For a certain individual, type is captivating, type is illuminating, type can even be seductive. Seldom, though, would even the most ardent font fan declare that type is exciting. This month, Parisian design network Arte Creative has put us all on notice: type can be exiting…if you pony up $3-$4 for their new iPhone/iPad and Android game “Type:Rider.”
Before you put on your “that’s nice, dear” face, know that this isn’t the usual poorly-thought-out smartphone amusement. In “Type:Rider”, you play a punctuational colon that travels through various worlds related to a particular font. For example, players can find themselves negotiating a ’20s cityscape (with nods to Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi film “Metropolis”), or learning about Gutenberg’s movable-type press while surrounded by Gothic architecture.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5diWSBhtMO0]
The game, which started life as a project at France’s Gobelins School of Applied Arts, Print and Digital Media, could also be coming to Facebook soon, says co-designer Théo Le Du Fuentes of Arte Creative. As he told FastCoDesign, “We’re not trying to teach people to be experts in type in ‘Type:Rider’, but I think it’s important to know that it is a complex art with a long history. Our hope is that after playing ‘Type:Rider’, players will choose their next font with a little more experience and knowledge than they would have before.”
If only it were that easy…
