The latest Prince of Persia “borrowed heavily” from the past to better tackle the future

Indie studio Evil Empire has shown its aptitude for the roguelike genre by injecting new energy into the brilliant Dead Cells. Ubisoft, recognising this talent, handed them keys to The Prince of Persia, letting them navigate its deserts alongside a supportive community. The result is The Rouge Prince of Persia, a fast-paced and stylish roguelike that feels right at home in the franchise.

The game has now left early access with a 1.0 update, carefully crafted by both a tight-knit development team and the community’s feedback. We recently spoke with Matthew Houghton, marketing manager at Evil Empire, who explained how the team handles feedback, the creative freedom provided by Ubisoft, and how the developers still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.

✓ VideoGamer Summary

• Indie studio Evil Empire was given the freedom to craft its own take on the Prince of Persia franchise.
• That said, the developer also “borrowed heavily” from Prince of Persia The Sands of Time.
• Its vision was realised with the help of a supportive community.
• For Evil Empire, accessibility is key. 
• Evil Empire has plans for more projects in the future.

Open doors

During development, Evil Empire was given free rein to craft its own interpretation of the titular prince. “We were given almost more freedom,” Houghton explains. “They were like, okay, here’s the franchise, Prince of Persia, and make the game you want to.” This open approach gave them the flexibility to take on player feedback and use it to improve the game in successive updates rolled out during its year in early access.

“I think a lot of people would assume that is very under lock and key, like, you have to do this. And no, it was actually cool. A ton of the devs have played The Sands of Time, and some people played the original Prince of Persia. So everyone was just really happy to collab.”

Listening to player feedback helped Evil Empire identify the best direction to take its version of the prince. As Houghton puts it, “Players mainly care about the gameplay. Obviously, there’s a subset who will care about all the rest. But for us, the key was to make sure it was a good action roguelike with the markers of The Prince of Persia.” 

Back to basics

Doing what the developer does best helped build a strong foundation that would pay suitable homage to the IP, and then built on using player feedback. As Houghton describes, “It was doing the basics right. We wanted to have that middle ground between the 2D action and the story beats of other games.”

“The core of the game had to be a 2D action platformer; it had to be in its DNA. We tried to take parts of each game, like how we borrowed heavily from The Sands of Time.” These inspirations can be seen in its fluid environmental combat, a trademark of the franchise embedded in its identity.

It was not only the other games in the Prince of Persia series that inspired The Rogue Prince of Persia. As Houghton describes, “We had the wall running, acrobatics, the grand story; those were the three pillars for us. Because obviously, it’s a roguelike structure, so the story has to be different. We wanted to draw inspiration from games like Hades, where there are different dialogues each time.”

This story structure proved to be the ideal way to adapt a Prince of Persia narrative to a roguelike. “By talking to someone, you unlock a new area, and if you change this thing, there’s something else that is changed in the future. We think that hadn’t really been explored much before, so we wanted to bring that in as well.”

In pursuit of treasure

Initial rounds of player feedback were honest and upfront, but Evil Empire was keen to take notes. 

As Houghton explains, “There are always some people who put negative things out there. But that’s true of all game development; you have to have a bit of a thick skin for that. But most of the comments were super positive, and everyone was just really proud.”

The Rogue Prince of Persia was Evil Empire’s first original game, but should the developer meet its lofty goals, it may well be far from the last. “Maybe we’ll go in a completely different direction,” Houghton suggests. “And we have other projects as well, which I can’t talk about.”

With the freedom afforded by Ubisoft, a rich seam of community feedback to draw upon, and a steadfast dedication to the craft, Evil Empire has been able to pursue its vision from a position of strength. This sort of open development cycle is a testament to an emerging trend of honesty and flexibility in indie game development – a rising tide worth celebrating.

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