I’m building a video game featuring a lost civilization, and the player has to understand their language in order to progress through the game.

This civilization doesn’t communicate with their mouths, but through musical instruments. Their language is structured around seven notes (a heptatonic scale), and each letter is formed by a combination of two notes.

Each note has a symbol: there are seven symbols representing the first note of a letter and another seven representing the second note. Combining them gives a total of 49 possible letters (7 x 7 = 49).

The translation into English is honestly kind of random. I assign each English letter a combination of two notes while trying to make sure the resulting sequences fit the heptatonic scale and sound somewhat melodic, regardless of the sentence. I also add pauses here and there; a pause in the sound is equivalent to a space in written language and separates words.

As for the design of the symbols, unfortunately they don’t have any deeper meaning. I already struggled enough to come up with something I found visually pleasing!

Anyway, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on it. Do you think this system is structured enough for a video game in which the player has to decipher the language?

Thoughts on My Video Game Language?