Prince of Persia 3 Q&A: Platforms and Puzzles @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 04, 2005

News: The Princely developers have answered a few new questions about the Prince of Persia.

With a December 1 release date now set in stone for Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones Ubisoft has released a new Q&A session with the developers on Platforms and Puzzles.

How did the new urban setting influence the platforming aspect of POPT2T?

POPT2T takes place in the homeland of the Prince: Babylon. For the first time in the POP franchise, the team has developed a predominantly outdoor and urban environment Ц a big change from both the Sands of Time and Warrior Within settings. This environment opened up a lot of new possibilities in terms of level design and paved the way to the creation of a whole new set of platforming moves. We tried to use the urban environment in a credible way to add extra moves to the already broad range of athletic abilities of the Prince. Our ambition was to give the player a real sense of immersion in the war ravaged Babylon as well as feelings of vertigo and openness to large horizons when exploring the rooftops. We're pretty proud of how this refreshes the POP experience.

What are the new moves you've developed for the Prince in POPT2T?

We've developed new moves for the Prince such as diagonal jumps and rebounds, which are amazing to perform on rooftops. The ability to slide down between two close walls, the "dagger plant", a move that allows the prince to 'stick' to walls or trigger mechanisms, and rappel moves, allowing the prince to slide down head-first on a rope etc.

These moves will be very helpful to approach guards without being detected and perform Speed Kills. The Speed Kill System was developed in POPT2T to push the Prince's athletic abilities even further.

How about the Dark Prince? Does he have new athletic moves?

Our new playable character, the Dark Prince, also has his own set of new platforming moves thanks to his new weapon, the Daggertail.

The Daggertail is a chain-like mid range weapon that he can use to interact with and manoeuvre in the environment. He can swing on poles with the Daggertail, extend his wall run to cross huge gaps, pull distant triggers, etc... Thanks to this new tool, he can access places the Prince cannot reach.

Have you created new traps?

Yes, we have designed new traps that blend in very well with an urban environment such as Babylon. We really wanted them to be credible and add to the overall sense of immersion. These traps are part of the defence system of the city and are found in the types of places one might expect to be protected. Some new traps include firing arrows, rotating disk blades, and crushing blocks, etc.

They will put the player's reflexes to the test! Some of them will also require the players to use their Time Powers.

What about puzzles in POPT2T?

Puzzles are part of the overall POP experience and Babylon being such a mythic place, it was a great place to design new puzzles. We have a variety of puzzles with varying complexity Ц some will take just a few minutes Ц others dominate an entire level. We'll have to leave it at that so as to not spoil any surprises.

So there you have it. And once again, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones will be released on December 1 for the PC, PS2, Xbox and GameCube.