Jordan Mechner

The riverbanks of Paris are magical. On a sunny afternoon when they fill up with people, they're among the most beautiful urban public spaces I know. I made this copperplate engraving, "Quai des Célestins", at Imprimerie ARTE, using a combination of line etching and aquatint. The view is from one of my favorite spots on the Right Bank, looking across the river toward Île Saint-Louis. Signed and numbered prints are available from my website and from Galerie Maeght. Their gallery on rue du Bac…

The website Players, based in Kyiv, recently posted an anniversary retrospective of Prince of Persia 3D — the game published by Red Orb in 1999. I thought I'd contribute a bit of the back story behind this often-overlooked POP title. In the summer and fall of 1993, with Prince of Persia 2 on store shelves and selling well, Broderbund was eager for another 2D sequel. This fit my plans: I was launching my own game studio, Smoking Car Productions, to make The Last Express, and having a development…

Watch Chavez Ravine. I made a short documentary film in 2003. It gets less attention than my other project that wrapped that year (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), but it's close to my heart, and I think it holds up well. Chavez Ravine, site of Dodger Stadium, was once home to a closely-knit Mexican-American community overlooking downtown Los Angeles—until 1950, when its residents were evicted in what came to be viewed as a historic injustice. In my 26-minute film, black-and-white…

The thing about writing for games is to remember that the story exists to serve the game design, not the other way around. As much as a game might look or sound like a movie (or graphic novel, or radio play), those surface similarities can be deceptive and a trap for a writer...