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Jordan Mechner published his journals from the period when he made Karateka and Prince of Persia. I found them to be very inspirational. The Making of Karateka

Jordan Mechner published his journals from the period when he made Karateka and Prince of Persia. I found them to be very inspirational. The Making of Karateka https://www.amazon.com/dp/1480297232/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/1480297232/ The Making of Prince of Persia https://www.amazon.com/dp/1468093657/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/1468093657/ I recommend reading them in order.

petermcneeley 8y ago
Or just watch his GDC talk which is basically a story of becoming an adult. https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014634/Classic-Game-Postmortem-PRINCE-OF https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014634/Classic-Game-Postmorte...
- cableshaft 8y ago
  Just watched that. I had no idea Prince of Persia was not a hit when it was first released. Did poorly on Apple II because the market was dying, did poorly on PC because it was a conversion and retailers looked at the poor Apple II sales and assumed it would have poor sales, and then finally on the Mac it came out just as there was enough Mac sales to have customers wanting good software. Once again it seems that releasing on the right platform at the right time is super important for success. What does everyone think is the right platform right now (or emerging within the next couple of years), especially for an Indie title? People don't seem to play web games much anymore, Steam is flooded with junk, Mobile seems to be totally saturated, Nintendo Switch seems promising right now but it's starting to go down the same road as Steam. VR seems to be slow to get moving (and looks like it might remain a niche for several more years, at least). Are there any good options to get in at the right time like he did?
  - Kurtz79 8y ago
    As you say, the real issue is discoverability, but I don't think the problem is the "junk", as much the large number of perfectly average and acceptably fun games released every day. I read Mechner's journals a few years ago, and they were illuminating in how basically as an Indie developer at the time you needed not only the willpower and creativeness to make a game, but also have the connections/luck of getting it published (no Steam, no Apple Store... no Internet!) and you also had to dominate the technical aspect and know the underlying hardware, with very little information around (again, no Internet). If you could manage all this (!) your game was going to be noticed, since there were not so many "good" games being released in general, much less masterpieces like PoP. Nowadays, the barriers of entry are minimal, there are multi-platform engines with highly refined tools, with plenty of tutorials about pretty much everything, publishing is pretty much an automated process, that gives millions of people instant access to your game. There was little chance a few years ago of a "good" indie title going unnoticed, nowadays it must be truly excellent to get the spotlight, and even then... it's easy to spot junk, much less to spot a great game in the middle of a sea of perfecty good ones.
    - _0ffh 8y ago
      > but also have the connections/luck of getting it published That or the guts to take the risk and invest one's own (or, even worse, lent) money.
mehrdadn 8y ago
Oh man, the memories. Prince of Persia was such a deceptively hard game!
partycoder 8y ago
There is also Prince of Persia 2 which I find to be a more linear game.
tambourine_man 8y ago
Debug podcast interview with him: https://imore.com/debug-7-jordan-mechner-and-karateka https://imore.com/debug-7-jordan-mechner-and-karateka

petermcneeley 8y ago

Or just watch his GDC talk which is basically a story of becoming an adult. https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014634/Classic-Game-Postmortem-PRINCE-OF https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014634/Classic-Game-Postmorte...

cableshaft 8y ago
Just watched that. I had no idea Prince of Persia was not a hit when it was first released. Did poorly on Apple II because the market was dying, did poorly on PC because it was a conversion and retailers looked at the poor Apple II sales and assumed it would have poor sales, and then finally on the Mac it came out just as there was enough Mac sales to have customers wanting good software. Once again it seems that releasing on the right platform at the right time is super important for success. What does everyone think is the right platform right now (or emerging within the next couple of years), especially for an Indie title? People don't seem to play web games much anymore, Steam is flooded with junk, Mobile seems to be totally saturated, Nintendo Switch seems promising right now but it's starting to go down the same road as Steam. VR seems to be slow to get moving (and looks like it might remain a niche for several more years, at least). Are there any good options to get in at the right time like he did?
- Kurtz79 8y ago
  As you say, the real issue is discoverability, but I don't think the problem is the "junk", as much the large number of perfectly average and acceptably fun games released every day. I read Mechner's journals a few years ago, and they were illuminating in how basically as an Indie developer at the time you needed not only the willpower and creativeness to make a game, but also have the connections/luck of getting it published (no Steam, no Apple Store... no Internet!) and you also had to dominate the technical aspect and know the underlying hardware, with very little information around (again, no Internet). If you could manage all this (!) your game was going to be noticed, since there were not so many "good" games being released in general, much less masterpieces like PoP. Nowadays, the barriers of entry are minimal, there are multi-platform engines with highly refined tools, with plenty of tutorials about pretty much everything, publishing is pretty much an automated process, that gives millions of people instant access to your game. There was little chance a few years ago of a "good" indie title going unnoticed, nowadays it must be truly excellent to get the spotlight, and even then... it's easy to spot junk, much less to spot a great game in the middle of a sea of perfecty good ones.
  - _0ffh 8y ago
    > but also have the connections/luck of getting it published That or the guts to take the risk and invest one's own (or, even worse, lent) money.

mehrdadn 8y ago

Oh man, the memories. Prince of Persia was such a deceptively hard game!

partycoder 8y ago

There is also Prince of Persia 2 which I find to be a more linear game.

tambourine_man 8y ago

Debug podcast interview with him: https://imore.com/debug-7-jordan-mechner-and-karateka https://imore.com/debug-7-jordan-mechner-and-karateka