In this post I am going to share 5 of my favourite creative games that are great for designers to learn about topics like typography, logo design etc
Gamification is a very smart and trendy concept, which makes learning about difficult subjects fun and playful. It is not an easy task to turn any educational material into an interactive game that is fun to play and still manage to educate the player on the way. All of the creative games on my list are free to play. Some of them are browser-based while others are mobile games. Have fun playing and learning about design.
1. Kern Type, the kerning game
In this browser-based typography game your mission is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. Typographers call this activity kerning. Your solution will be compared to a typographer’s solution, and you will be given a score depending on how close you nailed it. Good luck!
2. I Shot the Serif
Creative game two! Another fun typographic game, where you have to quickly recognise the serif fonts and shoot them, leaving the sans serif fonts intact. In typography, a serif /ˈsɛrɪf/ is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol, such as when handwriting is separated into distinct units for a typewriter or typesetter. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface (or serifed typeface). A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as “Grotesque” (in German “grotesk”) or “Gothic”, and serif typefaces as “Roman”. You can choose your designer level from ‘Junior’ to ‘Senior’ – try not to make too many mistakes!
3. The Bézier game
Another brilliant creative game that helps you to master a difficult technique that every designer should know: drawing Bézier curves, in other words using the Pen Tool. It is definitely one of the most difficult tools in graphic design to get accustomed to working with as it is completely different to any other ways of drawing lines and curves. Although it is hard to begin with, but once mastered it can be the most effective way to draw beautiful vector shapes and make precise selections. Bézier curves were widely publicized in 1962 by the French engineer Pierre Bézier, who used them to design automobile bodies at Renault. If you want to get your head around using the Pen Tool in design applications like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign you should definitely check this creative game out!
4. The rather difficult Font game
This is multiple-choice quiz game where you need to identify which font was used on a presented word. As the name of the game implies it is not an easy game and aimed at more experienced designers. That doesn’t mean someone new to design shouldn’t give it a go. It is very educational and teaches you to look for the small characteristics in fonts that makes them different and unique. As a designer identifying these small differences is a very important skill.
5. Logos Quiz Game
The final creative game on the list. We are continuously surrounded by company logos, we can see them on TV, walking on the street, at important events… everywhere! But, how many of them can you recognise? LogosQuiz is a game full of fun that consists on guessing the names of hundreds of logos from different companies. To achieve this you have a lot of clues which you can use to help you complete the game. You can also ask your friends if you don’t know the answer! Challenge them to see who know more logos! At the moment there is only an app version of this game.
My selection is not any particular order and also it is not an extensive list of games for designers. Feel free to share other educational and fun games on my Facebook page!
Do you know of any brilliant creative games? I would love to hear about them, please get in touch to let me know!
If you enjoyed this post check out some of my other blog posts!
