The Lord of the Rings: Gollum | bLITE Club

I haven’t watched this video yet, but the fonts I’ve seen in some screenshots going around are downright terrifying. Hopefully Bakalar gets down to some real font freak critiques.

This game has no vibe. None whatsoever.

This is supposed to be a Blight Club on the GB gang but being introduced to Smooth Yoda makes me feel like I'M the one being Blighted.

didn't expect this to be such a prison simulator... had a chance to be Escape from Butcher Bay but with a real freak at the center of it

holy crap, i am bewildered by Bakalar and Alex Boniello's Gollum impresessions - if this game made anything worthwhile, that was it

is this a puzzle?

Lucy with an Alan Partridge reference just casually thrown in there. Top marks.

As expected, this game seems utterly atrocious.

We need a game like this to come around every so often to remind us of how good we have it.

Hey Mike! I don't have experience with working on typography in games, but I have a few educated guesses as to your concerns about current fonts in games.

The first being that they need to account for a broad range of resolutions and, now more than ever, account for legibility on smaller screens. The serifs on a font and other details in a font's design could get completely lost or interpreted in an undesirable way at certain scales or bit rates.

Another thing to consider is the licensing. Depending on the font, the licensing agreements and terms might make some options difficult to justify the pricing when compared to other fonts that are less expensive, free or designed expressly for electronic UI purposes.

Lastly, some teams might not consist of artists or designers that have enough experience to confidently make those choices for more unique typography. It's extremely important to convey the information for players, and sometimes a clean, simple sans serif font is an easier option than something with more ornate and unique qualities.

Not a slight at all against anyone making those calls or forced to make compromises in favor of a simpler or affordable solution. Teams have thousands of other tough challenges to sort, but I definitely believe that every game, movie, etc. deserves to have solid design choices that support the art.

Thank you for making an entertaining video about an un-entertaining looking game.

@typographenia: Pretty great points!

oh god that game

Wowzers.