Strichart gets asked about the strangely ubiquitous font often enough that he's already shared some of its history. just wild."įor Sega localization producer Scott Strichart, it's the iconic "Yakuza font" now known for preceding in-game battles and introducing major characters. "Such a seemingly simple decision on my part has spanned seven games so far. You can spot Cuprum in Trails of Cold Steel 3 and 4 and more. "I had a good laugh over the fact that Falcom just kept it going," Avery says. Years later, Avery saw screenshots for the English language version of a totally different Nihon Falcom game, Tokyo Xanadu, and there was that Cuprum font again. That may have been the end of a job well done for Avery and for the Cuprum font, but that decision had staying power. Nihon Falcom was totally cool with the choice and implemented it into the game." "It was legible, sleek, and the letters were on the thin side, allowing for more space. "When XSEED first worked on Trails of Cold Steel, I went through the whole creative process of choosing a font before settling on Cuprum," Avery says.
#FONTS THAT WORK ON XBOX PC#
This happened for Avery with the The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, which was localized into English in 2015 and then brought to PC in 2017. Sometimes a font face also becomes the face of a series. Kolchin says there are a number of other font features to consider when designing an interface: "font size, typeface, line spacing, tracking and kerning, padding and margins, color, visual hierarchy, the presence of other elements, and much more." You can spot how the speaker's name is formatted differently from the rest of the text. They wound up choosing Futura, a geometric sans-serif font with bold, simple shapes that gave Backbone's dialogue a clean, minimalist feel.įor a UI designer, the decisions don't end with the choice of a font face, though. Instead, we wanted to emphasize the spirit of the perceived time period when the events of the game take place, which is '50s Northern America." "Backbone’s pixel art is a fresh take on the medium that’s very far from the retro aesthetic, so choosing a font was never about evoking a retro feel. "The font had to be expressive, but not too much, so as not to interfere with the player’s reading speed," says Backbone's UI designer Aleksander Kolchin, conscious of how much text players would be hit with throughout the game. After years of showing work in progress, developer Eggnut posted a screenshot of Backbone's new dialogue window that made its text-heavy interface look just as sleek as its modernized pixel art. The font she chose for the top of the "Victims" screen in Corpse Party definitely gets that gorey feel across.Īnother bold choice that caught my eye recently was for the raccoon detective game Backbone. In fitting with the theme, Avery really wanted to include a font that would look like coagulating blood. One of her favorite font choices was for Corpse Party on PC. "Legibility is still important, of course, but I think for, you can also afford to get more creative and bold," she says.