Interviews

PRINCE
OF PERSIA – THE
SANDS OF TIME
GENESIS OF THE PROJECT: Questions & Answers with Producer Yannis
Mallat

Why did Ubi Soft decide to bring the Prince of Persia license back
to life?

The Prince of Persia games
were among the coolest PC games ever. We wanted the huge numbers
of people who are playing on next-gen
consoles (including lots of the original Prince of Persia fans) to
be able to experience the game. We’ve really captured the magic
of the Prince of Persia brand and pushed the capabilities of the
next-gen consoles, and we can’t wait to unleash Prince of Persia:
The Sands of Time.

When and how did
the whole “Prince of Persia – The Sands
of Time” project start within Ubi Soft?

We began the conception
phase at Ubi Soft’s Montreal studio
in May 2001, but things really got rolling when Jordan Mechner watched
our first mock-up a couple of months later. It was an amazing experience – Jordan
was absolutely blown away, and the core team has been moving full
steam ahead since then. Once the conception phase was completed,
and we had several conceptual AVIs illustrating how the Prince could
move and interact with his environment, we began the technical engine
study phase. After selecting the right engine, we began training
the core team on the technology – and pre-production began.
So there have been a number of ‘beginnings’ as the project
has evolved.

How many people were involved in the initial stages of the project?
What were their specific roles?

From May to September, seven people were involved. They were:

• Two game designers:
  Defined the main concept, helped build prototypes in real
  time with the technical team
• One animator: Built
  the major moves, gave life to the Prince through his movements.
  We started with these because we felt it was most
  important to define the Prince by his moves first.
• Two engineers: Started
  the engine study, supported the design team in conducting gameplay
  tests
• One concept artist:
  Illustrated game design ideas for locations, environments, initial
  art direction (as much as possible at this
  stage). Also helped with creative ideas!
• One producer: Me! I was also humbly acting as a game designer and
  creative consultant – and loving it.

What did this
famous license evoke to you before you started working on the “Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time” development
process?

I always felt the original
game revolutionised the gaming industry. It became the standard
of the time and an instant “classic,” and
represented great Action-Adventure gaming, strong settings and compelling
storytelling. Working on the fourth instalment of this well-known
franchise has been quite a challenge and a great honour for the whole
team.

To meet this challenge,
we have both followed in the footsteps of the legendary games and
created something new that will amaze the
contemporary gaming world. We can’t approach this new title
thinking that it is just another game… it is part of something
bigger… and so that is what the gamers will get!

How did you prepare
yourself and your team: what were the references, inspiration
sources (history,
music, movies, books…) for this
development?

The Arabian Nights book – 1001 Tales – was required
reading for the development team. It gave us a great, immersive sense
of the Arabian fantasy feeling; it’s imaginative and crosses
boundaries – exactly what we’re doing with the game.

As for the moves, the
team was inspired by Hong-Kong action movies such as Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Jet Li action films.
We also watched several Capoiera documentaries – it’s
a Brazilian fighting style that intricately melds martial arts with
stylized dance. The story is that ancient Brazilian slaves were not
allowed to fight against each other, so they simulated a group dance.
People would clap their hands and pound on drums, surrounding the
two people who were actually fighting; if they were approached, the
fight could easily be disguised as a strange, fluid, acrobatic dance.

Of course, we also watched
every Hollywood movie on the 1001 Nights tales, to see the clichéd treatment of the subject. And we
all played Prince of Persia 1&2 incessantly, to really understand
what makes the license so incredible.

What kind of competitors’ games did you carefully analyse
and why, when setting up the “skeleton” of your project?

Most action/adventure
games today build upon the original Prince of Persia, so they offer
interesting aspects for the conceptual development
of the game. They helped us evaluate what we wanted Prince of Persia:
The Sand of Time to be, compared with other games, and how we could
go about establishing new standards for the genre – just as
the original game did.

We looked closely at games such as Shinobi, the Onimusha series,
Devil May Cry, Tomb Raider and even some older licenses that are
making a comeback (like Rygar and Ninja Gaiden). Of course, building
a strong foundation for the latest Prince of Persia game also involved
a careful examination of the previous titles.

Why did you choose to develop a completely new game rather than
doing a sequel to the previous Prince of Persia, released in 1999?

We really felt that the ‘true’ Prince of Persia essence
was best captured by the first two games, and that drawing inspiration
from the original titles was the best way to bring the license successfully
to Next Gen consoles. The question brings up an interesting point,
though: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is in fact an original
creation itself. Apart from the name, everything has been built from
scratch – redesigned, rethought: the Prince, the environments,
the game design, the story. It’s all bigger, stronger, better.
Trust me; it was no piece of cake, but it was the only way to ensure
that the game will live up to the legacy of the brand.

What elements of the brand did you have in mind, at the beginning
of the project?

We studied the first two games intensely, playing long hours to
truly understand the source of the magic. Three major elements struck
us:

• The astonishing
  animations and character movements
• The intense fight
  sequences
• The clever and challenging level design and the gameplay built around
  that design

The team considered these
the main strengths of the license, and we focused on those from
the beginning – both because they’re
faithful to the essence of the brand and, if done well, the universal
recipe for a stellar action/adventure game.

What were your main priorities when the development got started?
Did these objectives imply a specific organisation of work within
your team?

As with any original creation,
building a playable area around the main character’s behaviour
was the first priority. We knew very early that the whole concept
would depend on the immediate appeal
and intuitive controls of the Prince. No final level construction
could start before we mastered that.

Of course, this implied a specific organization of the team as we
wanted the core to focus on this crucial goal. But we also wanted
to experience this playable on the real engine, on the real platform,
with all the constraints that implies. So we sent the core engineer
team to another Ubi Soft studio to learn the engine we chose for
the game.

Once we were satisfied
with the playable’s feel, movements,
and basic gameplay, we focused on character design for the Prince,
and then on environments and art. In a nutshell, we focused first
on the gameplay basics – the things that make the game fun
to play; then we focused on the dressing of the game – the
things that make it beautiful to look at. And we also achieved a
technical breakthrough very early on, but you’ll have to wait
to hear more about that!