Stay (Thesis)

“Stay” is a design research thesis on the applicability of typography as an expressive and connecting medium for dialog in 3D video games.

Based on the research established in Layers of Text / A Voice through Type I created “Stay” to break the devide between subtitle-styled dialog and the game world. I often find it disruptive if I need to switch between in-game action and the subtitles. Similiarly it can take you of a scene if you just get lost in the text, instead of taking in the whole environment. I tried to break this dichotomy by placing the text on a curved canvas inside the game world—as opposed to placing it on the UI layer. That way players were able to stay entrenched in the conversation while taking in the scenery at the same time. As an added layer of realism this setup simulates that one has to look at the person they are conversing with.

A short overview over the game can be found here, but there is also a more web documentation about the whole process.

Another aspect I explored in the thesis is the characterization through type. As already outlined in “A Voice through Type,” “Stay” mirrors the attitude of the characters in the typefaces—which were custom created for the game. But even if you can get a general idea of the personality of a character, it stays an issue that text-based games require the reader to interprete the tone of a conversation. In order to clarify the intend and voice of a sentence, I created a number of font variations. Those cover being angry, in thought, and silly. You can test them out in the beforementioned web documentation. I will, at some point, also make them available to download for free in the typeface section.

I also used the opportunity to print my documentation on our—back then—brand-new riso printer. A while ago I saw a book that had patterns printed on the inbetween pages—you know the ones you can’t really see. I thought this was super pretty, so I needed to try it for myself. I chose a japanese book binding technique to achive this look.

I’m overall happy with the result, but would change a few things. For example I recently learned that you should never use 100% color coverage for riso printing, if you don’t want the color to stick to your fingers. It also looks a bit too unnatural with the neon orange, but it undeniably adds a lot of coolness. So you win some, you lose some : )