The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985–1993

The unedited journals of a young programmer creating a game that defined a genre, covering the years from Mechner's time at Yale through the completion and release of Prince of Persia. Because these are actual journal entries — not a retrospective memoir — the book captures what building something original actually feels like day by day: the doubt, the wasted months, the technical dead ends, the tension between commercial pressure and artistic ambition, and the long stretches where nothing seems to work. Mechner was simultaneously trying to become a screenwriter and a game designer, and the journals document the creative process without the false clarity that hindsight imposes. For product builders, this is a primary document about the emotional and practical reality of sustained creative work — far more honest than any success narrative. The Stripe Press edition includes Mechner's original sketches and rotoscoping studies, making it also a visual record of craft in the pre-digital-tools era.