4 ms·

Creating the alien writing in Infinifactory (2015)

108 points by karulont 8y ago

tbodt 8y ago
The only part of the article I can pay attention to is the fact that it's encoded in cp1252, and I'm on a Mac, so all the apostrophes show up as �.
- PetitPrince 8y ago
  Looking at the page source, it was most probably handwritten in Notepad, hence the Windows encoding.
Anarch157a 8y ago
So, basically it's digital Voynich Manuscript. Devious.
Cognitron 8y ago
Not directly related, but here's a couple GDC talks with Zach Barth that are pretty entertaining. GDC 2013: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH7gL3ivgFA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH7gL3ivgFA GDC Vault: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017983/Ahead-of-the-Curve-The https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017983/Ahead-of-the-Curve-The GDC 2018: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfcJB1WaDU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfcJB1WaDU GDC Vault: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024969/Inside-the-Indie-Mind-Zach https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024969/Inside-the-Indie-Mind-...
- psykotron 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing those. There's also: Zach Barth: "Zachtronics: Ten Years of Terrible Games" | Talks at Google - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9pz_EmKhA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9pz_EmKhA
jpatokal 8y ago
Oddly enough, the final output rather resembles a pixelated version of traditional Mongolian script, which in turn originates from Arabic written vertically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_script#/media/File:Mong%C9%A3ol.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_script#/media/File:M...
neuralzen 8y ago
I love Zach's games, just picked up EXAPUNKS and loving it. My favorite since Shenzhen I/O, but they are all great.
themodelplumber 8y ago
/r/conlangs and /r/neography are both really fun subs for this kind of stuff (this is more the latter really) if anyone is interested.
mda 8y ago
Looks like arabic script written in square kufic style, vertically.
comex 8y ago
> Most characters are grouped into “words”, which start with the “start word” character and are connected by a vertical line on the right side. I don’t have a logical reason for why the same character is present at the start of every word Well, you could argue that English puts the space character at the start of every word, other than the first one. Maybe the aliens want to delineate their words but think blank spaces look ugly.

108 points by karulont 8y ago

The only part of the article I can pay attention to is the fact that it's encoded in cp1252, and I'm on a Mac, so all the apostrophes show up as �.

PetitPrince 8y ago
Looking at the page source, it was most probably handwritten in Notepad, hence the Windows encoding.

Anarch157a 8y ago

So, basically it's digital Voynich Manuscript. Devious.

Cognitron 8y ago

Not directly related, but here's a couple GDC talks with Zach Barth that are pretty entertaining. GDC 2013: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH7gL3ivgFA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH7gL3ivgFA GDC Vault: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017983/Ahead-of-the-Curve-The https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017983/Ahead-of-the-Curve-The GDC 2018: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfcJB1WaDU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfcJB1WaDU GDC Vault: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024969/Inside-the-Indie-Mind-Zach https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024969/Inside-the-Indie-Mind-...

psykotron 8y ago
Thanks for sharing those. There's also: Zach Barth: "Zachtronics: Ten Years of Terrible Games" | Talks at Google - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9pz_EmKhA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9pz_EmKhA

jpatokal 8y ago

Oddly enough, the final output rather resembles a pixelated version of traditional Mongolian script, which in turn originates from Arabic written vertically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_script#/media/File:Mong%C9%A3ol.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_script#/media/File:M...

neuralzen 8y ago

I love Zach's games, just picked up EXAPUNKS and loving it. My favorite since Shenzhen I/O, but they are all great.

themodelplumber 8y ago

/r/conlangs and /r/neography are both really fun subs for this kind of stuff (this is more the latter really) if anyone is interested.

mda 8y ago

Looks like arabic script written in square kufic style, vertically.

comex 8y ago

> Most characters are grouped into “words”, which start with the “start word” character and are connected by a vertical line on the right side. I don’t have a logical reason for why the same character is present at the start of every word Well, you could argue that English puts the space character at the start of every word, other than the first one. Maybe the aliens want to delineate their words but think blank spaces look ugly.