"trickster". He took the name from a translation of the Shahnameh, and later felt it appropriate upon learning its alternate translation of "story". The name changes of characters including the Prince were also meant to indicate the film would not directly adapt The Sands of Time. Although Mechner's film script was written prior to finishing later games in the Sands of Time continuity, the film incorporated design elements from those games into the Prince's appearance. The character's costumes were designed by Penny Rose. For the Prince's most worn outfit, she designed a loose-fitting spiral coat based on a picture of ancient Persian embroidery. Her costumes also paid homage to the costume designs of the video games. Dastan's armor drew from his appearance in Warrior Within, coincidentally matching the art design for The Forgotten Sands. Mechner co-authored the graphic novel with A. B. Sina, which was illustrated by LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland. Mechner, approached by publisher First Second Books about creating a book based on the character, felt the time was right to create a property independent of both the games and the movie adaptation. Sina was initially wary of the project, as he had negative experience of the portrayal of Midden Eastern people in Western media, and did not want to be controlled by marketing requirements. But Sina agreed to join the project after meeting Mechner and the editor for First Second Books. Sina's story played on the series concept of there being multiple Princes, writing his story around several Prince characters in different eras. Mechner described this approach as not suited to either a movie or a game due to its overt philosophical elements, feeling instead that it was well suited to a graphic novel. Mechner also co-wrote Before the Sandstorm, a graphic novel prequel to the movie featuring several of the same artists. When creating it, he incorporated several in-jokes relating to both the original Prince of Persia and its inspirations. Reception In 2012, GamesRadar ranked the character as the 27th in their list of the "Top 100 protagonists in video games", commenting on his multiple incarnations with their varied personalities. Empire also included the Prince as 35th on their list of the 50 greatest video game characters, particularly praising his portrayal in The Sands of Time and its sequels. The Prince was placed as 34th in a list by Guinness World Records of the top video