
Prince's father had a plan - to attack the palace of the local Indian ruler, the Maharajah, in order
to come to the Sultan of Azad not empty-handed. But the Vizier, who has betrayed his ruler and
the people, in order to get the legendary sands of time, is waiting for the Persian army in
the Maharajah's palace. The battle for the palace begins. The prince finds two artifacts
inside it - the Dagger of Time and a giant hourglass. The Vizier asks for the Dagger
of Time
as payment for his work, but the Prince's father refuses him. Shahraman takes away legendary
trophies and charming girls from the palace, among whom is the Maharaja's daughter - Farah.
It is her and the large hourglass that are presented to the Sultan of Azad as a gift.
However, at the moment of receiving the gifts, the Vizier tricks the Prince into combining
the dagger and the giant hourglass. Thus, the Prince releases the Sands of Time,
turning everyone but himself, the Vizier,
and Farah into sand monsters. Surviving thanks
to magical items, the Vizier tries to take the Dagger from the Prince. But the Prince escapes and
eventually teams up with Farah to fix the tragedy and prevent the Sands from covering the world
forever. To turn everything back, it is necessary to insert the Dagger into the Clock again, but the
Vizier (now the main antagonist of the story) has stolen them and fled in an unknown direction.
Exploring the tangled corridors of the palace, the Prince
and Farah kill the Prince's father,
who by then has already lost his human form and turned into a giant monster. While passing
complex traps and labyrinths with enemies, Farah and Prince gradually fall in love. Even
though Farah lost her home because of the Prince. Finally reaching the hourglass in the Tower
of Dawn, the Prince begins to hesitate: should he follow Farah's instructions to combine
the Dagger of Time with the hourglass? After all, he constantly has visions in which Farah
ste
als the Dagger from him. The Vizier sets up an ambush in the tower, and the heroes
narrowly escape falling into a tomb beneath the city. As they try to find a way out of the
tomb, Farah tells the Prince a story from her childhood that she has never told anyone. About
the mysterious word "Kakolookiyam", which her mother told her to say when it was very scary.
Eventually, after breaking out of the tomb, the heroes find refuge in a mysterious bathhouse,
where Farah lures the Prince into a large
tub, resulting in the two spending the night
together. When the Prince wakes up in the palace, he notices that Farah has stolen
the dagger while he was sleeping. Instead, she left the Prince her locket so he could
protect himself. The prince follows Farah and barely manages to catch up as the monsters
who’ve guarded the clock in the battle with Farah push her into the abyss above the hourglass.
The Prince tries to save her, but Farah lets go of the Dagger that the Prince has been holding
and falls into the abyss. And while the Prince mourns his beloved, the Vizier offers him eternal
life in exchange for the Dagger. Only "why have eternal life, in which there is no Farah?" the
Prince probably thinks and refuses the Vizier's offer. The prince sticks the Dagger into the
hourglass and time is rewound to the attack on the Maharajah's palace. The Prince, still
in possession of the dagger and his memories, runs to the Maharajah's palace to
warn Farah of the Vizier's betrayal. At t
his point, it is revealed that the entire game
is just the Prince's retelling of his story to Farah. As he finishes the story, the Vizier bursts
into Farah's room to kill the Prince. However, the Prince kills the Vizier and returns the
dagger to Farah, who believes that his whole story was nothing more than a fiction. As in the
best traditions of cinema, the Prince passionately kisses Farah, but she reproaches him that she does
not remember ever loving him. The prince rewinds time one last
time to undo his kiss. In parting,
he remembers the secret word "Kakolookiyam" that Farah told him alone in the tomb. Farah,
with a dazed look, sees off the Prince, who disappears in an unknown direction. It
turns out that everything he said was true... In 2003 all fans were very pleased with such a
romantic adventure story. This is not surprising, because Mechner participated in writing the
script. His characteristic cinematic flair is present here and makes the plot
of the game so exciti
ng! By the way, it's time to consider what Easter eggs
and movie references were in the game. Easter eggs and gameplay
The staff of the main antagonist of the game, the Vizier, is a reference to the Aladdin 1992
cartoon already mentioned at the beginning. Where Jafar had the same snake-like staff.
The developers also left a very interesting game secret to the players. The player could
find himself on a hidden bonus level - in a mini location with a design and appearance
of the camera, as in
the 1st part of "Prince of Persia". For this, at the very beginning
of the game, in the location of the balcony, the player had to enter one tricky key combination
(X, space, LMB twice, E, C, E, space, LMB, C). Then he found himself in a rather nostalgic
level with traps, and after their passing he could find a classic sword. And instead of exiting
the location, in front of the player was a large hall lined with crates of "POP" (abbreviation
of Prince of Persia) beer and a large picture in
the center of the wall, which depicted all the
developers of "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time". And there was a secret beyond common sense
in the game. Players could use the connecting cable to connect their Gameboy Advance to
a device that already had Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time running. Then all the
main character's health was automatically regenerated. How did they come up with this?
But the main feature of "Sands of Time" was not the Easter eggs, but the gameplay. The highlight
was the Prince’s story, in which the game plot was embedded. After all, such a narrative technique
used by Ubisoft was innovative and completely unique. Basically, the entire gameplay of
"Prince of Persia" is the words of the main character. And so the player’s death during the
passage becomes nothing more than a mistake in the narrative... a misrepresentation of events.
Just imagine that when you pause the game, it's just the Prince trying to remember something.
Besides the innovative narra
tive, the developers filled "Sands of Time" with new gameplay features
that further refreshed the game. The interaction with Farah, the daughter of the Indian Maharajah,
is a novelty for the entire series. If earlier the plot of the first trilogy was based on the
rescue of a helpless princess, now the heroine of the game becomes a player’s combat friend...
And not only a combat friend. Well, you got it. Throughout the game, Farah assists the Prince by
shooting enemies with a bow, although h
er arrows can also hit the Prince. Farah helps the hero
to pass puzzles and traps in the palace, which somewhat resembles the gameplay of the game "Ico"
by Fumito Ueda [ˈwɛdə], which was released in 2001. Can you call it a copy paste? Who knows, and
even if it is a copy paste, its presence in "Sands of Time" is absolutely justified by the plot.
The combat system was also new for the series. It has remained quite simple in performance,
as it was conceived by the developers at the beginning
- the Prince has a sword in his arsenal
and only a few variations of possible blows. Unlike Prince of Persia in 3D, where the main
character had a lot of weapons in his arsenal. However, in Sands of Time, the player could
combine sword strikes with jumps and flips, in the best traditions of Bollywood films.
And the main innovation in the series is the presence in the Prince’s arsenal the Dagger of
Time, which allows you to control time in the game by spending the Sand of Time stored in the
dagger's compartments. Sand can be regenerated by killing enemies with the Dagger. Killing an enemy
restores one yellow compartment of the Dagger, or half of the white one. There are also
special sources of Sand at the locations, passing through which the player replenished all
compartments of the Dagger completely. You can gradually increase the number of compartments
in the Dagger up to 10 of the first and second type. The dagger gives four unique abilities:
Rewind - The dagger allows you
to rewind time, but not more than for 10 seconds,
even if the Prince is already dead when the rewind starts. For example, a
player can rewind a fall into an abyss. Delay - This ability allows you to slow down
time, giving the player a reaction advantage, while also slightly speeding up the Prince
and making his shots unblockable by enemies. Immobilization - allows you to freeze
the enemy with a dagger strike, which creates the possibility of killing the
enemy in two hits. The only downside
is that you cannot extract sand from it during this.
Haste is an ability that slows and freezes all nearby enemies for a short time, giving the
player the ability to quickly take out all enemies in a couple of hits. The ability
consumes all sand slots from the dagger, leaving no sand behind enemies.
Overall, Dagger of Time's capabilities make up for the player not being
able to save the game at any point. You can save the game only in specially
designated places where Sandstorms hit from th
e ground. Player’s passing through
them also gives the so-called "vision", which is a kind of hint about further
advancement of the level to the next storm. The atmosphere of the world of ancient Persia in
the game is created by an incredible soundtrack and sound design. Just listen to this:
So, just so you understand, this soundtrack was written by Prince's main composer - Stuart
Chatwood [ʧætwʊd] of the Canadian rock band The Tea Party. Basically, he wrote soundtracks for all
subsequent p
arts of "Prince of Persia". Chatwood was chosen for this role because Ubisoft wanted
to create music that contained Persian elements to fit the setting, while not being purely
Persian music. To achieve the desired effect, Indian elements were added to the melodies of the
Middle East and mixed with rock. Chatwood used various stringed instruments, including the Indian
tabla, as well as various female vocal parts. For sound effects, the team collaborated
with sound company Dane Tracks. One of
the unconventional decisions made by the team was
not to pause gameplay during in-game dialogue. That is, the Prince and Farah did not have
to stop to talk. All their plot dialogues happened simultaneously with your progress.
Besides plot dialogues and jokes on each other, unique contextual dialogues were
written for certain situations. In total, more than a thousand lines were
written for the dialogues, although more than half of them were cut. The original Prince was
voiced by Yuri Lowe
nthal [ˈjʊri ˈloʊɪnθəl] - a famous American voice actor who also voiced
such legendary roles as Sasuke from "Naruto", Ben Tennyson [ˈtɛnɪsən] from "Ben 10", as well
as heroes from "Diablo III" and "Saints Row". So what was the players’ reaction on Prince of
Persia: The Sands of Time? The game's release day was the second birthday for the entire series…
Release and future plans The success of the game was inevitable. Almost
a month after its release, sales of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of T
ime" reached 700,000 copies,
and by the end of 2003, the number of copies sold reached 2 million. Critics were delighted.
GameSpot editor Greg Kasavin [kɑ’savɪn] called “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” "a game we
can wholeheartedly recommend," and the publication named it the best game of November 2003 for the
GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. In ten years, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" sold
a total of 14 million copies worldwide! In 2003, the game won the award for "Best
Act
ion/Adventure Game" at the Game Critics Awards. And in 2004, the Academy of Interactive
Arts and Sciences recognized "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" as "Console Game of the Year"
and "Platformer Action/Adventure Game of the Year" at its awards ceremony. In fact, it was supposed
to drive the game to all possible sales tops. Yes, it really was in the first place of sales in
Europe. But the American and British public surprisingly did not accept the new "Prince" so
happily... Well, Brita
in, they have enough of their own Princes, but what happened to America?
In fact, at the same time, the release of Max Payne 2 and GTA3 took place, which, firstly,
were giants of the game industry, and secondly, were culturally closer and therefore more
understandable. So, in order to get out of the situation and not get lost among all the
novelties of 2003, Ubisoft decided to make gift sets in which players received "Splinter Cell"
when buying "Prince of Persia". We can say that Sam Fisher
[ˈfɪʃər] is the main character
of the spy series "Splinter Cell", he’s saved the poor Prince, who for some reason was
constantly beset by incomprehensible obstacles. A year after the game's release, it was even
featured in an episode of the famous Canadian TV show "How It's Made". In general, it was
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time that became the reason why this game series, which was largely
ignored after the release of Prince of Persia 3D, regained its popularity in the gaming
indust
ry. In the same 2004, Mechner began work on a film adaptation of the game, but
this process dragged on for several years. Meanwhile, the Ubisoft team, on the wave
of success, immediately began working on the continuation of the game, as a result of which
fans received one of the most brutal, spectacular and provocative sequels in the history of game
development. Which quickly turned the tone of the series in a completely different direction...
But this is another story, which we will tell in
the next video of our retrospective of the ups and
downs of the "Prince of Persia" series. Probably, if it were not for the obstacles in his way, the
Prince and everyone who worked on him would never have become what they are now. The "Prince
of Persia" is destined to constantly fall, rise, die and be reborn from the sand,
again and again. Even after 33 years, since the beginning of the series.
So if you are interested in what the sequel to "Prince of Persia: Warrior Within"
was like, and
what exactly happened to the series after its release, write about
it in the comments. The longer the wait, the sooner we'll release the sequel!
Thank you for watching this video till the end. Please like this video and subscribe to
the channel, if you haven't already done so. We hope we don't have to use the dagger of time
to turn back time and repeat our request. We recommend watching other videos on our
channel, for example one of those that appeared on your screen now. And that's all for
today. You were watching PressX. Till next time!
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