The game that I focused on playing this week was Type Connections, the official dating game for typefaces. This game focused on finding connections between different typefaces and their physical connections as well as historical connections. While playing the game, each typeface included a description of the font which described its features, creator, era/location of creation, etc. These descriptions helped in matching typefaces by origin and similarities (or differences). Although I was not the best at this game, I did learn a bunch about what features to look at while pairing typefaces. It is useful to match typefaces based on origin, but I found that this game taught me a lot about how to analyze typefaces in comparison to one another. In the final stage of the game, it compares the physique of your two chosen fonts so that you get an in-depth visual of the key features such as weight, serif, etc. The game focuses on both aspects of matching typefaces. For newbies to typography, I think this is a very educational tool for identifying features of typefaces and their relation to one another.
This game is valuable for its educational value; therefore, it wouldn’t be a “quick and easy” game for short exercises. If you are genuinely interested in learning how to compare and match typefaces, through visuals and origin, then this is the game for you. I think Type Connections is the least game-like activity included in the design game options, so the game features do not distract from the purpose of the game.
Intro to Digital Texts and Media 