City of Six Moons is a board game written in an alien language that you'll need to translate to play, and you'll never know if you've done it right.

The upcoming board game City of Six Moons takes the difficulty of deciphering rulebooks to a whole new level by writing all of its rules in an alien language that you'll have to translate in order to play. Best of all? You'll never know if you've done it correctly.

Designer Amabel Holland describes the single-player title as a game about guiding the fortunes of an alien civilization and a game designed as if it had actually been created by a real-life alien civilization.

As such, Holland has written the entire rulebook in a language comprised of icons, glyphs, and symbols, challenging the player to decipher the language before being able to read the rules of the game itself. To unlock its secrets, you'll apparently have to draw on both your own existing cultural assumptions and an acceptance that the culture of the alien civilization that created it is very different from that of humanity.

Holland mischievously suggests that players will never know for sure whether they've cracked the code perfectly, and he refuses to answer questions about the game's rules. (Well said, BoardGameGeek.)

Given all this, we obviously don't know exactly how the game will be played, or even how long it will take to complete, only that it will be a solo experience with a set of components needed to play the game in the box along with the rulebook. Presumably, those components will be language-free or marked with the same code as the rules, though we also don't yet know which game pieces will be included. We've at least seen the cover, which could presumably offer a first clue to deciphering the iconographic language.

Holland confirmed to Bluesky that City of Six Moons will be a “functional, replayable game” for those who manage to understand its rules (or enough to play it, that is), though cracking the code is considered a key part of the package, meaning players may find it a “lesser” experience after learning its secrets. However, even that permanent shift in understanding is part of the overall journey, Holland believes: “That loss is something I want you to feel; I want it to linger.”

City of Six Moons will be released next month by publishing label Hollandspiele (with co-owner Mary Holland). Good luck to everyone preparing to tackle this enigmatic puzzle.