Another letter, more news! This week, I’ll be going through how I use Affinity software for font identification, and how I applied that to my upcoming solo game, I don’t know how, but they found me. Also, production on Godspark continues…we’re almost there!
Inside
GameFaceCon
Font identification
I don’t know how, but they found me
Godspark
Get Your Game Face On
M. Allen Hall will be a vendor at GameFaceCon in Baltimore, MD, next weekend! (March 9 and 10) We will have books and games of all kinds at our table. It sounds like it is going to be a packed house, so definitely swing by if you are in the area.
Font Identification
Have you ever opened up a PDF and looked at some header, subheader, or even body font and thought, “I’d love to use that in something I’m making.” So, you take a screenshot, drop it into an online font identification program, and you get…nothing. Well, that’s where I was after my sneak peak at the upcoming CY_BORG module from
:Instead of giving up here, let’s think about the source material. We have a PDF. That PDF knows the name of the fonts used in it. We just need to crack that nut open and get at those sweet font names. So, we turn to Affinity. In Affinity Publisher, go to File>Open, and select the PDF that you want to get into. You will be greeted with the following menu:
Now, if there are only a few fonts in the PDF, you might get all the information you need right at the bottom of this screen in the Missing Font box. But, if there are many fonts in the document (as is often the case) or if you already have the font installed (which is possible), this list will not be helpful. We need to focus on two things before we click Open.
Find a page with the font that you want to identify, and only load that page. It will make figuring out which of the Missing Fonts is the right one much easier.
Make sure “Replace missing fonts” is not checked. If it is, Affinity will skip past the next warning.
Go ahead and click Open. The document will open, and even though you did not check the Replace missing fonts box, the missing fonts have been replaced! With Helvetica (probably)! But, you get a warning.
The first hint of what fonts we need. Open the Font Manager to get more information.
Now, in this page, there are only a few fonts, but if it was not clear, you can select the font that you want to identify and then click Locate. This will highlight one instance of the font on the page, so you can be sure that is the one you wanted. If it’s a font you already have installed, it’s Status will be “OK,” and you can start using it. If you check the Paragraph or Character panels, you might also get some other info about font size, leading, kerning adjustments, etc. Great!
If the font that you wanted is Missing, you have some more work to do. Take that font name, drop it into Google, and hope that the foundry that produced the font has good enough SEO for it to appear in the search. For example, from these fonts, if you put Inconsolata Condensed into Google, the first result is the Google Fonts page for Inconsolata, which means it is free and safe to download.
If you put Aloraglyphs into Google, the first result is HINOKODO’s Fonts page on Itch.io. That’s perfect; working as intended. However, if we search for “hbioroid font,” we get nothing.
Literally. Nothing.
Now, if we really want that font, we need to know a little bit about small foundries and font designers. They will often put a special letter or combination of letters before the real name of their fonts (See: BN Scouts Hand above from Brandon Nickerson Studio). This is actually a really nice thing for them to do, as it allows the user to quickly find all of their BN fonts in the font menu, which is organized alphabetically by font name. Knowing this, we look at that name, “HBIOROID.” Drop the H, and we just have “BIOROID.” That could be a font name…pop it into Google…and the first result is the Legacy of Defeat BIOROID font page. Success!
Now, go out there, and find all of those weird fonts that you’ve always wanted to use but could never identify.
I don’t know how, but they found me
With Godspark work mostly complete (see below), I’ve had some time to write again. A discussion with a few other game designers about the possibility of using a D66 map turned into a game jam (coming to Itch.io soon). Godspark uses such a map, and the roll of the D66 determines the locations of the godfalls. I wanted to write another game where the player was rolling this D66 more frequently, so I set to work.
In IDKH,BTFM, you are on the run, and to hide, you crashed your spaceship into a junkyard next to an abandoned spaceport on an obscure planet. We don’t get much information about them, except that they have found you, and they are equipped with an endless supply of LOSAMs (Low-Orbit-to-Surface Atomic Missiles). Once the nukes start dropping on the map, the race is on to get your spaceship repaired before you either get nuked or get killed by the radiation.
Each round, you will have the chance to move across the map and scavenge parts for your ship. You need to visit all six zones of the map to repair all six systems in your ship. You also need to hope that you find some Fuel Pods, as these drive the Launch phase of the game.
After your moves, they have a chance to launch another nuke, and then the radiation that the nukes are creating spreads across the map. The more nukes that fall, the more hotspots of radiation are created, and the more hostile the map becomes. You will want to start the Launch phase of the game in a safe hex, because once you commit to launching, you cannot move any more, but the radiation will continue to spread.
The game plays quickly (anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes, depending on your luck with the LOSAM strikes). Follow my Itch.io page to be notified of the game’s release in the next week or so.
Godspark Update
We are almost there, folks! The order is placed! Thank you to everyone who has been filling out their surveys, I have over 85% of your information, and I’ll be able to start shipping as soon as I receive the prints. Everything else is packaged up and waiting to be shipped.
Once the shipments are in the mail, the Itch.io page will go live, and everybody will receive their download code for the game (if you added on the digital solo game bundle, you’ll receive those codes around this time as well).
If you have not filled out your survey yet, please do that, because I feel bad having your money and your game and not being able to give it to you. Once I receive the books, I will be sending a proper Kickstarter update, and I will start pinging people that have not filled out their survey.
Thank you!
Those are the big things going on for M. Allen Hall games right now. Thanks for reading!
—MAH