Designing a game means creating visual elements that support its lore and theme, including the gaming fonts. Mismatched fonts will create a jarring experience when players look at the screen design. Choosing the right font is part of improving the user interface (UI) element of your game.
How should you pick a font for your game screen? What fonts can you choose from to create the perfect game interface?
Gaming Fonts and User Interface
Game UI has more functions than just aesthetics. It guides gamers to the various menu, finish quests, adjust settings, and follow steps to gain rewards. Gaming fonts are big parts of those functions, especially since they make up the text parts of the UI.
For example, choosing the right font creates a unified look based on the game’s theme. Whether you play a world war-based shooting game, a fantasy world RPG, or a retro-inspired arcade game, a good game will always have the right thematic design elements. This means choosing font designs that match the themes, bringing the players to the right atmosphere to get immersed in the games.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
There are also practical functions of the fonts. A good font improves the readability factor of the game menu. This makes it easier for gamers to navigate the important menu. Gamers can also develop faster reactions because the command texts on the screens are easier to read. This is especially useful in games that require quick reactions, like shooting or fighting games.
The practical function also covers consistency, both from the look and the function in your UI. Make sure to pick one display font with one or two more conventional fonts. Using more than three gaming fonts will make the players feel distracted. Your display font serves as the “hook” that attracts the players because it creates thematic consistency within the world of the game.
Another function of a memorable font is related to the promotional aspect of the game. Making merchandise is a part of game development, especially if you expect people to know your game more. Display fonts for your games have specific forms and shapes that can be used to adorn merchandise. Think of how they will look when you print them on objects with different sizes, from stickers and mugs to t-shirts and hats.
Remember, in designing a game UI, the functions go first before the forms. Even something as “simple” as choosing a gaming font must follow this rule to ensure the best quality in the game screen and its UI. Make sure that you choose a font based on the function and look, not just picking any font “because it looks pretty.”
10 Best Game Fonts to Start
So, you plan to start making a new game, and you need a good font. Where to start?
Well, how about display fonts designed specifically to follow themes closely related to popular games?
Here are 10 game fonts you can consider when you start designing your game.
-
Breximova
Breximova is one of the best futuristic fonts on this list because of its subtle but unique embellishments. The square forms, bold strokes, and diagonal edges on some characters make this font stand out compared to the more run-on-the-mill futuristic fonts. Breximova also has split strokes and asymmetrical forms that make it more special.
Breximova comes with multilingual support, so every designer in various countries can use it. Use this font for various game themes, like space battles and futuristic RPG adventures. Breximova is also perfect for creating game-related materials, especially if you plan to create merchandise for promoting your games.
The font is not only for games but also for other projects like magazines, book covers, social media posts, and website headers. You can also design e-sport materials and screens with Breximova since the font has a general futuristic vibe that many competitive games can fit into.
-
Money Game
Inspired by one of the most popular Korean series in the current time, Money Game gives you a dystopian future vibe with Korean alphabet influence. It is perfect as a gaming font for survival, horror action, urban thriller, and adventure genres. It’s a perfect font for adding a style and unique characteristic to your game screen.
Money Game is based on block sans serif, with square designs and details that resemble Korean Hangul. Details like underlines, half-sized uppercases and lowercases, and varied baselines create a unique typeface with a strong look. You can also use this font if your game has a Korean vibe.
The unique style of Money Game makes it distinguished enough for other design projects. You can create merchandise for your game with this font, such as t-shirts, mugs, hats, and stickers.
-
Qraydom
What if your futuristic game requires extra cyberpunk flavor? Qraydom is your answer. This display font consists of sleek straight lines and slightly pointed loops that give them a vague leaf-like shape. Qraydom’s subtle embellishments keep this font from looking like your typical cyberpunk-inspired fonts.
Qraydom is a perfect font for futuristic shooting games, Cyberpunk adventures, and dystopian RPGs. You can also use it for other design purposes like e-sport interfaces, social media posts, website headers, and magazine covers. The font comes with multilingual support to make the design work easier for designers around the world.
Create a consistent theme throughout your project by using Qraydom for promotional materials. Use this font in your promotional clips or in merchandise such as stickers, t-shirts, hats, and mugs.
-
Grandeven
Gaming fonts for old-timey adventure games influenced by European legends or myths always have distinctive styles. Grandeven is one of the fonts you can use to design games with this theme. Consisting of uppercases and lowercases, Grandeven comes with curved strokes, subtle “branches” on the lines, and slightly pointed overshoots. The result is a modern font with unique Medieval touch.
Grandeven is a great font for any game with a Medieval Europe vibe, whether it is an adventure, arcade, RPG, battle, or puzzle. Using the perfect font for this theme will add the right vibe to your game design. Grandeven is also a great font for creating stylish social media and website headers, e-sport interfaces, or game-related publications.
Since Grandeven consists of uppercases and lowercases, the reading flow will be much smoother than fonts that only have all caps. However, you can combine this font with something more conventional as the body text for extra readability, such as in the reading supplements between gameplays.
-
Rictor Barbossa
Rictor Barbossa is another vintage display font you can use for thematic adventure games. The beautiful Gothic-inspired strokes and lines make the font perfect for themes like pirate adventures, treasure hunting, old-timey explorations, and literature-inspired games. The intricate curls and curves with exaggerated swashes add a unique elegance to this themed font.
Rictor Barbossa comes as a bold black letter with uppercase characters. It makes the font perfect for main titles and storyline breaks between gameplays. You can also use this font for artistic headers, such as for websites and social media accounts. Rictor Barbossa also makes your event announcement title and e-book covers look more interesting.
If you want to use Rictor Barbossa in the game, make sure to check the readability factor. Small sizes can make the typeface harder to read, hindering the gamers’ ability to make the right decision in their strategies. You can also combine this font with other more conventional ones to create a smooth reading flow.
-
Boblious
Are you designing games for kids? Use Boblious as one of the gaming fonts. This bold, fun font has a slightly irregular form that mimics casual handwriting. The bold form helps improve the readability factor and makes the texts easier to decipher when playing games. However, this text is also good for games of all ages, especially the ones with casual or humorous themes.
Boblious comes with multilingual support, helping local designers anywhere in the world to develop original games or create localized game content. You can also use the font for other purposes, such as making birthday invitations, greeting cards, kid’s books, websites, and social media headers, and many more.
The cute look of Boblius makes it great for creating your game’s promotional materials. The bold font looks great and noticeable on small stickers or hats, while the larger versions are more suitable for t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, and many more.
-
Hassengard
Do you need a majestic typeface that can be used for various game themes? Try using Hassengard, a beautiful display font with Medieval-style influence. Based on the serif typeface, Hassengard has slight tweaks on its many elements like stems, strokes, and crossbars. The result is a majestic, artistic font that is still great for modern media.
Hassengard is ideal for adventure games or RPGs with old-style elements, like Medieval Europe, fairy tales, or fantastic folklore. You can also use the font for battle games, puzzles, and management games that have elements of ancient times, Medieval, fantasy, and many more.
As a distinctive typeface, Hassengard can be used for designing other things related to your game project. For example, you can create merchandise using this font, such as mousepads, mugs, hats, and t-shirts.
-
Turn on the Mic!
Turn on the Mic! is an artistic display font for modern, urban themes in your game designs. The font has a brushstrokes effect that mimics casual handwriting, with subtle textural effects at the end of each stroke. It’s a perfect gaming font for themes such as urban themes in game types like adventures, racing, RPGs, designs, and simulations.
Turn on the Mic! comes with uppercase and lowercase characters, complete with exaggerated swash and underline effects. The combo makes this font attractive without losing the readability level. The font has multilingual support and can be used in various game materials and screen designs.
You can also use the font to create other materials, like magazine and e-book covers, flyers, greeting cards, t-shirts, hats, and invitations. If you want to spread your game’s popularity by creating merchandise, this font already speaks a lot of volume. It will look great on gaming mousepads, t-shirts, mugs, and banners.
-
Press Start 2P
If you look for a free font that is still usable in many game designs, Press Start 2P can be your choice. Available on Google Fonts, this bitmap font has a pixel-based design, inspired by fonts from vintage games like Atari’s Sprint and Return of Ishtar. However, unlike many vintage games, Press Start 2P uses both uppercase and lowercase letters, adding varieties and smooth reading flow in the design.
As the new version of the vintage bitmap font, Press Start 2P has expanded the range of characters. It supports various Unicode characters that were previously nonexistent in the abovementioned vintage games, such as Cyrillic and Greek characters.
Press Start 2P can be used for a wide range of game themes and genres. Examples are arcade, space, fighting, or battle games, especially the ones with vintage charm or inspiration. This unique font is also great for other materials and media, such as e-sport screens, t-shirts, bags, e-zine and e-book covers, and website or social media headers.
-
Audiowide
Audiowide is a free gaming font based on sans serif typeface but with a futuristic twist. Designed by Brian J. Bonislawsky, this font has a tubular form with soft corners, asymmetrical forms, and slightly squared loops and bowls. The flat baseline gives this font a slightly mechanical shape. Overall, it gives off a futuristic typeface shape with a high readability level.
Audiowide is a good font for a wide range of game themes. You can use it to create futuristic, space, or tech-related RPGs, battles, shooting games, puzzles, and arcades. You can also use the font to create a new design with a vintage sensibility. The readability level helps gamers to read the screen elements more comfortably and develop quicker reactions.
Audiowide is also great for other materials and projects. Use this font to design t-shirts, accessories, e-zines, e-sport screens, and other game-related materials.
Need other gaming fonts to adorn your game design projects? Visit Pollux of Germinorum to find high-quality fonts you can match with your design themes. Download these fonts and create your dream game with the perfect font to complete the user interface and design elements.