Library

This page contains PDFs of work materials and behind-the-scenes videos from my past projects. I'm sharing them here for educational and historical purposes only. All rights reserved; copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

If you want to link to anything here, please link to this page. (Individual links may change.)

In the spirit of a "director's commentary," my chapter-by-chapter notes and additional documentation on my new graphic memoir Replay.

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The graphic novel is now available in French bookstores and from the Replay book page.

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2020 ArsTechnica War Stories episode about the making of Prince of Persia, including the animation process and creation of Shadowman.

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Animation reference for the game's final embrace, performed by Tina LaDeau and Brian Eheler (my Broderbund product manager).

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The animation for my game Prince of Persia (1989) came from video I shot of my brother David (then age 15) in our high school parking lot in Chappaqua, NY. Here's some original footage from October 1985.

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My technical document [PDF] explaining the 1989 Apple II source code for the porting teams. The source code itself is on Github.

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1991 project bible for POP 2: The Shadow and the Flame [PDF] for the Broderbund development team. (Even though this one worked out OK, I recommend avoiding making game bibles.)

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My game-dev journals from the 1980s and 90s have been published as books: The Making of Karateka and The Making of Prince of Persia.

The continuation of my 1993 game-dev journal after The Making of Prince of Persia. Covers the making of Prince 2 and The Last Express. I post a new batch of entries every Wednesday, "30 years ago this week."

Retrospective article about the making of The Last Express, Edge Magazine, December 2010 [PDF]

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'Creating a PC Game' Newsweek article by Tomi Pierce [PDF]

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1914 Orient Express floor plans and timetables, researched in 1993 for The Last Express [PDF]

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1926 historical pamphlet about the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits prepared for its 50th anniversary (In French) [PDF]

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1909 instruction manual for the crew of the Ostende-Vienna Express (In French) [PDF]

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Short history of the Orient-Express and other trains linking France to Central Europe, the Balkans and Near East (In French) [PDF]

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Game script (written in 1993-95, with Tomi Pierce). This 119-page "linear screenplay" served as the team's first development bible, and a pitch document for publishers. The full game script, including alternative story branches, overheard dialog and character logic, ran more than 800 pages.

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Broderbund's 1997 "Making Of" video for the game's release.

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The original, official website for The Last Express (launched in 1997):

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Research footage taken by Patrick Ladislav and me in March 1993: a dinner excursion from Paris on the Orient Express.

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Research footage taken by Patrick Ladislav and me in July 1993: visit to a restored 1914-era Orient Express restaurant car in Budapest.

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Research video footage for The Last Express, July 1993. Jordan Mechner and Patrick Ladislav visit the last known 1914-era Orient Express sleeping car in a train yard in Athens.

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First test shoot for The Last Express video game, October 1993. Blue screen, rotoscope-friendly costumes and makeup. Shot at Theatre Artaud, San Francisco. At this point, the game was in pre-production with a small core team.

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Screenplay adaptation I wrote in 2010-11 for Paul Verhoeven to direct. If you're a fan of the game, be warned that many of your favorite characters and subplots aren't in the screenplay. Verhoeven needed a tight script he could drive like an express train, not a faithful overstuffed one that would bewilder audiences unfamiliar with the original. We never got to make the movie, so you'll have to judge for yourself whether it would have worked on screen.

The first volume of Jordan's new graphic novel trilogy is now available in French from the Liberty page.

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The first two volumes of Jordan's new graphic novel trilogy are now available in French from the Monte Cristo page.

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"The Making of Templar": 86-page e-book with LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland, discussing our collaborative graphic novel craft [PDF]

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My cinematics script for the 2003 Ubisoft game [PDF]

A 2-minute video trailer I made from PS2 game footage to pitch the movie to studios with John August in 2003.

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My last screenplay draft [PDF] for Disney/Bruckheimer in June 2005. Other writers took the torch after that, in a 3-year development process including a pause for the 2008 WGA writers' strike.

Play and explore Jordan's early landmark game in Digital Eclipse's new, acclaimed interactive documentary The Making of Karateka, now available from the Karateka page.

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To create the rotoscoped animation for my 1984 game Karateka, I filmed my dad (and my mom's karate teacher) with a Super 8 camera. (Watch for cameos by my younger sister Emily, and me.)

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Here is an archive of the earlier website blog I kept from 2008 to 2013, including comments (and broken/outdated links). You can read my current blog with the latest news here.