Games That Make Typography Part of Play

Two dots roll and jump through levels built from recognizable typefaces, including Garamond and Helvetica. A character's outline can give you a route across a gap, then the next level asks you to learn a new set of shapes. The history sections show where those forms came from after you've spent time moving through them.

Pick a few letters, then watch them fall toward the targets. A tall stroke can tip off a ledge where a round letter would roll, and a protruding stroke can catch on a corner. The keyboard gives you a set of shapes to test. Choose one for what it will do after it drops.

Slide letters left or right until the spacing in a word looks even to your eye. The game lets you compare your arrangement with a reference after each round. Look at the patches of white between the letters and see how a diagonal or rounded edge can call for a different gap.

Drag the control points on a letter's outline, then compare your work with the typeface designer's original. The overlay shows where your curve bends too early or where a little more weight would help. Try the italic letters to see how much a small adjustment can change the whole outline.

In Izzy's diary, a line of text is somewhere to land. You jump along words and rearrange some of them to make a route through the page. When the game moves into the fantasy Izzy is writing, words can change things in the world. The diary sections let you feel that idea first in the way the page itself holds you up.

In this creature-battling parody, the face you see on screen and the scene that follows a choice are both drawn by the same font. Typing advances the game, and a particular key can take you down a branch. The whole thing is contained in one OpenType file, which makes watching the type change part of the fun.

You move through Sarah's pen pal letters and later her chat messages, where words can be picked up and carried to a drawing. Removing letters from a word can uncover a smaller word with a different effect. It's worth looking at the letters already on the page when you need a way past something in the picture.

In Brainseed Factory's revised PC release, you play a little figure built from letters and move individual characters around a dark landscape. A word assembled in the right place can change the obstacle in front of you. It's a good pick if you want to manipulate type under the pressure of a platformer.