My attempt at a font which uses only one grid square per glyph. I guess this is the Fontstruct equivalent of pixel art...?
As an extra challenge I decided to use no curved bricks. (This rule was since broken to add © and ®).
Even better letterforms could be created by compositing the entire thing. However, the goal here was to do what I could with the existing bricks. As such, only #?![]{}¹²³ make use of composites.
Another attempt at the challenging 4x4 grid. Only those characters which I could fit into the 4x4 grid were included. This time, I think I managed to get near the level of quality and style typical of a 5x5 font!
This is probably the smallest font most people would ever want to use for general reading. It took no trivial amount of experience and experimentation to come up with!
If you use this to make assets, you can use color separation to fit 4 glyphs onto an 8x8 tile or 16 onto a 16x16 tile. Check out my profile page for more microfonts you can use in your games!
Original size: 3pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)
A highly exclusive language used by people on Bysonce Island, Planet Ashr in my video game Endless Sea of Stars. This one is used for private documents and old government records, and its brother language Eudastiphos Hand is used for public court documents.
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Calystiphos Hand is much simpler than its brother language, despite looking much more complicated. Each glyph refers to highly specific concepts and so it is most used to record time-tested, factual information rather than stories or fiction. However, these glyphs can still be considered as runes, as each one is host to whole mysteriums of information and idiomatic knowledge which have been associated with it.
Bysoncians use a base-8 system of numeracy. 9 would thus be written as 81, 10 as 82, etc. There is no numeral 9.
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Calystiphos is the Ashrian god of siroccos. The simplest way to put it is to say that he represents the "yin" of the pantheon.
Another conlang/conscript from my own works. These are the Symbols of Starborn Lightness used by Asgari.
Asgari is an artificial sun orbiting Gara, an interstellar planet. It was built to use Starborn Lightness symbols as concept-units in order to electronically convey information to the Garai people about itself. So, these symbols were originally something like status indicators. Until C.Y. 1997, they could be seen on displays in the Celestial Telemetry Room at Magong Stack One in Upper Netazeca.
However, some Garai re-used the symbols to make constructed languages and ciphers. Monsaic Sun is unique among these in that it uses only the existing symbols, without any alteration. So this font can be used to write either language.
Appears in: Seven Candles Trilogy (2013)
A written court language used by Ashrians on Bysonce Island, Planet Ashr in my video game Endless Sea of Stars. This one is used for public court documents, and its brother language Calystiphos Hand is used for private documents and old government records.
These glyphs could be considered a form of shorthand unto themselves, since each court stenographer has its own way of writing these down and its own way of abbreviating or embellishing them. Through knowledge of these glyphs, and their accompanying interpretation, one can surmise all of the important proceedings and notes.
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Common methods for stenographers to alter these glyphs involve:
- Adding/removing quadrants
- Crossing out one or more elements in colored ink
- Drawing connecting lines between points within one or more quadrants
- Inscribing shorthand or marginalia within negative spaces
- Marking or coloring within the central circle
- Shading via different means (scribbling, crosshatching, or with colors)
- Rotating a quadrant upon its own axis
It's important to note that stenographers also often write (either in Royal Bysoncian, Sea Bysoncian or Voktlandish) in accompaniment with these symbols. The idea is for each stenographer to come up with a system of encoding that works for it. Eudastiphos Hand could thus be considered an amalgamate, interlingual cipher built from other Ashrian languages.
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In terms of communication systems which exist on Earth, this is most readily compared to Nsibidi.
A combinatorial conlang whose symbols find many uses.
This is the written language of early Azwelke people from Planet Ashr in my game Endless Sea of Stars. The symbols are called "Moon Runes" (both pejoratively and not), and each represents a cluster of phonemes. The language is similar to Katakana Japanese in that written words are sounded out. Proper nouns cannot be written in Moon Runes, and so such nouns rely on Old Azwelkeland Script to be committed to record.
The Wolves of Euphedora still use these symbols as part of their own hidden language, here called "RZ". Since this cipher invents no new characters, these Moon Runes can be used to write RZ as well.
These symbols are also still used in modern Ashrian astrology. Their designations below reflect this fact.
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- ESOSVM DESIGNATION -
TextData Block #013-ASHRJ, "Moon Runes KF-21 Original"
6!000001 "Hunter's Moon, New"
6!000002 "Hunter's Moon, First Quarter"
6!000003 "Hunter's Moon, Last Quarter"
6!000004 "Hunter's Moon, Waxing Gibbous"
6!000005 "Hunter's Moon, Waning Gibbous"
6!000006 "Hunter's Moon, Full"
6!000007 "Traveller's Moon, New"
6!000008 "Traveller's Moon, First Quarter"
6!000009 "Traveller's Moon, Last Quarter"
6!000010 "Traveller's Moon, Waxing Gibbous"
6!000011 "Traveller's Moon, Waning Gibbous"
6!000012 "Traveller's Moon, Full"
6!000013 "Demarcator L"
6!000014 "Demarcator R"
6!000015 "Traveller's Moon Eclipses Ashrflame"
6!000016 "Hunter's Moon Eclipses Ashr"
6!000017 "Traveller's Moon Eclipses Ashr"
6!000018 "Hunter's Moon Eclipses Ashrflame"
6!000019 "Northern Double Eclipse"
6!000020 "Ashr Eclipses Hunter's Moon"
6!000021 "Ashr Eclipses Traveller's Moon"
6!000022 "Southern Double Eclipse"
3x3 cipher, based on version 0.3 of "Micromaze". It uses its own form of binary notation for the numerals, wherein the upper-right 4 pixels play the role of the 1, 2, 4, and 8.
This is the smallest font in which I was able to give a unique symbol to every glyph (excluding the lower/upper case, which look the same). It reads sort of like Pigpen Cipher, but is more densely written.
Since MMC is obscure and of constant width/height, it serves many "gibberish" and "placeholder text" purposes in addition to being a modestly strong cipher.
Original size: 2pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)
This is a work in progress.
After making Ticketmeister, I got curious about the idea of 35mm film glyphs. I wanted to see how accurately the shape and proportions of the film could be recreated with Fontstruct bricks. I used a 1px = 1 square = 1mm conversion, and think I've nailed the original film look. It's symmetrical, so one glyph in isolation will look as if it were spliced out.
"Space" lacks borders, so it can be used to show a continuous reel - useful for enlarging and making imagery with.
Symbols used on board Marengi Mk.0 and later ships.
- SEMIOTIC STANDARD -
1. All symbols are to be sized at least 72cm high for physical signage/labels and at least APX2.2 for use on electronic displays.
2. All symbols are to be prominently placed such that personnel do not obscure them as they perform their duties.
3. All labels/signage will use a strongly photoreactive pigment of hexadecimal color #E43B44 for the outline. All electronic versions will use the aforementioned hex color for their outlines as well.
Coquette Dynatype by bugmenot666 is one of my favorite fonts. It has an exotic look while being very readable and regular.
With Dynatype Z I tried to take the exotic aspects further without changing the core design too much. The lowercase got some alternates, too!
This is a clone of Coquette DynatypeFrom my game Trap Farmer Brer Brah.
The 21 symbols of the written language used by "Eshira" - terrestrial zooid colonies amalgamated from bacterial, viral, fungal, plant, and animal components. Eshira use this language by secreting an enzyme at the top of their rocky, stromatolite-like structures, dissolving the material to reveal white glyphs. These glyphs are extremely shallow engravings, and material is removed much slower than it is added through metabolism. They are formed so that wind, rain, UV exposure, and/or wave action naturally weather them off in a day's time.
Each glyph represents an entire concept, question, plea, or rebuke. The glyph that appears depends on the eshira's environmental conditions and treatment. Intelligent creatures on Planet Fyromr read these glyphs to determine whether the fishing is good, what the weather will be like, whether their aquacultures and aquatic farms are healthy, and so on.
An eshira only etches one glyph at a time, so these symbols are only ever meant to appear one at a time. All the eshira in a particular place tend to produce the same glyph at low tide.
Font used for signs in the 11th Heaven BBQ Bar'n'Grill Casino in my game Trap Farmer Brer Brah.
See also:Rivet City
Original size: 8.25pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)
Super-tiny! This begins to approach the lower limits of visual interpretability. It's still far more readable than any 3x3 pixel font I've yet seen, though.
Like Four on the Floor, this font uses every trick I have picked up as a pixel artist and font artist to make itself as readable as possible. I consider this one suitable for general reading (e.g. when making pixel art tutorials or depicting book texts in pixel games), but only just.
Original size: 3pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)
Bold variant of Ticketmeister.
Original size: 14.25pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)
This is a clone of TicketmeisterA tear-off ticket design. I went for the slightly gaudy look which is associated with carnivals and arcades.
While making this I also got the idea for a font which looks like a 35mm reel with little scenes on each segment...
Original size: 14.25pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)
A cipher/code used by the Kibble Cabal, a mostly animal-based team of misfits and food thieves in the game Trap Farmer Brer Brah. This code is very similar in application to the "Hobo Code" from the United States in the late 1800s. It makes a pretty good cipher, as well!
Original size: 8pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)