Jordan Mechner has figured out how to navigate the transmedia world.

“It’s easy to say you’re doing it. And to do it is a great goal, but wanting to do it is no guarantee of success,” Mechner tells Playback Daily. “Everyone is looking for something fresh – not that working in a well-trodden franchise is any easier. It needs its own integrity.”

The Prince of Persia creator was on hand on Monday at IN 2010, Interactive Ontario’s flagship event, to deliver his keynote speech. Mechner is responsible for creating $14 million worth of games sold in the PoP franchise, and this year’s film adaptation of The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has become the top-grossing video game movie of all time.

As a film fan, inspired by such movies as The Thief of Baghdad, he wanted to make a video game based on similar themes, filming video footage of his younger brother running and jumping to study the movements so he could realistically recreate them.

“I wanted this game to be a big commercial hit,” he stated, and so he incorporated combat and filmed footage of himself sword-fighting, but eventually turned to the original Robin Hood which served to inspire the final product’s combat.

The original PoP arrived in 1989 and a few years later, new life was breathed into the franchise, which begun selling worldwide in 1993. PoP had moved into classic territory by the next millennium, and then publisher Ubisoft took the franchise and worked with Mechner to create Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2003.

“We struggled with how close we should stick to the original,” he recalls. “We were banking on familiarity, but didn’t want to do something too different, so we kept the same spirit and same genre.”

Mechner decided PoP was ready for the big screen, and pitched to Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney in 2004. At the time, it seemed Hollywood was turning to video games for source material, with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil adaptations hitting the big screen.

“The story I was pitching for the movie was different from the story from the game. The challenge is: ‘How do we get excited and give it an artist life of its own?’” he said. “I wanted the write the screenplay, and that sets off a red flag in studios because original creators are usually used to one medium.”

Mechner had also wanted to be a screenwriter for a long time and had experience making short films. Bruckheimer and Disney liked that the game had recognition and a dedicated fan base, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hit theaters earlier this year.

Of course, such a transition poses its own challenges. “Things that are fun to play aren’t necessarily fun to watch,” he tells Playback Daily. “The connection has to be the emotional journey, whereas with the game, the challenge you’re overcoming is with the controller in your hand.”