Shooting da Serif

I decided to play a number of the design games, but my favorite by far was I Shot the Serif. Originally I thought the sole purpose of the game was to differentiate serif fonts from sans serif fonts, and if I do say so myself, I got pretty good at it. While identification was certainly a goal of the game, upon further reflection I realized another important goal of the game was to demonstrate that a simple switch from serif to sans serif isn’t always as shocking of a contrast as one may think. We learn about these fonts as sort of being “opposites,” so when I first began playing, I assumed the obvious distinction between feetsies and no feetsies would be all there was to it. When the game would get to its most difficult level (featuring a dozen or so letters at a time to choose from) however, I would find myself going back again and again to search for serifs I had missed. When there was an abundance of letters laid out next to each other like that, each letter’s serif-ness or san serif-ness seemed to be more invisible than noticeable. Sometimes when I’m designing, and as I’m sure many others have as well, I think using a serif font for one thing and a sans serif for another is what’s making them stand out from one another, when really what could separate them more effectively (in some cases) is boldness/italics, capitalization, or color. So overall, I would say yes, this particular game does have some education value to it whilst maintaining entertaining and fun. It provides a both an easy and a slightly more complicated objective for players.