janUnise Sounds like we’ll use Toki Pona rather differently :) I find interesting that you’re not only planning to make the language part of your universe, but also to use it as a major “what if?” that will shape the society you want to describe. And of course, making your own variety will give everything a unique flavor. I guess it’s a lot of work, but making an evolved selenite Toki Pona must be a pretty interesting exercise, and a great worldbuilding tool in itself.
In my case, my goal is to make a game set in a post-cyberpunk universe I’ve been working on for a loooooong time, with many, many (failed) iterations that took various forms over the years. The idea is to use Toki Pona for everything, starting with the game design documents. The language is meant as a tool to help me get rid of all the unnecessary details that have plagued this project for so long. So far, it has proven very helpful to clarify various concepts. And since we’re following the adventures of characters with child-like minds, on a quest to discover as much has they can about the world and themselves, the simplicity of Toki Pona seems to be a perfect choice.
Now, I’m not sure of the final form it will take. Maybe I’ll make my own relex, or my own glyphs. Maybe not, if I want the game to be more accessible (producing anything in Toki Pona is already really niche, after all.) Maybe I’ll also make an English version. But if I do that, it will be a translation of the Toki Pona original, not the other way around. To sum up, I’m especially interested in using Toki Pona as a design and writing tool, but it’s not required to actually exist in the universe I want to describe.
