The Game Dev’s Guide to Fonts
(Absolute) Basics of Fonts
One of the most important tenets of a breakfast sandwich, according to Briand Davil Gibert, is that it must be symbiotic, meaning that all ingredients should work together in harmony to create that one perfect bite.
That’s how I think about good game design. Every element, gameplay, graphics, soundtrack, story, etc. working together toward the same intended experience.
And one of the most underappreciated ingredients of game design is fonts. Literally Every game uses them but they’re rarely a hot topic of discussion. Most of us just pick a font that feels right and move on.
But what actually makes a font feel right?
Why fonts matter
As Sarah Hyndman explains in her book Why Fonts Matter, fonts give text its own personality and backstory. Our brains register the font before we read the words themselves, and that influences how we interpret them.
Look at this example:
Every font conveys context and tone. A well-chosen font is not only readable, but also supports the game’s mood and atmosphere. A poorly chosen one, on the other hand, can easily make us disconnect from the experience the game is trying to deliver.
(Absolute) Basics of fonts
If you’d like go in depth on the matter, check out this free course by Envato, it’s great. But I know, you don’t have time for it, so here are my notes from the video:
Typeface vs. Font: What I’ve been calling a “font” so far is technically a “typeface”. A typeface is a family of fonts (like Times New Roman), while a font is a variation within that family (such as bold, italic, or light).
Type Classifications:
Serif & Sans Serif: A serif is the small line or stroke at the ends of letters. Sans means “without,” so sans serif fonts are fonts without those strokes. Serif fonts look more traditional and formal, while sans serif fonts feel clean and modern.
Monospace: Every character takes up the same amount of horizontal space. These are generally used in sci-fi and tech-themed games.
Gothic (Blackletter): Old-style fonts often used in medieval themed games.
File Types: The most common formats are TTF (TrueType Font) and OTF (OpenType Font). TTF is the oldest modern format, and OTF is its successor. There are also variable fonts, a modern kind of font that can change its thickness and width smoothly inside one single file. Game engines usully work with TTF.
Readability:
Line Spacing (Leading): The vertical space between lines. Make sure it’s not too tight or too loose.
Column Width: If it’s too narrow, you’ll get too many hyphenated words; too wide, and the text becomes tiring to read. A good rule of thumb is around 45–60 characters per line.
Color and Contrast: Add a shadow or a semi-transparent backdrop behind the text to increase the readability.
Kerning and Tracking: Kerning adjusts the space between specific letter pairs; tracking adjusts spacing across an entire word or paragraph.
Creative use of fonts in games
Fonts in games take on an entirely different dimension since they don’t have to be static. Letters can move, grow, shrink, change colors, and have unique sound effects as they appear on screen. This gives us more tools to convey emotions and context, and some games cleverly take advantage of this.
In Pentiment, for instance, different typefaces are used to reflect NPC’s education and class. Nobles and monks speak in more fancy and elegant typefaces while peasents speak in a rough, casual-feeling typeface. The genious part, however, is not use of different fonts but the way game uses them. Each font has accompanied by unique animation and sound. Peasants frequently make spelling mistakes in dialogue (like me in these posts). Sometimes they even notice it, cross out the word, and rewrite it. Nobles, on the other hand, do far fewer mistakes.
The majority of Pentiment revolves around reading dialogue with no voice acting. So this clever use of fonts helps us distinguish the contrast between different backgrounds of NPCs, as well as adding depth to the characters and to the historical period the game takes place in.
Another game I should mention is Undertale. It’s almost impossible to talk about fonts in games without bringing it up since its characters are literally named after fonts. Each character embodies the personality of their font. Sans is cool and laid-back, just like the Comic Sans typeface, while his brother Papyrus is loud and full of energy.
Where to get fonts
Just like any other form of art, fonts come with different types of licenses for different use cases. But unlike any other form of art, these licenses are not that straightforward. Requirements and prices depend on how the font will be used. These prices can be quite high so always make sure you paid for the license or the font is licensed under Open Font License (OFL). This license allows you to use font in your commercial project for free. Here are common sources for fonts:
Google Fonts: Allows you to filter fonts by their feeling and appearance, which is really helpful.
Font Squirrel: Hand-selected free typefaces.
Fontesk: Allow you to filter by many different tags.
Dafont: Huge selection for fonts but make sure to confirm the license.
Game Font Library
Game Font Library showcases games and fonts they use. It’s a great resource if you like to see what fonts other games use to get some inspiration.
Final Words
Long story short:
Typography is an important ingredient of game development, and it might leave bad taste if not done well.
Make sure it’s readable and conveys the tone and atmosphere of the game.
In games, we’re not limited to just bold or italic text. Letters can animate, and that opens up a whole new set of possibilities.
How do you use fonts in your game?
Me
Sorry for going silent for couple of months; I was distracted by life and work. Herald of the Mists is collecting dust on the shelf, waiting for me to get back to it. Meanwhile I’m working on a small game which I want to talk about more soon.
Playing: I finally gave Pacific Drive a try. I’d been wanting to play it for a while but had avoided because of its tense atmosphere. It was fun gradually transforming my car into a monster. I found myself looting relentlessly for certain upgrades. That said repeatedly looting the same things did get a bit boring after the first 10 hours.
Reading: I’ve recently finished the second book of the Sun Eater series, Howling Dark. I was ready to DNF it in the first half, but the second half hit me hard, and I couldn’t put it down. Can’t wait to read the third entry, which is everybody’s favourite in the series.
Note: Remember the Game Dev Resources Database I shared via Notion ages ago? I’ve moved it to Google Sheets since I stopped using Notion. Here’s the new link. It’s in a rough shape and needs a lot of tidying up. I’ll get to it eventually.
Listening:
Thanks for reading!
And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.
But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey.
Thanks for sharing the font resources good links to check out
A-a-h... Choice of fonts for Cyrillic languages are usually, hm, very BAD in most cases.