Dialect: A Game about Language and How it Dies

Dialect is a game about an isolated community, their language, and what it means for that language to be lost. In this game, you’ll tell the story of the Isolation by building their language. New words will come from the fundamental aspects of the community: who they are, what they believe in, and how they respond to a changing world.

Players take away both the story they’ve told and the dialect they’ve built together.

Dialect is currently available for purchase directly from Thorny Games.

Gameplay
In Dialect, players take turns changing the language as time goes on and using that language as members in the community. It's a collaborative effort and doesn't use a gamemaster.

The first step of any game is creating our community. At the start, we pick a backdrop which forms the world in which the Isolation exists (more on backdrops below). Next, we make the world our own by defining three aspects for our community. These will be the touchstones of our society, and will be the initial seeds from which our language grows.

Friendly Words
"Dialect is fascinating and fun and innovative" -- Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Night Witches)

"A language-building story-telling thing of beauty" -- Jay Treat (Strange Gravity, Legacy of the Slayer)

"This is a game about how language, culture, and thought interact. And that's amazing!" --Alex Roberts (Backstory Podcast)

Winner of the 2019 IGDN Game of the Year, and Silver ENnie for Best Game.