On my relaxing Sunday night, there is nothing I would enjoy more than playing typography-themed computer games. Over the past hour I’ve had the great pleasure of exploring fonts through shooting, marrying, selecting, and sliding letters on my screen. Four games entitled Shoot the Serif, Type Connection, Type War, and Kern Type, each provided their own unique challenge to test my understanding of typography. By far these four games have been the best type-themed games I’ve ever played.
Although I thought this assignment would be slightly ridiculous, I was really able to enjoy myself! I’ve been playing with fonts and type for about three years now. I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about fonts than anyone really needs to know. You can ask any of my friends; it’s really not uncommon for me to be sitting at dinner and casually call out the font on the menu by name. I am always impressed with myself, but my friends never seem to have that same excitement.
These games, especially Type War, gave me a real reason to put my seemingly useless knowledge to the test. When I opened this game, I assumed I would be amazing; however, my pathetic 21 correct answer streak told me otherwise. I realized how difficult it is to name the fonts when you have two seemingly identical letters in front of you.
Overall, playing these games was actually pretty fun. I was hesitate initially going in solely because of how ridiculous these games sounded, but I was able to have fun! In the long run, I may stick to my main games such as Candy Crush; however, if anyone creates a type-themed Candy Crush where you have to match fonts with other fonts in that family, I will gladly sign up to beta test that game.
