HN Books @HNBooksMonth

Jordan Mechner published his journals from the period when he made Karateka and Prince of Persia. I found them to be very inspirational.

The Making of Karateka https://www.amazon.com/dp/1480297232/

The Making of Prince of Persia https://www.amazon.com/dp/1468093657/

I recommend reading them in order.

⬐ tambourine_man

Debug podcast interview with him:

https://imore.com/debug-7-jordan-mechner-and-karateka

⬐ mehrdadn

Oh man, the memories. Prince of Persia was such a deceptively hard game!

⬐ partycoder

There is also Prince of Persia 2 which I find to be a more linear game.

⬐ petermcneeley

Or just watch his GDC talk which is basically a story of becoming an adult. https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014634/Classic-Game-Postmorte...

⬐ cableshaft

Just watched that. I had no idea Prince of Persia was not a hit when it was first released. Did poorly on Apple II because the market was dying, did poorly on PC because it was a conversion and retailers looked at the poor Apple II sales and assumed it would have poor sales, and then finally on the Mac it came out just as there was enough Mac sales to have customers wanting good software.

Once again it seems that releasing on the right platform at the right time is super important for success.

What does everyone think is the right platform right now (or emerging within the next couple of years), especially for an Indie title? People don't seem to play web games much anymore, Steam is flooded with junk, Mobile seems to be totally saturated, Nintendo Switch seems promising right now but it's starting to go down the same road as Steam. VR seems to be slow to get moving (and looks like it might remain a niche for several more years, at least). Are there any good options to get in at the right time like he did?

⬐ Kurtz79

As you say, the real issue is discoverability, but I don't think the problem is the "junk", as much the large number of perfectly average and acceptably fun games released every day.

I read Mechner's journals a few years ago, and they were illuminating in how basically as an Indie developer at the time you needed not only the willpower and creativeness to make a game, but also have the connections/luck of getting it published (no Steam, no Apple Store... no Internet!) and you also had to dominate the technical aspect and know the underlying hardware, with very little information around (again, no Internet).

If you could manage all this (!) your game was going to be noticed, since there were not so many "good" games being released in general, much less masterpieces like PoP.

Nowadays, the barriers of entry are minimal, there are multi-platform engines with highly refined tools, with plenty of tutorials about pretty much everything, publishing is pretty much an automated process, that gives millions of people instant access to your game.

There was little chance a few years ago of a "good" indie title going unnoticed, nowadays it must be truly excellent to get the spotlight, and even then... it's easy to spot junk, much less to spot a great game in the middle of a sea of perfecty good ones.

⬐ _0ffh

> but also have the connections/luck of getting it published

That or the guts to take the risk and invest one's own (or, even worse, lent) money.

Here are a couple of additional things to read if you liked those: * Jordan Mechner - of Prince of Persia / Karateka [1] * Ready Player One - fiction - but in the same vein [2]

[1] Jordan's website w general links: http://www.jordanmechner.com/

The Making of Karateka - 1982- 1985 : http://www.amazon.com/Making-Karateka-Journals-1982-1985/dp/...

The Making of Prince of Persia - Journals 1985-1993: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Prince-Persia-Journals-1985/dp/...

[2] Ready Player One - http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/03078...

I enjoyed "The Making of Prince of Persia" [1]. It is a journal and thus misses out on some of the dramatic storytelling the strong, contrasting personalities of Romero and Carmack provided Masters of Doom. However, I found it very interesting from a design and programming point of view.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Prince-Persia-Journals-1985/dp/...

Masters of Doom is a fantastic book, really enjoyed reading that.

From that I then also read the Making of the Prince of Persia[1]. This is Jordan Mechner's journal from his time during the making of this game. Not just about the game but about some of his life in general too. Not as riveting as the Masters of Doom, but still a very interesting little read.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Prince-Persia-Journals/dp/1...

Edit. Oh yes, just remembered. For a real trip down memory lane you might want to check out Speccy Nation[2] too. It took me about an hour to flick through but it was so much fun, afterwards I had to call up my best friend from the time (another ZX Spectrum addict) and tell him to buy a copy!

[2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speccy-Nation-ebook/dp/B0096BFBSA

Just for reference, these are two books that were from the journal of Jordan Mechner written while writing Prince of Persia and Karateka. They are enjoyable reads, and I highly recommend them.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Prince-Persia-Journals-1985/dp/...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Karateka-Journals-1982-1985...

⬐ petercooper

I really enjoyed the Prince of Persia one. It's relatively lacking (though not totally) in terms of the coding side of things but there's a really good story and sense of what it took to push a complete game out of the door at the time.

⬐ jasonlotito

Karateka is different, as it's about writing a game in your spare time (really simplifying things). You realize how much time he spent writing it, how often he would be close to finishing, only to have a lot more work to do.

If you enjoyed PoP, you'll like Kareteka.

⬐ petercooper

Thanks, I'll give it a go. I think I got the Karateka book in some bundle that was on sale recently. The only reason I didn't jump on it yet was because I'm not/wasn't familiar with the game.

⬐ stugrey

Jordan Mechner did a great interview where he talks about Kareteka and coding for the Apple II vs iOS.

http://www.imore.com/debug-7-jordan-mechner-and-karateka

⬐ VikingCoder

Do they look good on Kindle, or is the physical book vastly better?

⬐ ikonst

I don't have the physical one, but I can't imagine what I could be missing out. If anything, you can keep reading it on your phone if you don't have your e-book with you etc.

⬐ VikingCoder

Sometimes books with diagrams, pictures, source code, look bad on an e-book.

⬐ daeken

I've read the PoP journals many times on Kindle, and it looks great. Can't speak to the Karateka journal, but I imagine it's not far off.

⬐ wslh

Wow! they jumped to the top reading list.

⬐ kirubakaran

I started reading "Making of Prince of Persia" recently and it is amazingly inspiring because it captures his real thoughts as he was making it, unlike autobiographies where hindsight distorts things, no matter how real the author wants it to be. I second the recommendation.