July 6, 1989
This music is great. It’s terrific. It’s everything I’d hoped for. It gives the game a whole new dimension. I’m incredibly thrilled, actually.
Brian suggested a candidate of his own to do the Princess shoot – Peter LaDeau’s 18-year-old daughter Tina – and I agreed. The problem with Alison was, I couldn’t think of who to have her embrace. She might feel awkward about me asking her to throw herself into the arms of a total stranger. This way, it’s all within the family (so to speak).
Brian and Peter enjoyed the pastrami I brought back from the Carnegie Deli.
Dad is in a tough spot. The Prince of Persia music is practically the only bright spot in his life right now. I’m glad he did such a good job. We did.
July 7, 1989
Worked all day. By happy hour I was so burned out, I was dead on my feet and could hardly keep up a conversation. Then I went to the gym and worked out really hard in the heat. Then I went to Japantown and sat at a table by myself and slurped up a bowl of udon.
Now I’m all charged up again and rarin’ to go. Except… everybody’s gone. That’s OK. Maybe I’ll clean up the apartment. I feel the need to do something to restore my self-image as a human being (as opposed to a brain, a set of fingers, and the parts necessary to keep them the right distance off the ground to operate the computer).
Robert’s gone to LA for the weekend. He said Corey said Tomi seems lonely and doesn’t know many people in Paris.
July 10, 1989
I seem to be in a slump… I’m putting in the hours, but nothing gets done. Then again, the stuff I’m working on is the kind you need to chew on for a while. Level design is a creative process, like screenwriting: you can’t just sit down and put in ten hours at a stretch, you need time in between to let your ideas work themselves out.
I have a feeling I’m on the verge of a breakthrough, and one of these days I’ll hit a roll and get more done than in the three days preceding.
Eric came in today and I showed him the game. “There’s nothing more for me to do,” he declared. “It’s all fixed.”
Brian reported that the guys from Egghead said it was the best animation they’d ever seen.
I’ve talked to Dad almost every day since New York. He’s writing an “epilogue” track that he says will last about 45 seconds. I could use it.
Slowly but surely, the end of the game is falling into place: Tower, Shadowman, Vizier, Princess. I think it’ll work. It’s all in the pacing.
July 11, 1989
Put in the shadowman merging, which looks pretty cool. I think I’ve cracked the design of that level, finally, after two days (hell, three months) of struggling and feeling dissatisfied. Tomorrow I’ll work out the details.
Lance said: “I’ll do it! Quit worryin’!”
Prince of Persia Gameplay Demo 1989 from jordan mechner on Vimeo.
July 12, 1989
Designed most of Level 12. At this rate it’ll take another whole day to finish it.
Digitized the POP logo and put it in. Ten minutes to do, four hours to set up.
Michelle’s going to get started converting Avril’s title screen to double hi-res. I’m grateful; that’ll save me a day or two, and maybe she’ll do a better job than I could.
I thought of a way to do the prologue screens that will save time – just typeset ‘em on the LaserWriter, then digitize the whole thing. Brilliant, eh?
Assuming Michelle comes through, the whole job (credits, title, prologue, epilogue) shouldn’t take me more than a day. Not even.
Which leaves… let’s see now… four days to get the Complete Beta Version into QA. Assume half of tomorrow and half of Friday will be taken up with the princess shoot and various issues relating to packaging, documentation and IBM POP. That leaves three days to:
- finish Level 12 – hard-wire shadowman’s attack, dungeon falling apart, etc. (1 day)
- put in something for Level 11 – if possible, use Greg’s idea of killing a guard and a skeleton arising in its place (1 day)
- fix a few bugs just to show I haven’t been ignoring their bug reports completely
Then it’s Monday – breathe a huge sigh of relief – and get back to work quick because it’s only 9 days left till Idaho!
If I’m smart I’ll spend those nine days fixing bugs, visiting QA, and in general making a big push to get all the hard, complicated stuff out of the way before I take off for seven days. The alternative would be to get the opening sequence up and running (with newly digitized Tina) and title cards finalized, so that I can give Brian something that looks polished to “wow” everyone before I leave. But that, I think, would be the wrong choice.
July 13, 1989
A productive morning. Fixed some long-standing bugs.
Lance will do it. Thank God. He and Robert and I went out for burgers at Frank’s Country Garden to seal the pact. I’ll meet with Bill on Monday and work out the remaining deal points.
Film shoot tomorrow morning. I’m actually nervous at the prospect of having to direct a beautiful 18-year-old girl I’ve never met before. I’m definitely not ready to direct a feature film. When this is over, top priority (besides screenwriting) will be to shoot some short no-budget student films.
