Jordan Mechner, maker of Prince of Persia

Yesterday I met Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia, at the Anifilm Festival in Liberec, Czech Republic, after he was interviewed about his games, graphic novels, and films. In my opinion, a true renaissance man.

I got to ask him how he came up with the 60 minutes the player has in Prince of Persia. I expected a much more storytelling-driven answer, but got a very technical one, which makes it even more beautiful, because the story arc of Prince of Persia is, in my opinion, up there with Back to the Future's perfect story.

In Prince of Persia 1, the player has 60 minutes to rescue the Princess from a forced marriage with the evil Vizier. Unfortunately, the protagonist, the Prince, is thrown into the dungeons and has to fight his way back to the surface and into the palace.

Jordan said he came up with the 60-minute limit because he wanted to put pressure on the player to perform well. Prince of Persia was designed from the beginning so that the player would simply respawn at the start of the current level and keep trying to get past a thorny section they were struggling with. If there were no consequences, it would get boring very fast. So he came up with the 60-minute limit, which fits so perfectly into the story. It not only puts pressure on the player to overcome an obstacle (and presumably gives them a tremendous sense of achievement when they do), it also ensures they don't spend too long stuck on one section, but can replay the game from the start, breezing through the levels they've already mastered.

At a time when it was normal to put coins into an arcade machine and feel the pressure of not losing your lives and your money at the same time, that kind of pressure simply didn't exist on a PC. That's why Jordan added the 60-minute time frame.

I as a 10-year-old struggled hard with level 3 and the skeleton, and I actually have a scar on the back of my head as a testament to that.