Subscribe to RSS 2.0Busman's holiday leisure activities
Ages ago I mentioned a kerning game you can play in your web browser by going here. If you fancy yourself as a bit of a typesetter then why not give it a go.
Then, when you're ready for a real aesthetic challenge go here and have a go at perfecting some font designs... as a game.
I think I like the idea that there is room in the world for games where nothing explodes, no music plays and you're using some highly abstract ability - like your feeling for how the stroke on a capital 'Q' should curve - as your primary game skill. It's easy to imagine similarly abstract literary/artistic games based on your ability to choose between synonyms when honing a sonnet. Or correctly identifying complementary colours. In fact someone should make a game where you adjust the typeface, font size and text placement on a book cover for maximum beauty and impact. (Might be just the thing to help self-publishing authors avoid saddling their books with covers that scream 'self-published'.)
Comments: 3
That is surprisingly fun. And, for a non-typeface geek, it turns out I can spot a fair few typeface issues with some accuracy. I guess reading in general provides you with training to spot uncomfortable gaps in a typeface.
There's lots of applications for gaming that are less commercial and rely on human skills other than 'pressing a button quickly'. Fold It's protein folding, for example, uses a similar application of the human ability to recognise patterns (still unmatched by computers). I believe they recently discovered a novel protein with therapeutic benefit based on someone's results, too.
And there are many games which don't feature explosions or guns. More recently, several 'indie' game seem to be attempting to examine pretty complex philosophical ideas through gaming, although you don't see these being advertised on tv for some reason... I can find at least 10-20 examples of 'alternative' gaming easily if you're bored one day :-).
Posted by: Pete R on November 14, 2011 09:40 AM
So tempting, thanks Pete. But finding me alternative games that really suit my personality is a bit like offering to get me crack in new Cookies & Creme flavour. I'm shying away from games not because I think they might be rubbish but because I worry they might not be.
Posted by: Rob on November 15, 2011 11:27 AM
What fun! Except it's yet another displacement activity...
Posted by: Lee on November 21, 2011 07:43 PM