Have you ever wondered where the original Prince of Persia jump came from? You know, the iconic leap and jumps in the original 1989 game that set the bar for realistic platforming in a 2D perspective. Jordan Mechner, the developer behind the 1989 game revealed how he captured and created the movement for the classic platformer.
In a post on Threads, Mechner showed off a video where the developer filmed his brother as the rotoscope for the main model in the game. For those who don’t know, a rotoscope is a process of drawing or animating content based on a video. So creators would film a video and trace the animation one-to-one based on the movements.
Mechner showed how this was done and how the developer accurately depicted the falling animations and even how his brother’s slouched run was animated into the Prince’s character.
With a new Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake set to launch in 2026, it is quite an eye-opener to see how far we have gone in gaming since 1989.
Post by @jmechnerView on Threads