#crashlander

I've been interested in conlanging for several years and have made a couple of little toylangs before, but this is the first time I'm developing something meant to be read and understood by people other than myself and the ones who let me rant at them for hours with in-depth explanations - so keeping this in mind, I decided to follow the usual steps of making a sort of proto-language that then evolves into the main language.

There's nothing much to write home about in this regard except for some key design choices (Lots of /s/, /θ/, /ʃ/, and /x/ sounds to sort of mimic wind through trees when the language is spoken, and the alphabet was designed by dipping a dandelion stem in ink then writing with it), and we end up with this as our initial alphabet:

And here's what some example text looks like (no actual words within the language here, just gibberish that's valid within the set phonetic rules)

This is all well and good, I like the way it looks (though sometimes it can be heard to tell what letter a diacritic is actually attached to if the line spacing isn't wide enough), but now comes the second part - how do I turn this into something that a casual player would be able to learn and understand in-game, potentially before any translation starts showing up?

My solution is to make Phytokin Simplified, which is a pictographic language of ~150 words. The symbols build off of each other in a hierarchical sort of way (e.g. a symbol for "place", which is then built on for more specific words like "home", "shop", "garden", etc.), so a player would be able to notice patterns pretty quickly.

This also gives me the opportunity to more directly show the Phytokin's cultural connection to nature and plant life in particular - since plant life and animal life share a common ancestor in this world, for example, their language reflects this by having them both inherit from the same base symbol, differing in whether their roots (legs) are above ground or below it.

This version of the language is still very much a work in progress, but I like where it's headed! It's fun to try and hit just the right level of difficulty/complexity so that players are passively encouraged to try and understand the language rather than just write it off as something that isn't meant to be actually understood (even if it gets translated in-game later).

Guitars: Sándor Berki, Gábor Sárosi, Attila Géczy

Bass: Attila Géczy

Vocals: Attila Géczy

lyrics:

[Verse 1] The chase just started But many won't pursue Dream like floating Carried by the flow

There's goals and progress (goals and progress) The wheel never stops Structure and direction As the focus never drops

[Scream 1] Connected, unsuspected Tessellated and plain symmetric Intersected, injected Collated and downright electric

[Chorus 1] Without a will to form it right Without it working like a glue The strength will offer nothing The flow just can't come through

[Refrain 1] Fading fabrics of our lives Wawing fingers like sharp knives Holding on To what we can't follow As we focus on the flow

[Scream 2/Bridge] Walls closing in Six lines of symmetry Changing direction Pulsating affection

[Solo: Sanyi]

[Verse 2] Can't hold the progress The stream will only grow It's like the flood now I'm carried by the flow

[Chorus 2] Without a will to form it right Without it working like a glue The strength will offer nothing Flow just can't break through

[Refrain 2] Fading fabrics of our fate Weaving fingers tight and straight Holding on to what we know As we focus on the flow