The Prince was originally created by Jordan Mechner for the original 1989 game. His main concepts for the character were taken from Middle Eastern fiction such as "One Thousand and One Nights", while his athleticism taking inspiration from the opening of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The character's movements were created by Mechner by capturing footage of his brother and transferring them into the game using rotoscoping. For "The Sands of Time", the Prince was redesigned and rewritten, and over the course of its sequels, was developed in various ways. The 2008 series reboot redesigned him around a concept of a prince in making. In the 2010 , the Prince is named Dastan (), and portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.