Prince of Persia – Sands of Time – Questions and Answers

Prince
of Persia: The Sands of Time takes place within an exotic, mysterious
world representing Persian architecture, animals and attire. After his father
invades the palace of the Maharajah, the Prince, tricked by a treacherous vizier,
uses a magic dagger to release the dangerous Sands of Time from an ornate hourglass.
With the aid of a beautiful, mysterious, and potentially untrustworthy ally,
players embody the Prince to recapture the Sands of Time and restore peace to
the land.

You may recognize that introduction from our recent announcement that The Prince
of Persia games were going to be revitalized on the Xbox console with Ubi Soft’s
upcoming release Price of Persia – The Sands of Time. Well for those of you
that still have questions about the title we’ve managed to get our hands on
a very informative Question & Answer segment with producer Yannis
Mallat where he talks about the origins and inspirations for the
latest title in the legendary Prince of Persia franchise. You’ve got questions
and we’ve got answers. . .

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!

As
always, we’ll have more information as it becomes available. Feel free to discuss
this title in our Forums or post a comment to this article.

Related Links:
Prince of Persia Screenshots
Ubi Soft

Filed under: Interviews

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