Jordan Mechner
Mechner in 2017
Born	(1964-06-04)June 4, 1964 (age 60) New York City, United States
Occupations	Video game designer screenwriter author filmmaker
Notable work	Karateka Prince of Persia The Last Express Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (film)
Spouse	Whitney Hills ​ ​ (m. 2014; div. 2017)​ [1][2]
Website	jordanmechner.com

Jordan Mechner (born June 4, 1964)^[3] is an Americanvideo game designer, author,screenwriter, filmmaker, and former video game programmer.^[4] A major figure in the development of cinematic video games^[5] and a pioneer in video game animation,^[6] he began his career designing and programming the bestselling 1984 martial arts gameKarateka for theApple II while a student atYale University. He followed it with the platform gamePrince of Persia five years later; it was widely ported and became a hit. Both games usedrotoscoping, where actors shot on film by Mechner were drawn over to create in-game animation.Prince of Persia has become the basis for a long-running franchise, including a2010 live-action film released by Walt Disney Pictures and an ongoingseries of video games published by Ubisoft.

Mechner is the recipient of many accolades, including the 2017GDC Pioneer Award.^[7] His works are often included in all-time lists of the game industry's best and most influential titles.^[8][9]

In 1993, Mechner founded Smoking Car Productions to design and direct the adventure gameThe Last Express. While commercially unprofitable at the time of its release, the game has garnered a cult following and is recognized as an innovative work in interactive narrative.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]}

As an author, Mechner has written graphic novels in collaboration with different illustrators, including theNew York Times bestsellerTemplar (2013),Monte Cristo (2022), andLiberty (2023).^[16] In 2023, Mechner made his debut as a graphic novel writer–artist, with the autobiographicalReplay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family.Replay was awarded the 2023 Chateau de Cheverny prize for historical graphic novels.^[17]

In 2009, he was chosen byIGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.^[18]

Mechner was born in New York City in 1964, into a family of European Jewish immigrants. His father is psychologistFrancis Mechner,^[19][20] and his mother was a programmer.^[21] He attendedYale University in the 1980s.^[22][23][24]

While at Yale, Mechner wrote several Apple II games that he submitted for publication, but which were rejected.Asteroid Blaster, anAsteroids clone, was submitted toHayden Software and abstract action gameDeathbounce toBroderbund. Mechner then spent two years at Yale writing his first published game,Karateka (1984), which went to number one on theBillboard software chart.Karateka is a horizontally scrolling game where meeting an enemy results in a prolonged fight. The game cuts between gameplay and what is happening out of the player's view, showing actions of the imprisoned princess and her captor. The animation was done by drawing on top of frames of Mechner's karate instructor recorded on film.^[25]

His second game,Prince of Persia, was released in 1989 after more than three years of work. He wrote both games in the6502 assembly language for the Apple II, though that system was in decline through the late 1980s, and little new software was released by 1989. Initially,Prince of Persia sold poorly, but as it was ported to other systems, sales increased. Eventually, it was adapted for about thirty computer and console platforms.^[26]

Following the completion ofPrince of Persia, Mechner attendedfilm school, traveled to Cuba to produce and direct a short documentary film, and lived in Paris for a year.^[27] During this period, he designed and directed the sequel,Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, released in 1993.

He founded the independent developer Smoking Car Productions in 1993, where he led the production of the CD-ROM adventure gameThe Last Express.^[27] Smoking Car grew to sixty people, a huge team for the mid-1990s, and the game took longer to finish than anticipated. When finally released in 1997, it was positively reviewed but did not recoup its budget.The Last Express was re-released in 2012 by French publisherDotEmu for mobile and other platforms.^[28][29][30]

In 2017, he won the Honorific Award at theFun & Serious Game Festival.^[31]

In 2001, Mechner worked withUbisoft to rebootPrince of Persia. Developed atUbisoft Montreal with Mechner as game designer, writer, and creative consultant,Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was released in 2003. It received twelve nominations and eight awards at theInteractive Achievement Awards.^[32]Ubisoft has since published four morePrince of Persia sequels and several spinoffs, including theAssassin's Creed franchise, which was initially conceived as a sequel toSands of Time.^[33] In 2024, Ubisoft releasedPrince of Persia: The Lost Crown, a new relaunch of the franchise, developed at itsMontpellier studio.

A film adaptation,Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, was released on May 28, 2010. Mechner wrote the first drafts of the screenplay and also has an executive producer credit.

In 2003, Mechner wrote and directed the documentary filmChavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story. It won the 2003IDA award for Best Short Documentary,^[34] wasshort-listed^{[clarification needed]} for an Academy Award nomination,^[35] and received its broadcast premiere on PBS Independent Lens in 2005.^[36]

Mechner collaborated with a team on the 2008Prince of Persia graphic novel. The author's graphic novelTemplar was published in July 2013.^[37][38]Templar became aNew York Times best-selling book and was nominated for an Eisner Award.^[39] Mechner also wrote the graphic novelPrince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm, to tie in with the release of the film in 2010.

He has published two volumes of his game development journals from the 1980s, one describing the making ofKarateka and the other focusing onPrince of Persia.

Mechner has written a screenplay fora film adaptation of Michael Turner'sFathom for Fox Studios.^[40]

In 2017, Mechner moved toMontpellier, France. He has collaborated with European illustrators on graphic novels, includingMonte Cristo (2023) andLiberty (2022).^[41][42] In 2023, he released an autobiographical graphic novel,Replay: Memoires d'une famille. He continues to write new graphic novels.^[43][44]

• Waiting for Dark (1993)
• Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story (2003)
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) (screenwriter)

Mechner married Whitney Hills in 2014.^[1] The couple divorced in 2017.^[47][2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJordan Mechner.

• Official website
• Jordan Mechner atOpen Library
• Jordan Mechner atMobyGames
• Jordan Mechner atIMDb
• Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story atPBS

• 1964 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American Jews
• 21st-century American male writers
• 21st-century American screenwriters
• Film directors from New York City
• American graphic novelists
• American male screenwriters
• American video game designers
• Game Developers Conference Pioneer Award recipients
• Jewish American novelists
• Jewish American screenwriters
• Jewish film people
• Writers from New York City
• Yale University alumni

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