Font HUNT

Font HUNT is a Japanese game made in collaboaration with a Japanese font foundry, Fontworks Co. Ltd. In the same way that European language fonts come in different designs (Times New Roman, Gill Sans) and different styles and weights (Gothic, Bold), many fonts are also designed for the Japanese alphabet Hiragana. Fontworks produced a popular commercial font called 筑紫 (Chikushi), which is then produced in various styles and weights.

The game uses a set of tiles which only show a single character あ (A). The tiles are all varied though, because of the variations in the different Chikushi fonts used.

The game Font HUNT comes in three different foil packs. A pack holds 12 tiles with 6 different fonts.

Each pack can be used for the basic game, and each pack has its own game variant. The basic FONTHUNT (フォントハント) game requires players to identify specific tiles by describing certain aspects of the font. "Huh? It sticks out here?" "A little thick here?" "A little bent?" "A little round!". Players can co-operate to try to discover which tile is being described, or have tiles in hand and try to have the other players work out which they hold. The game is intended to be more of an exasperating fun exploration of the nature of fonts, than a competitive challenge.

筑紫ゴシック 青 (Chikushi Gothic Blue) has a blue badge, and the game Font IMPRINT (フォントインプリント). 筑紫明朝 黄 (Chikushi Mincho Yellow) has a yellow badge, and the game Font TONE (フォントトーン). 筑紫書体MIX 緑 (Chikushi typeface MIX) has a green badge, and the game Font MIMIC (フォントミミック).

In Font IMPRINT, players conveys the impression of a font by using similies: "This A looks like Asaoka!" "This A looks like Amoeba!" In Font TONE, players have to imply the font by use of the tone of their voice. In Font MIMIC, players have to use hand and body gestures instead of words.

The packs are normally sold separately (quite cheaply), but the publisher has sold them at the Tokyo Game market in a bundle with a bonus set of new tiles. user summary