Finally, a Tumblr documenting and discussing all those scrolling shots of code on computer screens in movies and television.
I love when directors and production designers take the time to get this right.
And look! Here’s some vintage Prince of Persia.
Jordan Mechner, my friend and collaborator on several projects, has a terrific post-mortem on his original Prince of Persia videogame over at the GDC Vault. If you’re interested in game design, it’s definitely worth checking out.
The videogame world is still so young that the study and analysis of its history is largely in the hands of its creators. I wonder how long that will last.
Here’s the test, I guess: Who will be the first person to make a living as a full-time videogame theorist? Not a reviewer or industry pundit, but the guy who creates context in articles entitled, “The Side-Scroller and the Dissolution of Self.”
Videogames are certainly a legitimate field of critical study. But I wouldn’t want to lose the primacy of hearing pioneers talking about what they did and why.
Jordan Mechner has posted the original screenplay for Prince of Persia, which better reflects the movie he and I hoped to make back when we set up the project in 2004.
I didn’t do any real writing on PoP — my hands never touched the keyboard — but I worked with Jordan extensively on the pitch, outline and first few drafts of the project. My involvement essentially ceased after this 2005 draft, when I turned my attention to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Nines. Jordan and I also cowrote Ops, a pilot for Fox which you can read in the Library.
You’ll notice many story and structural changes between this draft and the finished film. One of the biggest is in the opening: the movie adds backstory setting up Dastan as a fair-minded orphan adopted by the king. I prefer the original, which let him be the reckless gambler with no real responsibility, since he was third in line to the throne.
It’s the difference between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, and sets a very different tone for the story.
You can check out the script and discussion on Jordan’s blog.
You can see the trailer we used for the original pitch here.