How to create an alphabet

Designing an Alien Alphabet

A screenshot from Spryke, showing various uses of its custom alphabet.

A great way to enhance a gameworld's believability and atmosphere is to make a custom alphabet for it. The written word is all around us, and plays a major role in making our world look and feel the way it does. A unique alphabet helps make a unique gameworld.

Anyone who's ever tried designing a font knows how difficult it is. Our brain is very sensitive to disturbances in the flow of readability, and each tiny alteration to curvature or line thickness can mean the difference between elegance and awkwardness.

The good news is that the rules are much looser when designing a fictional alphabet, and it can be very fun. But there's more to it than just throwing down some random squiggles! I've recently designed a complete alphabet for Spryke, and I'll take you through my whole process.

The benefits of adding a custom alphabet to your game

First off, let's take a look at some reasons you might want to design a custom alphabet for your game.

Written language is everywhere, and is a key component of culture (even its absence in oral cultures is a key component of those). If you want your world to feel like it has its own living, breathing culture, then you need to think about its written language.
If your game is set in a fantasy or sci-fi world, your characters probably don't speak/write English. Which begs the question: what do they speak/write?
If your game is in a fictional present-day country, a bespoke alphabet shows that you've put some effort into making your country feel unique, rather than just lazily assembled a bunch of general racial stereotypes, à la the Just Cause and Far Cry series.
Your alphabet could be used as a sort of code that your players need to try and decipher. You could even base puzzles around it.
A fictional alphabet means you can populate your world with billboards, signs, and slogans, without having to actually write catchy and convincing content for those billboards, signs and slogans.
If you have a number of different cultures/races/species in your game, using multiple alphabets would be a good way to differentiate between them, even when the characters themselves aren't present. For instance, inscriptions in an ancient ruin could indicate the presence of a long-gone foreign race, while text on an empty space ship could emphasise that it belongs to an enemy.
Designing a bespoke alphabet is fun!

Text says a lot even if you don't understand it. It conveys cultural and aesthetic cues, and can evoke familiarity, strangeness, simplicity, complexity, grace, order, and more.

Step 1: Consider your gameworld's culture

An alphabet's aesthetic and functional aspects reveal a lot about its creators. Its forms naturally spring from the traits of the home culture.

Take this ancient alphabet, for example:

Comprised mainly of sturdy, masculine shapes, these glyphs have a uniformity of size and economy of form that makes them seem almost engineered, rather than merely written. They are solid, upright, efficient.

Judging by this alphabet, one could imagine that it was created by a pragmatic, rigid culture that prized order, strength, and structure. And actually, that's not a half-bad description of the ancient Romans.

Now look at these characters from another ancient alphabet:

These lack the frugality and symmetry of the Latin characters, and are much more complex, intricate, and floaty. One could suppose that the culture that created them was one that cherished sophistication, artisanship, and nuance.

Now examine a third ancient alphabet:

These jagged, spiky shapes have neither the balance and structure of the Latin letters, nor the grace and complexity of the Chinese ones. Instead, they evoke an aggressive, almost savage vibe. And so they should; they are the Dovahzul alphabet: the ancient language of Skyrim's dragons.

Your game's alphabet can (and will) inform your audience about your gameworld. If your alphabet looks interesting, boring, complex, or frivolous, your game's inhabitants will seem interesting, boring, complex, or frivolous. Use this to your advantage, and make sure that it's communicating the message you want it to convey.

Step 2: Consider your gameworld's technology

Apart from looking cool and a little bit hostile, there's another reason the dragon alphabet above is comprised mainly of long heavy slashes: It was carved by dragons. Dragons didn't have pens, brushes or chisels, but claws, and the clever designers at Bethesda took this into account.

You may not have consciously thought about these logistics when looting Skyrim's tombs, but you probably noticed it unconsciously on some level. By considering not just the alphabet's personality, but also its logistics, the Bethesda crew designed an alphabet that feels right.

There are various technological factors that can influence a successful alphabet. These Anglo-Saxon runes were usually carved into wood, so they avoid curves and horizontal lines (straight lines were easier to carve, and horizontal lines could have caught in the wood grain and split the wood):

Conversely, this gorgeous Sinhala alphabet from Sri Lanka avoids straight lines and corners (Sinhala was written on fragile palm leaf paper, and sharp corners would have caused tearing):

As you can see, technological considerations can have a profound impact on the look of your glyphs. Paying attention to technological logistics won't just make your alphabet more believable, but may take it in an exciting aesthetic direction.

Some things to think about:

What tools would the people/creatures in your game use to write with?
What surfaces would they use?
Do they have an abundant culture that would foster artisanship?
Do they live in a dangerous world and use a minimalist alphabet that is easy to write in a hurry?

Spryke is set in a distant planet sci-fi setting, so my alphabet needed to look somewhat modern (as it would most often be rendered by precise machines, just like in our present-day world). It would also need to be alien and unfamiliar, while maintaining an element of fun to suit the cartoony vibe of the game.

Step 3: Research

There are loads of writing systems on Earth - possibly more than you think. Look through a few of them to get ideas about what your own will look like.

One of my favourite alphabets is this Mkhedruli alphabet (from Georgia)

Another favourite is the Ge'ez (Amharic) alphabet, which I first saw on a hand-written letter from my Ethipian sponsor child. I had never seen it before, and I loved how beautiful and unusual it was.

So, do some research and get ideas. Don't forget to check out different fonts where possible, as they may employ different design solutions. After all, a traditional Japanese scroll will have a dramatically different aesthetic to downtown Tokyo neons.

But if you're like me, inspiration is just a few centimetres away!

Both of my arms are tattooed with a prayer written in Glagolitic, an ancient Slavic alphabet. Convenient! Clearly, I have an affinity for this alphabet, and so this is the one I chose as my starting point.

Step 4: Choose your elements

Most writing systems are constructed using just a few building blocks, in various combinations. It's a good idea to pick your building blocks before you start designing any characters. This will help you create a cohesive design while guarding you from relying too heavily on the shapes of your native alphabet.

Pick a few appropriate shapes that will form the backbone of your alphabet's aesthetic. Remember to peruse existing alphabets for inspiration if need be.

Spryke's alphabet needs to look a bit cartoony, and like it belongs to an alien race. My starting point of Glagolitic is actually a pretty good choice, because it's unique looking and looks quite alien to modern eyes, having gone out of usage long ago. In addition, its hollow circle and equilateral triangle motifs lend it a certain geometric look that fits well with my desired cartoony vibe. To make my alphabet a bit more hi-tech looking, I focused on straight lines and precise angles.

I decided my core elements would be equilateral triangles (3 sizes), circles (2 sizes), and angles of 45,60,90, and 120 degrees

Step 5: Sketches on Paper

Next, I used those elements to doodle several pages' worth of characters, referring to my Glagolitic alphabet (ie. looking down at my arms) as I went. Some characters looked good, others sucked, and most took several iterations to find their sweet spot.

Step 6: Vectorise and finalise

Once I had loads of characters on paper, I went back through them and circled the 40 or so that had the most promise. I ported these into Photoshop using the vector shape tools (You could of course use Illustrator or some other software). After plenty of fine tuning and iteration, my alphabet finally took shape. I'd created 52 finished characters in all:

Some things to consider while working on your characters:

Keep line thickness as consistent as you can
If a particular character calls for it, feel free to deviate from your core shapes, angles, and line thicknesses. Just don't deviate from them thoughtlessly or by accident.
As with all design, the secret is in iteration, iteration, iteration.
Try all of your designs flipped or rotated - they might look better that way
Decide how the weight of your alphabet will feel. Will your characters be grounded downwards like Latin, pull toward the heavens like Hebrew, or float weightlessly like Chinese? I chose to centre mine weightlessly, as I felt that this made them feel more digital, spacey, and self-contained.
Only do uppercase/lowercase if you have a really good reason for it, as it'll double your workload. Many real-world alphabets only have one case.

Step 7: Punctuation

Forgot about punctuation, didn't ya? For our purposes, there are two types of punctuation, which I'll call structural and emphatic.

Structural punctuation - such as commas, dashes, and semicolons - is punctuation that helps readability by organising sentences correctly; we don't really need it here, since our fictional text won't be readable anyway. Though feel free to include it in your alphabet, as it may add: visual interest, authenticity, diversity.
Emphatic punctuation emphasises the context of a phrase by indicating that the words "came from somewhere else" or that they are very important!! Could emphatic punctuation even be used to emphasise uncertainty? Or perhaps even. ...............................silence?

Whether or not you need punctuation at all is up to you and the specifics of your game. I decided that Spryke won't need structural punctuation, but could benefit from some emphatic punctuation.

If you choose to use emphatic punctuation, you must make it somehow decipherable by your audience, even though the rest of your alphabet isn't. There's no point inventing a question mark symbol to replace "?" if people will think it's just another letter.

There are several ways to tackle this:

If your game's inhabitants are modern day humans, it may be appropriate to just use English punctuation marks, since some modern-day non-Latin languages also use them.
You could use creative variations of English punctuation marks that look somewhat original, yet still understandable.
You could ditch punctuation marks altogether and rely on other methods to emphasise certain words, like colour, spacing, italics, bold, underlining, and size.
You could make your punctuation marks look so different from your letters that there's no mistaking the two.

I went with the last option, and made three different punctuation marks. My players won't know what exactly they mean, but the marks should stand out enough to make it clear that they imply emphasis of some sort. Their unique design, raised position, and parenthesis-like clumping of other characters should all help with that.

Step 8: Numerals

As with emphatic punctuation, numerals need to be visually different from your letters. For Spryke, I achieved this in two ways. First, I made them smaller and more uniform in size. Second, I constructed them from different shapes.

I exclusively used arcs (incomplete portions of circles), to give them a different appearance from the letters, which were made from complete circles, triangles, and straight lines.

Step 9: Fonts

I'm writing this in a small home office, yet I can see more than 20 different fonts without even getting off my chair: several across my computer screens, a different one on the logo of almost every appliance and piece of computer hardware in the room, and a few on an old bill on my desk. No matter where you are, I bet you'd find plenty of fonts around you too.

Our world is loaded with different fonts, and things would look weird if everything was suddenly written in only one. So your gameworld should probably have a few fonts too. Making new fonts won't be quite as time-consuming as inventing your glyphs was, but it will still take a lot of work. I suggest making a few fonts, with specific use-cases in mind.

I made four:

My original font, which works well at small sizes due to its thin, uniform line weight.
A bolder one suitable for larger uses like building signs or machinery. I added slight curvature to various triangles and lines to give a softer, bolder look.
A rough, scrawled version for graffiti, cave paintings, etc. This was the only version in raster format.
A playful, stylised variant, for use on advertisements, neon signs, and the like. To give it a friendlier look, I eliminated most sharp corners, and tweaked the configurations of various characters, ensuring that white space between the various elements was kept loose.

Putting it all together

Various in-game elements throughout the world of Spryke, containing text, with various combinations of letters, numbers, punctuation and fonts.

Done! I now have a unique, cohesive, and interesting alien alphabet comprised of 52 letters, 10 numerals, 3 punctuation marks, and 4 fonts (that's 260 characters in total). I can now pepper it throughout Spryke's gameworld as I continue to develop it, confident that I have glyphs to suit any context.

I hope this helps someone, and if you've designed your own alphabet, I'd love to see it!

This article was originally posted at the Volnaiskra devblog. You can continue to see Spryke evolve by liking my facebook page.

The Walk of Words: Creating a Fantasy Language: creating an alphabet

(Creating a fantasy language: (Lesson 1, Rationale, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, Lesson 4, Choosing words, Creating an Alphabet)

I mentioned in my last "Creating a fictional language" post that I enjoy creating symbols when coming up with words. But there are a few ways to do that.

There are two essential ways to create an alphabet: Start with a set of sounds, or start with a set of "letters."

If you start with your sets of sounds, you simply draw a character for each sound. If you have a system that combines consonant and verb sounds, it may help to arrange your sounds in a chart. Then draw a character that will stand for each sound.

possible words: "bahteelo"; "saybolay"

You can also start with the symbols and assign them sounds. This works especially well if you have an alphabet-style language, which combines letters into words.

Combine characters to make words: "kosnowch"; "groy"

In each case, you'll want to decide if the sounds are analogous to English, especially verb sounds--do you have a single "o" letter for both "for" and "both"? Is "aw" different from "apple" or "apricot"? If you have multiple forms of a vowel, you may consider having different symbols for each pronunciation.

You might also decide the reverse, giving multiple pronunciations to a single character based on context. If so, I suggest holding off on deciding the rule until the end of establishing your alphabet (but you will need a rule.)

You may also have letters that "interrupt" or "add on" to sounds, especially if you have verb-consonant characters.

"traton" would be "ta" in a box + "to" + "-n"
And just ignore the "L" at the top I forgot to delete...

In the example above, adding a box around a triangle would be pronounced "pray"; a box around vertical line would be "tro." Meanwhile, a dot above a triangle would be "pays" and above a horizontal line would be "tays" (like "taze"). I usually make modification sounds their own column.

(This example also has a couple of irregular letters in the "p" column: "pled" and "peel." Just because you follow a pattern doesn't mean your letters all play by the rules. )

If you've waited this long to create your language, you probably already have a good idea what major sounds your language uses. I typically also try to keep each letter to 1-4 strokes when writing it, with most being simple--after all, an inconvenient language takes longer to write.

Assigning a scribble to each letter doesn't take terribly long. It's memorizing the combinations that gets hard. Keeping each letter distinct can be tricky, and you may end up with a system like a vertical line for all "ah" sounds with different scribble variations denoting which consonant.

And of course, a 6-consonant language is pretty hard to work with. I've found that single-letter alphabets are shorter to work with, while consonant-vowel combos take more characters to make a complete alphabet. The more sounds that go into a single character, the more characters you'll need to express your entire language.

After you've put together your alphabet, consider if you want any characters to have special rules ("paw" never goes beside "tae"; "pled" never gets an "-n" added to it; "bay" when combined with "-ed" sounds like "blade"; etc). If you've started with a language and have a list of rules, add these rules to your list; they're just as important.

Then it's just practice. Write a couple of words in the language (if you have a vocabulary list, try a few already on it. Then try a sentence or two.)

As a final step, think about punctuation. How do you denote sentence stops and sentence beginnings? Or do you? I find it a lot easier to have the basics period and comma, at the very least. Or if not a period, then a sign that new sentence is beginning.

(Creating a fantasy language: (Lesson 1, Rationale, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, Lesson 4, Choosing words, Creating an Alphabet)

Alphabet Development - ProGamer.Ru

A screenshot from Spryke showing various uses for the alphabet created for the game.

Creating your own alphabet is a great way to make the game more atmospheric and believable. Writing surrounds us everywhere and significantly affects how we perceive fictional worlds. The unique alphabet will add uniqueness to the game world.

Anyone who has ever tried to come up with their own font understands how difficult it is. Our brains are very sensitive to readability, and even the smallest changes in curves or line thickness can cross the line between elegance and absurdity.

The good news is that there are no hard and fast rules when creating a fictional alphabet, and it's a lot of fun to design it. But here you can’t do without randomly sketched squiggles! I recently worked on the alphabet for the game Spryke and now I can share with you all the details of this process.

Benefits of having your own alphabet in your game

First, let's take a look at a number of reasons that might motivate you to create a separate alphabet:

Writing is ubiquitous and is a key component of culture (even its absence from oral cultures would be). If you want the world of the game to have the signs of a living, breathing culture, you should think about its writing.
If your game is set in a science fiction/fantasy setting, its characters probably don't need to speak/write English. This begs the question: what language do they speak/write?
If the game takes place in a fictional state of our time, the newly created alphabet will show that you have tried to make this country unique, and not just put together well-known stereotypes, in the manner of Just Cause and Far Cry.
The alphabet may be some sort of code that the players have to decipher. Puzzles can be built around this.
Fictional alphabet allows you to fill the game with billboards, signs and slogans without the need to come up with catchy and meaningful texts for them.
If your game has multiple cultures/races/sub-species, their alphabets will show the difference between them even without characters present. For example, inscriptions in ancient ruins will serve as a sign of a lost civilization, and symbols on an empty spaceship may hint that it belongs to the enemy.
Designing the alphabet is a lot of fun!

The text says a lot even to those who do not understand it. It holds cultural and aesthetic cues and can look familiar or alien, simple or intricate, artsy or orderly, and more.

Step 1: Checking in with the culture of the game world

The aesthetic and functional aspects of the alphabet reveal a lot about its creators. Its forms naturally come from the characteristic features of the culture that gave birth to it.

For example, take a look at this ancient alphabet:

Consisting predominantly of solid, masculine forms, these symbols have such unity of size and economy of outline that it makes one think that they were not written, but constructed. They are strong, fit, rational.

Judging by this alphabet, it can be assumed that it was created by a pragmatic, strict culture that values order, strength and a clear structure. And in general, this is not the worst description of the ancient Romans.

Now look at the symbols of another ancient alphabet:

They do not have the moderation and symmetry of Latin letters, they are much more complex, intricate and smooth. The culture that created these symbols must have valued sophistication, ingenuity, and subtle nuances.

Looking at the third example:

The pointed, jagged forms of these characters lack the balance and simplicity of Latin letters, and lack the intricacy and grace of Chinese characters. Instead, they show aggression bordering on ferocity. And no wonder, because this is Dovazul, the language of dragons from Skyrim.

Your alphabet can (and will) provide players with information about the game world. If the alphabet looks interesting, boring, complex or frivolous, then the inhabitants of the game will also seem interesting, boring, complex or frivolous. Use this to your advantage and make sure the alphabet conveys exactly what you intended.

Step 2: Checking in with the technology in the game world

The many long, slashed lines in the dragon language don't just make it impressive and a bit hostile. These symbols were carved by dragons, which did not have feathers, brushes and chisels, but had claws. Designers from Bethesda used this fact wisely.

You might not even think about it while rummaging through the dungeons, but you might notice it on a subconscious level. Taking into account not only the individual, but also the way the characters are written, Bethesda has developed an alphabet that looks believable.

There are several technological factors that influence the success of an alphabet. These Anglo-Saxon runes were usually carved into wood, so there are almost no smooth and horizontal lines (straight lines are easier to carve, while horizontal ones can damage the wood structure and split the plank):

On the other hand, this magnificent Sinhalese alphabet (Sri Lanka) avoids straight lines and angles (Sinhalese writing was written on paper made from thin palm leaves, and sharp corners could lead to tears):

As you can see, accounting technologies will have a direct impact on the look of your alphabet. Attention to technological aspects will not only make the symbols believable, but also suggest an interesting aesthetic direction.

Things to think about:

What do people/creatures write in your game?
What do they write on?
Do they live in abundance and art flourishes in their culture?
Do they live in a dangerous environment and use minimalist writing to write faster?

Spryke is set on a distant planet in a fantasy setting, so my alphabet needs to look modern (because it's rendered mostly by precision machines, just like our world today). It also needs to be alien and unfamiliar, but retain a humorous edge while maintaining the overall cartoon style of the game.

Step 3: Learn the actual alphabets

There are many writing systems on our planet - probably more than you think. Check out some of them to better understand what you want to see yours.

The Mkhedruli alphabet (Georgia) is one of my favorites.

Another of my favorite alphabets is Geez (Ethiopia). I first saw him in a letter from my sponsored child from Ethiopia and immediately fell in love with his beauty and unusualness.

So do a little research and look for something interesting. Don't forget to check other fonts whenever possible, they may use completely different design solutions. After all, the aesthetics of traditional Japanese scrolls are starkly different from the neon signs in downtown Tokyo.

But if you're like me, you won't have to look far for inspiration!

Both of my arms are tattooed in the form of a prayer in Glagolitic, the ancient Slavic alphabet. Very convenient! Obviously, I have a special attachment to this alphabet, so it became my starting point.

Step 4: Selecting Basic Elements

Most writing systems use various combinations of a small number of elements. It will be a good idea to decide on these building blocks before making the very first sketches of symbols. This will help create a harmonious design and not rely too much on the spelling of your native language.

Choose a few suitable shapes that will define the aesthetics of the alphabet. Don't forget to look at real-life examples you like for inspiration.

The Spryke alphabet is supposed to be slightly frivolous and belonging to an alien race. My choice of Glagolitic turned out to be quite useful, because its unique look in itself makes it foreign by modern standards, since it has long since fallen into disuse. In addition, her characteristic motifs with circles and triangles fit perfectly with the required cartoon style. Making the alphabet more technological, I settled on precise angles and straight lines.

I chose equilateral triangles (3 sizes), circles (2 sizes) and angles of 45, 60, 90, and 120 degrees as the main elements.

Step 5: Sketching on paper

Next, I sketched a few pages of examples of symbols with these elements, referring to the Glagolitic alphabet (that is, looking at the hands). Some looked good, some looked ugly, and most went through several iterations in order to find the sweet spot.

Step 6: Vectorize and Finish

After reviewing all my sketches, I selected about 40 of the most promising ones. I brought them into Photoshop using vector shapes (of course, you can use Illustrator or other software). After many repeated tiny changes, my alphabet took on its final form. In the end, I made 52 symbols:

When working on symbols, it is worth following some points:

Try to keep the line thickness constant.
If in any symbol it suggests itself, be free to deviate from the basic shapes, angles and thickness, but do not deviate from them thoughtlessly or accidentally.
As with any design, the secret is to redo everything over and over and over again.
Try to rotate or flip your symbols, they may appear in a completely different light.
Decide how you feel about the weight of your alphabet. Will it stand firmly on the ground like the Latin alphabet, reach for the sky like the Hebrew alphabet, or float in zero gravity like the Chinese characters? I settled on weightlessness, so my symbols seem more "digital", whimsical and self-sufficient.
Divide characters into uppercase and lowercase only if it seems to you really necessary, because by doing so you double the amount of work. Many real alphabets have only one spelling.