In game making, I have no idea what's a good font. For titles, most anything could do, I'm pretty sure, as long as they fit the story.

However, what's a good font for a game? I just saw a game use comic sans, and I liked it, but a whole bunch of guys says it sucks. I personally don't like Arial, the default rmxp thing, and am currently using times new roman for my project.

Something easy to read and not over done. I can still see comic sans working for a Yoshi's Island-type game, but in general, it's old (it's been around...what, since the internet existed? O_o) and it's way over used.

I'm a sucker for all things Babycakes (i use it in all my projects and papers if at all possible). It's the same font used in Tindy's current signature.

Legibility is by far the most important thing to consider. If somebody can't read your text, you've really failed as a designer in that regard. But you have to consider than you don't want something too basic, like Times New Roman or Arial. They're much better choices than stylized fonts such as Papyrus, though.

Comic Sans in itself isn't a bad font. But generally it's overused (like Tindy said) and tacky. It's also associated with... well, comics, and light-hearted things. It's hard to take a game seriously when it uses Comic Sans.

Babycakes is waaay to thick of a font for me. I honestly find it really hard to read, actually. @_@

My personal favourite fonts are probably Calibri, Franklin Gothic, Cambria, and Euphemia. But Times New Roman isn't a bad choice. It's just people are very used to seeing it, and you want to try and get away from the font that 90% of essays are typed in.

The stock font is a good font. I do not know what Windows calls this font, but I'm fairly certain it's something like Arial. Serif fonts are perhaps too pretentious for such a medium.

serif fonts have only ever looked out of place in ever rm game I've played, but Arial is probs too common. there are loads of sans-serif fonts that are quite similar, but not so irritatingly familiar.

no it's a very bad font. it's a very very very bad font and it's also overused. i could get into the multitudinous reasons why it's bad but i won't. it sucks. it is the devil. avoid.


i don't have a big problem with serifed fonts in games (it can convey a certain level of "seriousness"). it has to be an incredibly light serif, however, like lucida bright, not a heavily-serifed one, like times or garamond. heavily-serifed fonts (i.e. fonts that use a lot of very strong or elongated serifs) can be categorized under "flavor fonts" for most general purposes outside of actual books nowadays. a lot of people even have a hard time reading them. you want people to be able to read everything at a glance instead of having to stare at it.

mawk's opinion is mostly right though, your best bet is almost always a sans-serif, but not arial. arial usually comes up too bold in small resolutions. i would recommend something rounded and stylish like calibri for a more lighthearted game, and a font with hard edges, like aaux or itc adderville book, for a slightly more serious deal. if you're selling the game remember that you have to either own a commercial license on the font or else use a freeware font.

NEVER pick a flavor font like copperplate or monotype corsiva--it's VERY obtrusive for paragraph-styled prose such as what you would see in dialogue.


most people don't give more than a few moments' thought into what font they use and all i can say is that i'm very happy that you are putting deliberation into it! it's a MUCH more important aspect of the style and playability of a game than most people realize. and they always get really mad at me when i say they should change theirs because it breaks all the rules of good graphic design. sure, ignore the chick who does it for a living D:.

Just use Papyrus. It's great. Seriously. [/sarcasm]

For serif fonts, I'm rather partial to Palatino Linotype. I think it's been available in Windows for a while (don't know how long) and it's got bit of a fantasy flavor to it, but not much.

oh yeah palatino linotype is a gorgeous font. i love it. it's also very easy to read even when very small. (try it as a pixel font sometime at 7-8pt! you can still read it and it's stylish!)

Wow, Vennie agreed with me for once! I feel special.

For sans-serif fonts, I've seen RM games with Tahoma or Verdana, either of which is a bit more legible than Arial. You could also try Century Gothic and see how that looks.

I like Maiandra GD and Palatino Linotype, personally.

i came across this font a couple of er.. time ago
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Deibi-v1 ... ont/346023
thought i'd share it here

<3
though i hate it that some non-capitals are as big as capitals

wow what a cute font :O

dunno if i'd recommend for a regular speech font though since the lowercase is wonky sometimes

In game making Fonts are like which are easy to read & eye liking.
I suggest you DejaVu Serif it's fantasy fonts.
You can download various Fonts from different sites.

i <3 The Neverwinter font
http://www.dafont.com/neverwinter.font

Might be decent for a title screen or logo, but for actual text that would be incredibly hard to read.

yeah ur right but I still like it....

comic sans ms is actually a decent font, idk what people are shitting about
it just needs to be applied properly, but can be quite cool when people use it right
though not for regular stuff like reading-tekst (papers, games etc.)

I would recommend it for some games myself. I was thinking of using it in combination of a traditional 'yellow square' textbox for game narraration. Classic comic-book storytelling. My game (back then) was an anime thingie...

But towards serious games, some form of sans serif font would be reasonably easy to read. Not saying it would be a must.

One could have fun with other fonts for different game styles. A font like uuncial (a Conan the Barbarian style) would be really cool if it proves to be easy to read in the game. For a gothic game, a serif-ed font to give an old-world feel may be to your liking.

If it is fairly specialized, don't forget that they gotta be packed with your game.

Slightly off topic, but something I've always wondered: why are serif fonts easier to read in print, and sans-serif easier to read on screen? It's true, for me, and apparently for most people (which is why sans-serif is usually suggested for game fonts). I just wondered if the Internet smartguys know anything.

I learned Graphic Design. All I know is that when the letters aren't smooth, it's easier for our eyes to stay fixed on it. Smooth fonts are good for titles, etc, but square fonts are recommended for blocks of text.

My favourite fonts at the moment are Verdana, Tahoma, Garamond, Arial, and Times. They are functional and easy to read.

I don't know if this is the decent font or whatever, but this is readable and snazzy:



The windowskin might want to be changed to remove the "defaultness" but I see no problem with the font.

I like my avatar's words font its called WST_Eng.

It gives you a DOS-classy-nostalgic feel to the game :)

To answer your question, most serifs you'll find are horizontal, especially at the bottoms of letters. This helps your eyes move across a page in the direction of the text. One of the most common places you see serif fonts is on newspapers, which have a lot of small text. They're still easy and enjoyable to read, though, because of the serifs.

A computer screen is a different story, however. Monitors display images and text using pixels, which can only be one color at a time. This presents a problem to serifs, which are very small. Generally, a pixel is too big to accurately represent the finer parts of serifs, so serif fonts look blocky and less legible.

As for the discussion question, I'm a sucker for serif fonts, so I'm a big fan of Palatino, Garamond, and Georgia. For games, it really depends on the atmosphere you're going for. Master of the Wind uses Anime Ace, which is an all-capital comic book-style font, but it works for that game because it's trying to be comic-book-esque. Currently, the font I'm using for the game I'm working on is Garamond. I realize it's a heavily serifed font, but the game is very serious and Garamond actually adds a very nice texture to the atmosphere.

Generally in game funny fonts are used,so you can use following fonts :

1) cursive
2) Moto-cursive
3) Serif

when in doubt, use Helvetica:

No need to say more.


And about Comic Sans MS: http://bancomicsans.com/

i personally like Edwardian script for titles and other nice things:

and for devroye for normal, because its nicer the arial but not at all hard to read for long periods of time

another huge favorite of mine in my little joke games is honey i stole your jumper: