Journey is a contemplative video game set in distant land riddled with mystery. It was created by my favorite game developer Jenova Chen. A beautiful symbolic language haunts your imagination as the story develops. After exploring the realms by foot and flight, the symbols’ meaning becomes clear.
![](https://www.infinite.center/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2096.png)
![](https://www.infinite.center/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/journeyIconExample-1.png)
Largely indecipherable, the characters can be generated quite easily using computational methods.
Each symbol is a composition of four discrete icons arranged in a 2×2 grid. The icons are 3×3 pixel arrangements of only black and white. There are precisely 20 icon types. They can be rotated in random intervals of 90 degrees.
![](https://www.infinite.center/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/journeyIconBig.png)
![](https://www.infinite.center/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2089.png)
Journey is an endless source of inspiration for me. This symbolic language is one of many beautiful elements in the game. I have not calculated the total possible number of symbols possible in this generative system. My guess is about 64^4 (or 16,777,228).
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Programmed in Processing
In Albuquerque, New Mexico
Around 7:00pm March 20, 2020, under lock-down quarantine