On 7th September 1993, Jordan Mechner wrote about The Last Express in his journal. What he had to say was surprising given the context of his creative life to date: “Directing a feature film would be easy compared to the job this is going to be.”
“This” was an adventure game set on the Orient Express at the dawn of World War 1 – four days before Austria-Hungary would declare war on Serbia, to be precise – and it would be an interactive experience that would cost Mechner all his savings and the next four years of his life to make. He was embarking on an adventure nearly as perilous as the one undergone by his protagonist Robert Cath in the game, and he appears to have known it.
By this time, after developing Karateka and Prince of Persia, Mechner had taken a break from game design to attend film school and had even worked on a short film of his own. But The Last Express would mark a confluence of his interests as a writer, artist, filmmaker, and game designer. So, why go back to games? Why not tell his thrilling train story via a movie or comic book?
The Last Express Android – Official trailer Watch on YouTube
I recently sat down with Mechner to discuss these questions, and he recalls his transition from game making to studying film in the early 90s: “It was the chance of doing a different kind of game that drew me back into game design at a moment when I had otherwise been taking a break from games and going to film school. After Prince of Persia, I left San Francisco. I went back to New York. I learned 16-millimeter filmmaking. This is 1991 technology. I was also supervising Prince of Persia 2, and then I’d moved to Paris and made a short film in Cuba that summer. That was when the idea for The Last Express came together.”