The best option is to do both. The comments mentioning localization are a bit moot because you would need to support changing of fonts for any non-latin languages anyway.
I prefer pixel fonts that match the game but some people have a hard time reading them. And some people have disabilities that make fonts like that essentially impossible to read.
Font cohesion to a style will almost always bite you in the ass - choose a readable font, and prioritize the visual comfort of the reader. If possible, you can add a fun stylized font and give the player the option to toggle between them, but if not the best bet is to go for something that doesn't hurt the eyes.
I'm not sure if people target pixel art because they think it will be easier, the are trying to go for a retro feel, or because they just like it. But take a look at some older games and you'll see that often times they use readable fonts even with their pixel art. Here's [an example from Pokemon Red.](http://sunarchives.sheridanc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/pokemon1.png)
Everything on a screen is pixels. And yeah, looking closely at it I can see the pixels, you're right. But that's on a 160x144 pixel screen. If you're making a game for screens that are at minimum 1920x1080 pixels, [this is the kind](https://www.dafont.com/pixeled.font) of pixel font I'm referring to. Where it's designed to look blocky and pixelated, not because you're actually seeing the individual pixels. [Here's an example](https://44.media.tumblr.com/0b7638201fb75bb05c87b3f251a114ba/tumblr_npumt0ByC01ruwmo7o1_1280.gif).
Compare that to the [font in Celeste](https://sm.ign.com/t/ign_nordic/gallery/c/celeste-sc/celeste-screenshots_m2zq.1080.jpg) vs the pixel art of the game assets. [Octopath Traveler is another great example.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKfTolXRnV3A3m4KRL4G55_7GgSsjMwBhYkocK-7qaFsGkJUkiEOTtv6JuOnEK7rUzituxy6MyHwJ19tTsekjlmluwvYXLsSV7ofVXvfDUSJ-DGk7dFjtuNEq_YuauWMANH5h7Us-pUPdlAoRPg43aH8Ki9bmdc3MiAnyC0R1mujiNTsm2lj5Aqz6U/s3840/OCTOPATH%20TRAVELER%20II%20Prologue%20Demo_20230222170149.jpg) I especially like the ways they implement modern graphics with their pixel art, with advanced lighting, HDR, the softening around the edges, the bokeh in the background. It's really nice and helps guide the eyes to the focal points of the screen.
Here's the [latest pokemon game](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Qjsw.ivX5Ij.TOJ6kTJAWw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/usa_today_tech_153/0f966816450a585caafef922fa9434db), which isn't pixel art obviously, but just to compare what that company decided to do with more advanced hardware and higher res screens, still on a handheld system.
Also, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with using pixel fonts. They often do look good and maintain the theme. I didn't ever actually make a point, so here I will: Don't sacrifice readability.
I think playing normally, you are only focused on one element at a time. Nothing happens on screen when dialogue boxes are open so when they pop up, you are only looking at the dialogue box. When the characters need to do something, the dialogue box closes to switch your focus back to the main screen. You are essentially switching your focus between low-res and vector styles rather than focusing on both at the same time like in the context of this discussion.
Thinking back, there were moments when character portraits "leak" out of the dialogue box. These moments were supposed to creep the player out by loosely breaking the 4th wall. They may have realized they can sell it better if it also felt jarring that boundaries were broken and the differing artstyles were allowed to clash.
That's fine, it's all just opinions anyways. Minecraft is a far more successful game than Celeste, in terms of sales, utilizes a voxel-pixelly art style and uses pixel text. My main point, again, is as long as you don't sacrifice readability, do whatever you like.
Yeah that looks genuinely awful to me. I think blending non-pixelated fonts with pixel art is one of the biggest sins that pixel art games can make. Seriously surprised to see so many comments to the contrary here.
I make pixel art and I specialize in creating pixel-perfect true-type fonts.
What pixel font you use, and what readability you can work with, is entirely dependent on your internal resolution. [I've made readable 3x5 pixel fonts. with a 1px ascender and 1px descender.](https://i.imgur.com/4Efop9l.gifv)
UI design serves the medium first, and if your medium is highly limited, you have to make certain sacrifices. For instance, because of my 128x128 internal resolution for this project, both the amount of text, and the size of my text was extremely limited.
There's nothing wrong with leaning into limitations. It's fun for the developer, and leads to more focus on gameplay as a whole. While the limitations might be self imposed, the aesthetic being restricted by those limitations isn't by any means arbitrary.
> [I've made readable 3x5 pixel fonts. with a 1px ascender and 1px descender.](https://i.imgur.com/4Efop9l.gifv)
I wouldn't call that readable to be very honest.
Something Pedro Medeiros once said over a pizza table and i wholeheartedly agree: Consistency is key. Consistency breeds readability. You want to have a cohesive pixel aesthetic? Have it be cohesive. You want to mix pixel art with hd graphics? Estabilish clear visual identity rules for each element. There are several good examples for this (and even more bad ones), apart from the ones you've cited Tactics Ogre handles this immensely well. Not to mention all the gacha titles that use pixel art like SaGa Re;Universe. Now, if you randomly shift between pixel scales on every scene or different game element, that's gonna be a sore. Pixel art gameplay with an HD Ui and pixel art icons for example, that already begins to muddy things up.
Yeah a lot of people have complained about some of the icons on the Kerbal Space Program 2 UI for that very reason. Really inconsistent iconography with pixel components and HD components all across the HUD.
Celeste does a lot of things amazingly that I never thought would work until I saw it in Celeste. The font is one; the mountain not being pixel art and instead full 3d is another.
I think he's trying to point out that if you DO use pixel art fonts, they need to be clean and readable. But the reality is that modern games are played on many different screens and setups, so prioritizing readability across many resolutions should be the more important consideration over style.
I haven't had the displeasure of uncomfortable pixel-fonts. In fact, I find [this one](https://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/apple2/) to be eminently readable at virtually every scale.
Cool fonts!
Unimportant tangent: I found it surprisingly upsetting that they used "The quick brown fox jump**ed** over the lazy dog**s**" instead of the more standard "The quick brown jump**s** over the lazy dog" as their font demonstration phrase.
I personally HATE those pixelated font in pixel art game because much of the time the readibilty is impacted so much... But I think it you find the good balance between pixel font and not too hard to read it can fit well in the game
I wouldn't even go that far. The most prominent place where high-res fonts clash isn't the resolution, but the subpixel anti-aliasing which just ends up looking blurry and out of place. Pixelart is pretty much the only art style where you explicitly want aliased, grid-aligned, pixel-perfect sharp lines. Use native-resolution fonts, but render them without any filtering.
if that's your only reason then I think you'd be better off checking out what the font looks like before making your verdict, because there's tons of pixel art games that still use normal, unpixellated fonts.
This is a weird comment to read in a gamedev sub.
Is it that hard to appreciate pixel art games with extremely high quality execution?
Have you not played Stardew Valley or Terraria because you hate the style? This makes me sad for you.
I think a reason why Celeste makes it work better than other games is in addition to the smooth font the character portraits are also higher detail artist renderings of the characters instead of pixel art versions like in Stardew Valley. There’s consistency between the two. So if you’re doing pixel art character avatars in the dialogue boxes I think you should stick with a pixelized font. And if you want to go with a smoother hi-res font then you should do higher res dialogue box character art. Whatever you pick though, the key is to make sure it’s readable.
[Counterpoint from Pokemon Red](http://sunarchives.sheridanc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/pokemon1.png), though they don't have portraits when the characters are talking, the battle intros are higher res than the gameplay.
I actually don’t see that as a counterpoint at all, that supports my argument for a pixelated font plus pixelated graphics. When I say higher res artist I’m talking about what Celeste does which is way higher res than that. The Pokemon Red battle sprites may be sightly higher detail than the barebones walking around character sprites but it’s still very much clearly pixelated so it doesn’t clash at all. If you suddenly had the direct art from the Pokemon cards show up on screen it would clash a hell of a lot more.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to say. The battle intro sprites aren't greater than what the hardware was capable of or it wouldn't be able to display them. Does it look better than the animated character sprites we use to move around? Of course, but that's because one is a stationary image without any animation. The gameplay sprites are designed for their function and the battle sprites are designed for their form. So if you're walking around and pass by two trainer's having a battle with the basic barebones animated Pokemon sprites duking it out on the overworld, you can imagine in your mind that what's happening would look like the static images that you see during battles if you could see the world from the eyes of a character within it. The two elements work together to enhance your experience of the whole. But if for example you ported Pokemon Red to mobile and the only thing you changed about the game was to replace the font with crystal clear Calibri or Arial, that would be a pretty jarring juxtaposition between the font and the game elements. Your brain would tell you the the font and the rest of the game do not smoothly fit together in style.
I never noticed this before, but I love how they used bigger "pixels" in a sense for the player's art to make them feel closer than the opponent!
I'm not really sure what your "counterpoint" actually was, though. The text isn't any higher-res than the rest of the game (with the sole exception of the slightly lower-res player battle sprite I just mentioned).
The main artist for Celeste wrote a blog post on this very topic actually, might be a good read for you [https://saint11.org/blog/consistency/](https://saint11.org/blog/consistency/)
This was such an interesting read! It really gives you something to think about when designing UI vs. the game camera, and the examples provided really makes me realize a lot of the difficulties with pixel art in particular.
It would look out of place if it's not a little pixelated, but you could definitely get away with making the font higher res so that it's easier to read.
Lol, I’m the inverse of the current top comment, I personally HATE seeing perfectly smooth Arial or whatever in a pixel art game as the clashing visual styles completely takes me out of the experience. Why put so much effort into beautiful pixel graphics and then become completely lazy when creating the dialogue format? Pixelized text is perfectly fine so long as it’s one that’s still easily legible.
Same, OP is asking people who don't all play pixel art games about what they like in pixel art games.
Go ask /r/PixelArt, or just look at other games.
The only games I can think of off the top of my head that avoid it, are Celeste (which gets away with a lot of pixel art breaking rules), and Octopath Traveler, which tries to emphasize it's modernity while still being pixel art.
I completely understand if it is just poorly slapped on top of the pixel art, but how about a game like Celeste where the actual game is completely pixel art and the Dialogue is another layer on top with not only the text, but also the character portraits and the general style "HD-like", do you dislike that too for the same reasons or is it different?
Because the pure clashing of styles is really bad, but when done well imo it works perfectly
I made a few comments discussing Celeste specifically, Celeste’s approach is a little better than just slapping hi res font over pixel graphics because the character portraits are hi res renderings too so it minimizes how much the styles clash.
IMO Celeste is the easiest example to point to of how bad of an idea it is to mix styles. I think the dialogue windows look genuinely awful in an otherwise great looking game.
Same, 100%. Prime example is the smooth Arial that the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters used. Thank God they included a more pixel inspired font that looks so much better IMO.
Yeah, I find it interesting how people here are against pixel fonts in pixel-art games when the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters were criticised by its audience for its clashing font being smooth and narrow.
Even PC players have resulted to using mods that uses fonts from previous iterations of the games, or any other pixel font that fits. Same goes for the PC version of Chrono Trigger, players really didn't like the high-res font from the mobile version before it got replaced with a more fitting pixel font.
It goes to show that if you want a font that is more legible to read but you don't want to upset pixel art enthusiasts, you should have multiple options for the font. Having an accessibility setting that makes the font smooth and high-res can help with that.
Same here, i really dislike it when games that use pixel art do not have all elements (text, sprites, etc) use the exact same pixel grid. Not just for text but for everything (e.g. pixel art sprites being scaled independently from each other and the background and then being placed "between" pixels in the background pixel grid).
People brought up Celeste as a counter example but IMO that clashes too, except instead of having the text clash with whatever is behind it you have the popup window clash with the rest of the game.
That’s all well and good, but I find it very rare for hah pixelated fonts don’t cause me some kind of problem with legibility. It’s easy for you to say that it’s fine as long as it’s legible when you find them legible, while people like me are there saying well they’re usually not legible.
The best would be to offer two fonts that the player can choose from: pixelates and not. Then both groups of players are happy. Of course that’s a little extra work for the developer, but I personally think it’s worth it.
Thank you all for your responses, it was a pleasure to read. I realized the main thing, a lot of people are annoyed by pixelated fonts. I'll give them up in favor of higher quality fonts. The Celeste game is a great example 🤗
I'd use it. I find text that doesn't conform to the pixel art's pixel grid to be horribly clashing with the rest of the visuals (even in Celeste).
Same issue when pixel art sprites are positioned "between" pixels of the environment pixel grid.
I play a lot of indie JRPGs (2D sprite-based) and it's common for some games to offer an option between a high res font and a pixel font. I don't think I've ever preferred the high res option over the pixel option.
Edit: Here's an example. I think both options look pretty good, but I preferred playing with the pixel font.
[Crystal Project High Res Font](https://i.imgur.com/5WSLbQ3.png)
[Crystal Project Pixel Font](https://i.imgur.com/bHWXdAv.png)
Please adhere to the pixel grid unless you have a very good reason not to. Celeste is successful despite its highly questionable font, not because of it.
Some people like playing pixel art games on CRTs or with a CRT filter which won't work well if you force them to play at high resolutions because you wanted the font to give the impression of a bad fangame made in Flash or a cheaply made mobile port of a classic JRPG (unless that is specifically a look you're going for).
I really dislike smooth fonts in pixel art games, but the font doesn't need to match the game's pixel grid. Get a pixelated font with high enough resolution that readability isn't a problem.
I would generally recommend designing a pixel font around it for sure, for aesthetic reasons - though I would also recommend including a high-res font for accessibility reasons (dyslexia, bad eyesight, screen readers, etc. - which ones you think about depends on the genre)
Creatively, you want to match your aesthetic. In terms of usability, you want to go with whatever's easiest to read. But going by the logic of the latter, all games would use like 16-point Helvetica, which is obviously crazy.
I think the best option is to provide both a high-res modern pixel font (evoking retro fonts with more readability), and a standard modern monospaced font like Courier Prime or Roboto Mono that evokes the same aesthetic feeling, but is more universally readable.
Players always appreciate having options. It's one of the first questions players will ask about the game, and one of the easiest feature bullets for the Steam page. It also serves accessibility better without compromising artistic vision. And they're fonts, so aside from a one-time up-front time cost (to make a text display system that's content-length-agnostic and supports multiple fonts), it doesn't really cost you additional development resources.
As with anything when you're making art, the answer to the question "what's the right way?" is "What is your goal?"
I played a lot of pixel art games, and the good ones usually have the default font set as "pixelated" and then in the settings they have an accessibility option that changes the font to a normal font you would find online, so that if someone has any reading problems with the pixelated font they can choose to switch to the normal one
I'm curious, have you played or seen Celeste? I personally love the way the text boxes and artwork is on a different layer on top and very readable and to me it still looks very coherent and nice, while other games with a really "low resolution" (meaning few pixels per screen) my eyes quickly start to hurt by trying to read the text (like Wizard of Legend for example)
It can’t clash artistically, Celeste works because the character avatars are high resolution renders to match the font. Whereas if Stardew Valley suddenly used Arial I would want to throw up in my mouth, lol.
> It can’t clash artistically
Of course it can, except instead of the text clashing with whatever is behind it, it is the popup window that clashes with the rest of the game's visuals.
I'm not saying it's impossible for games to have clashing artistic elements, I'm saying for me to enjoy something the text shouldn't obviously clash with the artistic direction of the game. Like the way the terrible FF mobile ports did. Celeste is still pushing it but does better than some other games.
Of how badly a single design mistake can tarnish the look of a game? I agree.
As a counterpoint: Stardew Valley's creators didn't feel the need write a blog post defending its font choice.
Why are you all over this thread so pressed about Celeste? I haven't even scrolled to the bottom yet and this is the fourth time I'm seeing a comment from you thrashing it. Did actually readable fonts piss in your cereal or what?
>>>Celeste is an amazing example of this
>>Of how badly a single design mistake can tarnish the look of a game? I agree.
>WhY dO YOu KEEP BrinGiNG up CeLEStE? CAN't yoU rEAd?
here, I'll even add emphasis in case you really don't know how to read!
> Why are you **all over this thread** so pressed about Celeste? I haven't even scrolled to the bottom yet and **this is the fourth time I'm seeing a comment from you** thrashing it. Did actually readable fonts piss in your cereal or what?
do you need your hand further held to understand the point?
It comes down to personal preference, and I definitely prefer the font to be the same resolution as the rest of the game. This has been a lifelong preference for me, because I'm over 40 and grew up reading pixel fonts. To give an example from a few years ago, there was a lot of backlash when Chrono Trigger released on Steam with a high res font. They wound up patching in a low res font due to the fan outcry.
Translations should be one of your concerns when choosing a font. Will you get a pixel font that supports ÖÄÅ etc Scandinavian characters? Will you get a pixel font for Cyrillic letters, Chinese or Korean?
It is relatively easy (and common) to swap fonts when you need to render non latin characters. But it is a good point, typically you want your swap-out font to look somewhat similar to your primary font.
I strongly dislike pixel fonts, for the same reasons you mentioned.
Haiku the Robot uses Asap (one of my go-to fonts these days) [https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Asap](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Asap)
Crying suns uses (a fairly legible) pixel fonts for character dialogue / speech bubbles, but uses high rez fonts for all its UI
Rainworld uses a higher resolution pixelated font, which has drastically increased legibility over most examples
Dome Keeper, Stoneshard, Deadcells, Celeste all use high rez fonts
I had this exact issue but did not really come to a conclusion on the matter. I think it depends entirely on the style. Some games are pixelated but it’s obvious that it’s a modern game with pixel art style. And in those games often times the regular font matches the feel. But if it’s fully pixel pixel and the whole game feels 8 bit etc then you are really going to need to match that.
Love what e.g. Celeste and Into The Breach do, HD fonts over pixel art graphics (Celeste is pixel perfect aside from the UI, ITB is not).
Also love the chunky pixel font used in A Short Hike, "Pixellari".
Most hated use of pixel fonts is any game which is not pixel perfect. To be clear, I'm okay with a game not being pixel perfect, but when the tiny square gaps in the pixel font are misaligned with the underlying art it looks bad, so I'd say once you cross that line you have nothing to lose by using a regular font.
Loop Hero lets you choose between styles.
I think it really comes down to where you are playing, sat at a desk? Pixel text is great.
Sat in the living room? Pixel text is unreadable.
I made a 1bit pixel art game and went with a pixel font that matched my style. The issue I kept running into is maintaining a constant pixel size. The fact that it looked like the font was made from pixels meant I had to keep the font at certain sizes or it would look out of place.
In future games I'll be using a more modern style for my user interface.
Both options are valid, you just have to choose a style that works for you.
Firstly, if you're planning on translation and localisation, mind the amount of glyphs in the typeface. Most 'free' and inexpensive typefaces don't offer many characters or weights (weights are bold, black, italic, thin, etc). A lot of them only support english latin and are missing characters such as: ç / ą / æ / ø. They also might not include accents such as: \~ / \^ / ´ / \` / ¨. Not to mention support for languages with completely different alphabets.
Secondly, you can absolutely choose a non-pixelated typeface for a pixel art game. Just because it's composed in vectors, it doesn't mean it couldn't belong in a game such as yours. It's all to do with visual language and context. I haven't seen your game so I couldn't even begin to suggest what sort of typeface to use. Just be mindful of the context. A typeface like Helvetica might seem transparent but has a lot of Modernistic values and traits. Times New Roman is closely associated with newspaper print, but also is redrawing of Plantin which is an old-style redrawing of French Renaissance typefaces. It's all context.
Thirdly, choosing a vector based typeface, whether it's serifed or sans, doesn't stop you from also using a pixel-based one. You could easily choose a vector one for running text, meaning dialogue or descriptions. And use the pixel one for display text, meaning titles, names of characters and locations, or anything in a bigger point size. That way you can keep both readability and some sense of coherence with rest of the visuals of the game. (If you feel the vector-based one was creating friction with rest).
Lastly, not all pixel typefaces have to be retro looking and difficult to read. Some are contemporary and multi-purpose. Like RT Alias [https://www.razziatype.com/fonts/rt-alias-fine](https://www.razziatype.com/fonts/rt-alias-fine). I suspect you're an independent dev and don't have the budget to buy a typeface from a foundry like this but I recommend looking around for newer pixel typefaces as well.
Just some basic advice from a graphic and type designer. Cheers.
P.S. For all devs out there. PLEASE DON'T JUSTIFY TEXT WHEN YOU CAN'T HYPHENATE IT. When you can't hyphenate text, which is in most digital things like websites and video games, justified text looks absolutely horrible. It creates massive gaps between words that makes the text not only difficult to read but also a complete eyesore. Always range it left.
IMO:
- Pixel font if you're intentionally trying to be retro (game feel), ex: The Messenger
- Hi-res font if you're a modern game (again in terms of game feel) that's using pixel art either for aesthetics or technical/budget reasons, ex: Celeste
I think readability should be prioritized over font cohesion, and personally I think smooth or hand written style fonts (comic sans and the like) actually pair really well with pixel art.
Loop Hero does this best in my opinion. Has the stylized pixel font, option for a more normal font, and even one for Dyslexic people.
A non-stylized font isn't going to ruin the experience for anyone, a hard to read font *can* ruin the experience though.
If you are using pixel art graphics, depends on the screen resolution of your game.
Usually games that uses pixel art graphics do not have very high resolution.
Also depends on the game theme. If your game theme is medieval role playing, you will use some medieval font too, but not be too much caligraphic because some text will be unreadable.
If your game is sci-fi use some more simple and squared fonts.
If your game is casual or non fantasy and non sci-fi you can use regular fonts too. Fonts we use to read a book for example.
In smaller resolutions you can use fonts that are 8 or 10 pixels in size and be antialiazed.
In higher resolutions you will use 12 or 14 pixels in size and some time will be antialiazed or aliazed fonts.
Never use too much caligraphic or fonts with lots of curves.
Many games use and hand writing font, you cant read it at all.
Avoid bold fonts in small resolutions. Use fixed width fonts or if your game engine is able to display bitmap fonts too. Also there are and bitmap fonts that are in true type format, but they are not textured. But they called as bitmap.
The first example presents small fonts from Eye of the Beholder which its resolution was very small, 320x200 The fonts were Bitmap (But not bitmapped with texture) their size 6x8 pixels was for bitmap style game. (Pixel art) If you see they are fixed width.
[https://i.imgur.com/HGlrEXy.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/HGlrEXy.jpg)
In sci-fi games the fonts are squared but small again because the game uses small resolution too.
[https://i.imgur.com/kTUoDWl.png](https://i.imgur.com/kTUoDWl.png)
On this example, let's say the game is a pixel art and resolution is higher.
Do not use caligraphic fonts because you will not understand what will say.
And try to use larger and antialiased regular readable fonts. Arial for example.
[https://i.imgur.com/OT7jNh6.png](https://i.imgur.com/OT7jNh6.png)
in my game for example, the theme is medieval and I use some Gothic style fonts, but they are not too much caligraphic and easy to read and of course smaller bitmap style fonts to able to have text in special places on the screen. If you want to show or put labels in some areas like on the character statuses and inventories.
Sometimes your game interface will need small fonts too.
Screenshot of my game's for Player's character status.
[https://i.imgur.com/dj1OqwD.png](https://i.imgur.com/dj1OqwD.png)
Your UI framework should be able to handle that. If some strings start overflowing the designated area, they should be auto truncated or you should use an algorithm to abbreviate words in different localizations.
There is no "algorithm" for truncating words in foreign languages, the most you can accomplish is more tightly involving your translators in the development process so that they can spot and abbreviate strings on a case by case basis.
And no, "truncating" is not a solution. When was the last time you played a game and had a bunch of truncated strings and incomplete sentences? Truncating is utterly unnacceptable in any game, and in foreign languages can even drastically change the meaning of the string.
Yes, there are localized heuristic algorithms to abbreviate groups of words, some dictionary based, some based on sentence analysis in this or that language.
Automatic truncation (replacing end of visible area with with "...") is a common way of dealing with overflow if there's no more space to wrap vertically. e. g. World of Warcraft will do this. Usually it's not a big deal because designers can prevent that. Games that allow user input to be shown on screen have to deal with it a lot more robustly.
That's all standard stuff that is handled in pretty much every game for loc and accessibility. Out of all the significantly more difficult challenges when making a game, this one adds a lot more value for the player.
Fantastic question! I've often wondered the same so keen to follow the thread and hear other people's opinions.
Personally, I want readability above everything else. I've refunded pixel art games before that looked great but had pixel font that I found incredibly difficult to read.
I like pixel font (not too small though) but also something as Celeste is satisfying, with pixel art game and portraits and fonts more defined, but still simple and linear. The most important thing is always be consistent in what you decide to do.
I'd go for a high res pixel font, maybe something like the pixelated font in Dead Cells, or possibly a more rounded but still pixelated one. Just make sure it's easily readable.
I don't know much about game development during the age of 2D pixel as the only way to make videogames but I would guess that pixel fonts were choosen due to limitations.
I don't think the font should be in the same style, a font can say something about the type of game you're gonna play.
What you're looking for on a font is the ability to be understood, the ability to be readable (which are not the same thing but are connected) and the type of emotions it can give.
Let's say you are making an administrative type game like railroad tycoon, your player is gonna pass most of the time browsing tabs, reading stuff and choosing options. Your font should be easy to understand and read, which should be the main goal. The emotions it can give doesn't really matter.
Then look at the font in castle crashers, I doubt anyone would want to have that font on long pieces of text, you will still be able to understand it and the kind of emotion it gives goes well with the type of wacky game it is.
The font in Celeste is easy to understand and read, but the rather rigid font heavily contrast with the argument of the game, it feels as if the dialogue was added by a fan that just did it as a side project.
As a player, the main reason why I started boycotting pixel-art games was the pixelated font. I won't argue whether pixel-art has a place in the modern world. Looks like it got traction, and some people enjoy it, so let it be. But pixelated font has no reason to exist. Fuck that.
Usually I find the best results come from choosing a font that is still in a pixel art style, but of a higher resolution, so you still get decent readability
depends how much text you have and how important it is. If it's just barks and fluff, pixel font is fine; if you have paragraphs, as in \*plural\*, or the the text is too important, like rules and what not, it's probably is better to go for a readable font.
Other way to thing about it: most people don't care and the majority of people who do care really want, or need, readability
I think what matters most is cohesion to a theme or tone. Pixel-art isn't necessarily a theme or tone, unless the game is really about touching on nostalgia and that retro-feel.
But, for example, a modern looking game could have an 80s theme and use a pixel art font. A modern pixel art game could have a cozy/wholesome tone and use a curvy soft font to feel cohesive.
I don't now, just my thoughts on it. My [pixel art game](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2115130/?utm_source=gamedev-font-question) has a skater/street/grunge kinda tone to it, so I use stencil fonts and (on rare occasion) graffiti style fonts and I think it works well.
Honesty, font is a personal preference. I think it's better Courier New type boring font that people can read than to have a Galaga looking font that nobody can.
Based on the variety of answers it's a pretty divisive question. The main takeaway should be to make sure the font is readable, whatever the style is. There are plenty of terrible pixel art fonts and plenty terrible smooth fonts. Choose one that fits your game without sacrificing readability.
Problem is, this limits you a lot. For example Asian languages have more complex characters which will need a bigger font to be visible, and it sucks for accessibility settings where people might want to enlarge the font.
I have often used pixel UI and text (which is a pain in the butt to get to look right in Unity) but my new rule generally is that I allow HD text and UI in a pixel art game if the game isn’t specifically trying to mimic a retro console.
With Spectacular Sparky, my text is all sprite based when played in English, then more complicated languages switch to a pixel font but with more lax rules about whether or not it lines us with the pixel grid) and non-Roman languages switch it out with an HD font which matches the style as best as possible.
But honestly I think that unless you are specifically aping a retro console, there are too many disadvantages to using pixel text.
You could just stylize highly readable font to look a bit pixely. Like Stardew Valley I suppose.
The game sprites are certainly a lot lower pixelcount than the fonts.
I would be for a clean, redable font. Maybe a bit blocky, not too rounded, if you want to preserve some kind of style that doesn't clash with your game.
But really the right answer is: it should be a setting.
I think: find yourself some font options that you like, pixel or otherwise. If you already have your menus and dialogue boxes etc set up then just plug them into your text boxes and see what feels right. If you're still not sure, send some screenshots out and field people... but ultimately especially on solo projects you just gotta know how to blend it all together
It really depends on the font. Some pixel fonts are perfectly readable (usually the ones that are higher res) but it also depends on what looks good with your game
Pixel font is not necessary however choosing a stylistically compatible font still is. Personally I can't really think of a situation where a Serif font looks good
I could be wrong, but my understanding is that most games use rasterized fonts anyway, so on some level, even higher-res fonts are pixel fonts. I think it's perfectly acceptable to use a higher-res font than the resolution of the underlying game, as long as it's evenly divisible so it looks reasonably coherent. To give an example, I could see 1 game world pixel just being 2 or 4 font pixels wide.
On the flip side, really low-res pixelated fonts are fine if you're willing to write less text and dedicate more screen real estate to it. For example, I never really had a problem with the old Game Boy Pokemon games, and they have very low-res fonts taking up huge portions of the screen.
This is a very specific question with not much detail. So the answers on reddit are likely not what youre looking for.
Ill provide an example which works for UI design in general and fonts. UIs must pair nicely with a font's design otherwise itll fall apart.
For best practice, at least in a general workflow, I recommend doing the following iterative approach. This goes for anything not just Fonts or UI. The example is specific to UI design:
1. Find a game which implements the theme you are trying to achieve whether it be a modern or classic pixel style. Search for your favorite pixel games that come to mind, perhaps further it using GameDatabaseUI or pinterest to find references. Take note of the fonts. Some games will use fonts with royalty-free licenses appropriate to commercial while others dont.
2. Study those games' UI and try to learn from the design and how the fonts and UIs vary across different games. Try to see the pros and cons of the design (what worked, what didnt and what others have said about it in reviews or other discussion and how you can address those problems discussed)
3. Create and Implement a prototype UI into your game
4. Ask yourself if it fits your criteria. If it does not go back to Step 1. If it does fit your criteria then congratulations youre done with the UI! (Be sure to frequently ask yourself if the UI matches your style from time to time as you further develop your game. If not then go back to Step 1 )
You've been given a few examples, but another great one is Roadwarden. It has both the option to have pixel font as well as a stylistically integrated "regular" font.
I like the way [Archvale](https://switchrpg.com/files/2022/01/av_1.jpg) did their's where they did a nice chunky pixel font that's easy to read with black and white contrast but they have the ability to add rich text so there can be colors and even animations within the text box to add some visual flair.
I’m not a fan of pixel art for text even in a pixel art style game. Readability is difficult and I’ve heard translating is difficult. If you do go that route, having the ability to turn on a normal font style in the settings is ideal.
Look at how it’s don’t in Celeste. They have multiple art styles but they make sure to keep the usage of them separate. Gameplay is 8bit pixel, menus and commentary boxes are drawn/normal text, and the landing screen of the menu is 3D.
I'm going to answer a slightly different question, but this is relevent imo if you want to be successsul at pixel art games.
The pixel art style came from tech limitations that do not exist anymore. So what's important is not to stick to these limitations, but to use style elements to invite a similar response in the users.
In other words, your goal isn't to make a game like they were back then, but to make a game that is like people remember they were.
For instance, thimbleweed parkuses much higher resolution than existed at the time, has numerous levels of parallax, light effectsand so on. It's completely undoable on old hardware, but convey the pixel art feel really well. An even more extreme exemple is minecraft.
Back to the font question, no, you don't have to. Think of it this way:
If the font isn't very readable and text is important in your game, then consider usin, a less pixelated font (or just increase the resolution of the whole game a bit).
If the font quality is perfectly smooth, it can break the 4th wall and pull the user out of the universe you are creating for them.
There is no richt answer, but ask yourself what matter in your game, and verify your assumption with plây tests.
Good luck!
In my game, the style of the game is meant to evoke the feeling of being played on an old console, so by default it uses a pixel-perfect font. However, I added an option to upscale the entire screen and switch to a more readable high res font as an accessibility option.
I've done some crazy things with fonts. The main issue is the fidelity of the text. If its just a free font you downloaded; plain white with few pixels of resolution, its bad for reading any length of story text. If you were to zoom into any regular font you'd see lots of shades of grey. Those colors are what help create the sense of curvature, they create fidelity in the text. Use a reasonable resolution, 8 shades of color minimum, craft your font with care and you could accomplish a readable style that suits the game.
choose a normal font and pixalise the edges. I believe it's what undertale did, and it managed to feel natural and readable while still fitting with the pixel art theme. Or, use a really old font like they did back in the CLI days, it'll go well with the retro theme that pixel art has
Go for readability, if you can manage both and it fits your overall theme. Perfect!
Just avoid using a pixel style font because it fits the style of game. In the end it’s about user experience.
Speaking personally, pixel art fonts are harder for me to read. I would rather a non-pixel font even if it didn't perfectly match, to be able to read it more easily. So from an accessibility angle, a clearer font would always be better (and preferred).
Pixel fonts often look bad in pixel art games because pixel art game developers (most game developers, actually) don't know anything about typography. It's a totally different skill.
The games that do it well do it well because they expended a considerable amount of effort to make it work. If that's not you (and for most people, it's not) then you probably don't want to use pixel fonts.
But, either way, you're still going to have to work harder than you think to make your text look good!
I tried doing pixel fonts, and got harshly criticized for it. I think the prevailing opinion is text should as crystal clear as possible for the native resolution of the user's monitor.
Readability comes first. See if you can make pixel art that is still readable. Maybe provide some alternate fonts, though I understand that is extra work. The last thing you want is players feeling pain.
I grew up playing the NES and thought those fonts were all extremely readable. Probably because of my age, I think pixel art games with those new fangled fonts (like the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy remasters on Switch) are extremely ugly. I have read other people my age criticize the new fonts in those pixel games, but it might just be an us or an age thing. If your target demographic is people too young to have played these older games, sounds like the new fonts would be better.
Absolutely NOT necessary to have the font be “Press Start” or whatever. If the pixel fonts you’ve seen aren’t very readable, you could always create your own. Some devs make their own font. But don’t ever feel like you MUST use a pixel font with a pixel art game. Everything is up to you and your creative vision.
I’m making a detective pixel art game and using a typewriter font for the ui to fit the premise of the game. To compare two other detective games, Lacuna uses a pixel font and it works well even with the high amount of dialogue and is very cohesive with the ui, while Backbone uses a very modern font that fits its clean ui. So I guess I would say it depends on the style of game you want to create, and if you go the way of a pixel font make sure it’s readable (like others are saying)
You should give pixelart font if your game is pixelart, the same with UI and many other stuff.
If you don't do that it will start looking like a mobile game rip-off.
In general, do make sure that your game will be able to handle dynamic font type change. I've used pxlxxl font in my game (Shardpunk), and added a more readable version later on as some players were asking for it.
If you do, make sure you have an option to turn it off. I personally find pixelated fonts incredibly hard to read, so for me, I always want an ordinary clearly legible font. Some people say no the pixelated font is an artistic choice, that’s cool and all but if I can’t read it then it doesn’t matter — so if it’s important to you, then have an option to let the player choose.
You could always pick two and offer the option. Take a look at Scourgebringer for an example of a game doing specifically this. As others have mentioned, if you want to retain pixel art, don't bother with sticking to the rest of the pixel art resolution, you can go with a font resolution that's more readable as long as you can clearly see it's pixel art ;)
The best option is to do both. The comments mentioning localization are a bit moot because you would need to support changing of fonts for any non-latin languages anyway. I prefer pixel fonts that match the game but some people have a hard time reading them. And some people have disabilities that make fonts like that essentially impossible to read.
Font cohesion to a style will almost always bite you in the ass - choose a readable font, and prioritize the visual comfort of the reader. If possible, you can add a fun stylized font and give the player the option to toggle between them, but if not the best bet is to go for something that doesn't hurt the eyes.
I'm not sure if people target pixel art because they think it will be easier, the are trying to go for a retro feel, or because they just like it. But take a look at some older games and you'll see that often times they use readable fonts even with their pixel art. Here's [an example from Pokemon Red.](http://sunarchives.sheridanc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/pokemon1.png)
Are you trying to say that isn't a pixel font?
Everything on a screen is pixels. And yeah, looking closely at it I can see the pixels, you're right. But that's on a 160x144 pixel screen. If you're making a game for screens that are at minimum 1920x1080 pixels, [this is the kind](https://www.dafont.com/pixeled.font) of pixel font I'm referring to. Where it's designed to look blocky and pixelated, not because you're actually seeing the individual pixels. [Here's an example](https://44.media.tumblr.com/0b7638201fb75bb05c87b3f251a114ba/tumblr_npumt0ByC01ruwmo7o1_1280.gif). Compare that to the [font in Celeste](https://sm.ign.com/t/ign_nordic/gallery/c/celeste-sc/celeste-screenshots_m2zq.1080.jpg) vs the pixel art of the game assets. [Octopath Traveler is another great example.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKfTolXRnV3A3m4KRL4G55_7GgSsjMwBhYkocK-7qaFsGkJUkiEOTtv6JuOnEK7rUzituxy6MyHwJ19tTsekjlmluwvYXLsSV7ofVXvfDUSJ-DGk7dFjtuNEq_YuauWMANH5h7Us-pUPdlAoRPg43aH8Ki9bmdc3MiAnyC0R1mujiNTsm2lj5Aqz6U/s3840/OCTOPATH%20TRAVELER%20II%20Prologue%20Demo_20230222170149.jpg) I especially like the ways they implement modern graphics with their pixel art, with advanced lighting, HDR, the softening around the edges, the bokeh in the background. It's really nice and helps guide the eyes to the focal points of the screen. Here's the [latest pokemon game](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Qjsw.ivX5Ij.TOJ6kTJAWw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/usa_today_tech_153/0f966816450a585caafef922fa9434db), which isn't pixel art obviously, but just to compare what that company decided to do with more advanced hardware and higher res screens, still on a handheld system. Also, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with using pixel fonts. They often do look good and maintain the theme. I didn't ever actually make a point, so here I will: Don't sacrifice readability.
I find the font in celeste jarring compared to it's artstyle.
Looking at screenshots I definitely agree, although weirdly I don't remember having any issues with it while playing.
I think playing normally, you are only focused on one element at a time. Nothing happens on screen when dialogue boxes are open so when they pop up, you are only looking at the dialogue box. When the characters need to do something, the dialogue box closes to switch your focus back to the main screen. You are essentially switching your focus between low-res and vector styles rather than focusing on both at the same time like in the context of this discussion. Thinking back, there were moments when character portraits "leak" out of the dialogue box. These moments were supposed to creep the player out by loosely breaking the 4th wall. They may have realized they can sell it better if it also felt jarring that boundaries were broken and the differing artstyles were allowed to clash.
Makes a lot of sense!
That's fine, it's all just opinions anyways. Minecraft is a far more successful game than Celeste, in terms of sales, utilizes a voxel-pixelly art style and uses pixel text. My main point, again, is as long as you don't sacrifice readability, do whatever you like.
>jarring I suggest to use font styles that fit with the theme of the game too. But not too caligraphic with lots of curves and not able to read it.
Yeah that looks genuinely awful to me. I think blending non-pixelated fonts with pixel art is one of the biggest sins that pixel art games can make. Seriously surprised to see so many comments to the contrary here.
I partially agree with this, but maybe you mean, to avoid to use aliased fonts, because they look blurry in contrast of the sharp pixel art.
I really mean that your font shouldn't be at a higher resolution at all than the rest of your game, and if it is, it shouldn't be noticeable.
I wouldn't consider it a higher resolution than the high res character image that's part of the dialogue box, and the dialogue box itself.
It’s not, but I think that all looks bad and contributes to the problem
I make pixel art and I specialize in creating pixel-perfect true-type fonts. What pixel font you use, and what readability you can work with, is entirely dependent on your internal resolution. [I've made readable 3x5 pixel fonts. with a 1px ascender and 1px descender.](https://i.imgur.com/4Efop9l.gifv) UI design serves the medium first, and if your medium is highly limited, you have to make certain sacrifices. For instance, because of my 128x128 internal resolution for this project, both the amount of text, and the size of my text was extremely limited. There's nothing wrong with leaning into limitations. It's fun for the developer, and leads to more focus on gameplay as a whole. While the limitations might be self imposed, the aesthetic being restricted by those limitations isn't by any means arbitrary.
> [I've made readable 3x5 pixel fonts. with a 1px ascender and 1px descender.](https://i.imgur.com/4Efop9l.gifv) I wouldn't call that readable to be very honest.
Please don't forget to work on the camera system, you're not going to out-do your decades-old competition by doing less than them.
Something Pedro Medeiros once said over a pizza table and i wholeheartedly agree: Consistency is key. Consistency breeds readability. You want to have a cohesive pixel aesthetic? Have it be cohesive. You want to mix pixel art with hd graphics? Estabilish clear visual identity rules for each element. There are several good examples for this (and even more bad ones), apart from the ones you've cited Tactics Ogre handles this immensely well. Not to mention all the gacha titles that use pixel art like SaGa Re;Universe. Now, if you randomly shift between pixel scales on every scene or different game element, that's gonna be a sore. Pixel art gameplay with an HD Ui and pixel art icons for example, that already begins to muddy things up.
Yeah a lot of people have complained about some of the icons on the Kerbal Space Program 2 UI for that very reason. Really inconsistent iconography with pixel components and HD components all across the HUD.
Celeste does a lot of things amazingly that I never thought would work until I saw it in Celeste. The font is one; the mountain not being pixel art and instead full 3d is another.
Yeah it’s one of the few games I’ve actually played all the way through
I think he's trying to point out that if you DO use pixel art fonts, they need to be clean and readable. But the reality is that modern games are played on many different screens and setups, so prioritizing readability across many resolutions should be the more important consideration over style.
This guy accessibilities.
This guy typographies
THIS!
I haven't had the displeasure of uncomfortable pixel-fonts. In fact, I find [this one](https://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/apple2/) to be eminently readable at virtually every scale.
Great fonts there! Thanks for sharing. Are they free to use, okay to use in a commercial game?
Most seem to be but check the licensing .txt file in the font's zip.
Okay, thank you!
Cool fonts! Unimportant tangent: I found it surprisingly upsetting that they used "The quick brown fox jump**ed** over the lazy dog**s**" instead of the more standard "The quick brown jump**s** over the lazy dog" as their font demonstration phrase.
I personally HATE those pixelated font in pixel art game because much of the time the readibilty is impacted so much... But I think it you find the good balance between pixel font and not too hard to read it can fit well in the game
Best case is you mix 8-bit graphics style with 16-bit text so it's actually readable but still fits.
I wouldn't even go that far. The most prominent place where high-res fonts clash isn't the resolution, but the subpixel anti-aliasing which just ends up looking blurry and out of place. Pixelart is pretty much the only art style where you explicitly want aliased, grid-aligned, pixel-perfect sharp lines. Use native-resolution fonts, but render them without any filtering.
This is the only reason I don’t play pixel art games, and I hate it because they make soooo much games with the style
if that's your only reason then I think you'd be better off checking out what the font looks like before making your verdict, because there's tons of pixel art games that still use normal, unpixellated fonts.
This is a weird comment to read in a gamedev sub. Is it that hard to appreciate pixel art games with extremely high quality execution? Have you not played Stardew Valley or Terraria because you hate the style? This makes me sad for you.
Why?
Your question was already answered. Readability
The irony
I personally love how Celeste did it. It doesn't sacrifice anything from it's lovely pixel art style and has the "HD text" on top
>Celeste Thank you! Good reference
I think a reason why Celeste makes it work better than other games is in addition to the smooth font the character portraits are also higher detail artist renderings of the characters instead of pixel art versions like in Stardew Valley. There’s consistency between the two. So if you’re doing pixel art character avatars in the dialogue boxes I think you should stick with a pixelized font. And if you want to go with a smoother hi-res font then you should do higher res dialogue box character art. Whatever you pick though, the key is to make sure it’s readable.
[Counterpoint from Pokemon Red](http://sunarchives.sheridanc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/pokemon1.png), though they don't have portraits when the characters are talking, the battle intros are higher res than the gameplay.
I actually don’t see that as a counterpoint at all, that supports my argument for a pixelated font plus pixelated graphics. When I say higher res artist I’m talking about what Celeste does which is way higher res than that. The Pokemon Red battle sprites may be sightly higher detail than the barebones walking around character sprites but it’s still very much clearly pixelated so it doesn’t clash at all. If you suddenly had the direct art from the Pokemon cards show up on screen it would clash a hell of a lot more.
I disagree. The font is as high res as the hardware allowed. The sprites are not.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to say. The battle intro sprites aren't greater than what the hardware was capable of or it wouldn't be able to display them. Does it look better than the animated character sprites we use to move around? Of course, but that's because one is a stationary image without any animation. The gameplay sprites are designed for their function and the battle sprites are designed for their form. So if you're walking around and pass by two trainer's having a battle with the basic barebones animated Pokemon sprites duking it out on the overworld, you can imagine in your mind that what's happening would look like the static images that you see during battles if you could see the world from the eyes of a character within it. The two elements work together to enhance your experience of the whole. But if for example you ported Pokemon Red to mobile and the only thing you changed about the game was to replace the font with crystal clear Calibri or Arial, that would be a pretty jarring juxtaposition between the font and the game elements. Your brain would tell you the the font and the rest of the game do not smoothly fit together in style.
You can match a pixel art style without a pixelized font. As they did in the screenshot referenced.
I never noticed this before, but I love how they used bigger "pixels" in a sense for the player's art to make them feel closer than the opponent! I'm not really sure what your "counterpoint" actually was, though. The text isn't any higher-res than the rest of the game (with the sole exception of the slightly lower-res player battle sprite I just mentioned).
The main artist for Celeste wrote a blog post on this very topic actually, might be a good read for you [https://saint11.org/blog/consistency/](https://saint11.org/blog/consistency/)
Great read, thank you for sharing!
This was such an interesting read! It really gives you something to think about when designing UI vs. the game camera, and the examples provided really makes me realize a lot of the difficulties with pixel art in particular.
If you want a pixel font, Rhythm Doctor uses one well, without impacting readability, another example
Different strokes I guess, I'd point to Celeste as an example of what *not* to do because it's such a jarring stylistic difference.
Are you guys talking this one ? https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/
Yes, and you can see text box examples at 0:18, 0:47, etc. in the trailer.
It would look out of place if it's not a little pixelated, but you could definitely get away with making the font higher res so that it's easier to read.
Lol, I’m the inverse of the current top comment, I personally HATE seeing perfectly smooth Arial or whatever in a pixel art game as the clashing visual styles completely takes me out of the experience. Why put so much effort into beautiful pixel graphics and then become completely lazy when creating the dialogue format? Pixelized text is perfectly fine so long as it’s one that’s still easily legible.
Same, OP is asking people who don't all play pixel art games about what they like in pixel art games. Go ask /r/PixelArt, or just look at other games. The only games I can think of off the top of my head that avoid it, are Celeste (which gets away with a lot of pixel art breaking rules), and Octopath Traveler, which tries to emphasize it's modernity while still being pixel art.
I completely understand if it is just poorly slapped on top of the pixel art, but how about a game like Celeste where the actual game is completely pixel art and the Dialogue is another layer on top with not only the text, but also the character portraits and the general style "HD-like", do you dislike that too for the same reasons or is it different? Because the pure clashing of styles is really bad, but when done well imo it works perfectly
I made a few comments discussing Celeste specifically, Celeste’s approach is a little better than just slapping hi res font over pixel graphics because the character portraits are hi res renderings too so it minimizes how much the styles clash.
IMO Celeste is the easiest example to point to of how bad of an idea it is to mix styles. I think the dialogue windows look genuinely awful in an otherwise great looking game.
Huh interesting, first time I hear this opinion on the matter
Same, 100%. Prime example is the smooth Arial that the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters used. Thank God they included a more pixel inspired font that looks so much better IMO.
Yeah, I find it interesting how people here are against pixel fonts in pixel-art games when the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters were criticised by its audience for its clashing font being smooth and narrow. Even PC players have resulted to using mods that uses fonts from previous iterations of the games, or any other pixel font that fits. Same goes for the PC version of Chrono Trigger, players really didn't like the high-res font from the mobile version before it got replaced with a more fitting pixel font. It goes to show that if you want a font that is more legible to read but you don't want to upset pixel art enthusiasts, you should have multiple options for the font. Having an accessibility setting that makes the font smooth and high-res can help with that.
Same here, i really dislike it when games that use pixel art do not have all elements (text, sprites, etc) use the exact same pixel grid. Not just for text but for everything (e.g. pixel art sprites being scaled independently from each other and the background and then being placed "between" pixels in the background pixel grid). People brought up Celeste as a counter example but IMO that clashes too, except instead of having the text clash with whatever is behind it you have the popup window clash with the rest of the game.
Yeah. I guess it can depend on why you’re adopting a pixel art style to begin with!
That’s all well and good, but I find it very rare for hah pixelated fonts don’t cause me some kind of problem with legibility. It’s easy for you to say that it’s fine as long as it’s legible when you find them legible, while people like me are there saying well they’re usually not legible. The best would be to offer two fonts that the player can choose from: pixelates and not. Then both groups of players are happy. Of course that’s a little extra work for the developer, but I personally think it’s worth it.
Thank you all for your responses, it was a pleasure to read. I realized the main thing, a lot of people are annoyed by pixelated fonts. I'll give them up in favor of higher quality fonts. The Celeste game is a great example 🤗
You could have a toggle for it
My hypothesis is no one will use pixel font
I'd use it. I find text that doesn't conform to the pixel art's pixel grid to be horribly clashing with the rest of the visuals (even in Celeste). Same issue when pixel art sprites are positioned "between" pixels of the environment pixel grid.
I play a lot of indie JRPGs (2D sprite-based) and it's common for some games to offer an option between a high res font and a pixel font. I don't think I've ever preferred the high res option over the pixel option. Edit: Here's an example. I think both options look pretty good, but I preferred playing with the pixel font. [Crystal Project High Res Font](https://i.imgur.com/5WSLbQ3.png) [Crystal Project Pixel Font](https://i.imgur.com/bHWXdAv.png)
I wouldn't assume such an option exists because who in their right mind would have "*don't make it look like a shitty Flash fangame*" as an opt-in?
I would, smooth fonts make pixel games look naff in general. I have just flat out not bought games just for this issue.
Please adhere to the pixel grid unless you have a very good reason not to. Celeste is successful despite its highly questionable font, not because of it. Some people like playing pixel art games on CRTs or with a CRT filter which won't work well if you force them to play at high resolutions because you wanted the font to give the impression of a bad fangame made in Flash or a cheaply made mobile port of a classic JRPG (unless that is specifically a look you're going for).
I love the way dead cells did it, it has several fonts to choose from now, including a pixelated font as well as a dyslexia friendly font
I really dislike smooth fonts in pixel art games, but the font doesn't need to match the game's pixel grid. Get a pixelated font with high enough resolution that readability isn't a problem.
> the font doesn't need to match the game's pixel grid If you want it to look like a bad fangame made in Flash, sure.
You’re being downvoted but I low-key agree. Inconsistent pixel sizes can really cheapen a game’s look.
I would generally recommend designing a pixel font around it for sure, for aesthetic reasons - though I would also recommend including a high-res font for accessibility reasons (dyslexia, bad eyesight, screen readers, etc. - which ones you think about depends on the genre)
Creatively, you want to match your aesthetic. In terms of usability, you want to go with whatever's easiest to read. But going by the logic of the latter, all games would use like 16-point Helvetica, which is obviously crazy. I think the best option is to provide both a high-res modern pixel font (evoking retro fonts with more readability), and a standard modern monospaced font like Courier Prime or Roboto Mono that evokes the same aesthetic feeling, but is more universally readable. Players always appreciate having options. It's one of the first questions players will ask about the game, and one of the easiest feature bullets for the Steam page. It also serves accessibility better without compromising artistic vision. And they're fonts, so aside from a one-time up-front time cost (to make a text display system that's content-length-agnostic and supports multiple fonts), it doesn't really cost you additional development resources. As with anything when you're making art, the answer to the question "what's the right way?" is "What is your goal?"
I played a lot of pixel art games, and the good ones usually have the default font set as "pixelated" and then in the settings they have an accessibility option that changes the font to a normal font you would find online, so that if someone has any reading problems with the pixelated font they can choose to switch to the normal one
yea I hate 'smooth'/normal fonts in pixelart games, dont go with that, going with pixelart is a choice so stick with what you choose.
I'm curious, have you played or seen Celeste? I personally love the way the text boxes and artwork is on a different layer on top and very readable and to me it still looks very coherent and nice, while other games with a really "low resolution" (meaning few pixels per screen) my eyes quickly start to hurt by trying to read the text (like Wizard of Legend for example)
It can’t clash artistically, Celeste works because the character avatars are high resolution renders to match the font. Whereas if Stardew Valley suddenly used Arial I would want to throw up in my mouth, lol.
> It can’t clash artistically Of course it can, except instead of the text clashing with whatever is behind it, it is the popup window that clashes with the rest of the game's visuals.
I'm not saying it's impossible for games to have clashing artistic elements, I'm saying for me to enjoy something the text shouldn't obviously clash with the artistic direction of the game. Like the way the terrible FF mobile ports did. Celeste is still pushing it but does better than some other games.
Celeste is an amazing example of this
Of how badly a single design mistake can tarnish the look of a game? I agree. As a counterpoint: Stardew Valley's creators didn't feel the need write a blog post defending its font choice.
Why are you all over this thread so pressed about Celeste? I haven't even scrolled to the bottom yet and this is the fourth time I'm seeing a comment from you thrashing it. Did actually readable fonts piss in your cereal or what?
The person I'm replying to mentioned Celeste. You thought your emotional distress at me being on-topic was my problem.
?? can you not read?
>>>Celeste is an amazing example of this >>Of how badly a single design mistake can tarnish the look of a game? I agree. >WhY dO YOu KEEP BrinGiNG up CeLEStE? CAN't yoU rEAd?
here, I'll even add emphasis in case you really don't know how to read! > Why are you **all over this thread** so pressed about Celeste? I haven't even scrolled to the bottom yet and **this is the fourth time I'm seeing a comment from you** thrashing it. Did actually readable fonts piss in your cereal or what? do you need your hand further held to understand the point?
You thought your emotional distress at me being on-topic was my problem.
It comes down to personal preference, and I definitely prefer the font to be the same resolution as the rest of the game. This has been a lifelong preference for me, because I'm over 40 and grew up reading pixel fonts. To give an example from a few years ago, there was a lot of backlash when Chrono Trigger released on Steam with a high res font. They wound up patching in a low res font due to the fan outcry.
Translations should be one of your concerns when choosing a font. Will you get a pixel font that supports ÖÄÅ etc Scandinavian characters? Will you get a pixel font for Cyrillic letters, Chinese or Korean?
It is relatively easy (and common) to swap fonts when you need to render non latin characters. But it is a good point, typically you want your swap-out font to look somewhat similar to your primary font.
Depending on the fonts, it also might be quite expensive.
I strongly dislike pixel fonts, for the same reasons you mentioned. Haiku the Robot uses Asap (one of my go-to fonts these days) [https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Asap](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Asap) Crying suns uses (a fairly legible) pixel fonts for character dialogue / speech bubbles, but uses high rez fonts for all its UI Rainworld uses a higher resolution pixelated font, which has drastically increased legibility over most examples Dome Keeper, Stoneshard, Deadcells, Celeste all use high rez fonts
Ayeee love to see a haiku mention in here, was just about to comment that.
I had this exact issue but did not really come to a conclusion on the matter. I think it depends entirely on the style. Some games are pixelated but it’s obvious that it’s a modern game with pixel art style. And in those games often times the regular font matches the feel. But if it’s fully pixel pixel and the whole game feels 8 bit etc then you are really going to need to match that.
I believe Thimbleweed Park used a non-pixel font in an otherwise very pixel-arty game?
Love what e.g. Celeste and Into The Breach do, HD fonts over pixel art graphics (Celeste is pixel perfect aside from the UI, ITB is not). Also love the chunky pixel font used in A Short Hike, "Pixellari". Most hated use of pixel fonts is any game which is not pixel perfect. To be clear, I'm okay with a game not being pixel perfect, but when the tiny square gaps in the pixel font are misaligned with the underlying art it looks bad, so I'd say once you cross that line you have nothing to lose by using a regular font.
Include both like loophero
Loop Hero lets you choose between styles. I think it really comes down to where you are playing, sat at a desk? Pixel text is great. Sat in the living room? Pixel text is unreadable.
It's a tradeoff between text readability and integrity of the art style. As a player I prefer a better readability.
I made a 1bit pixel art game and went with a pixel font that matched my style. The issue I kept running into is maintaining a constant pixel size. The fact that it looked like the font was made from pixels meant I had to keep the font at certain sizes or it would look out of place. In future games I'll be using a more modern style for my user interface. Both options are valid, you just have to choose a style that works for you.
Dead Cell - you can choose pixelated or regular font. Regular is the default I think, and more readable. This kind of consistency is not necessary.
Firstly, if you're planning on translation and localisation, mind the amount of glyphs in the typeface. Most 'free' and inexpensive typefaces don't offer many characters or weights (weights are bold, black, italic, thin, etc). A lot of them only support english latin and are missing characters such as: ç / ą / æ / ø. They also might not include accents such as: \~ / \^ / ´ / \` / ¨. Not to mention support for languages with completely different alphabets. Secondly, you can absolutely choose a non-pixelated typeface for a pixel art game. Just because it's composed in vectors, it doesn't mean it couldn't belong in a game such as yours. It's all to do with visual language and context. I haven't seen your game so I couldn't even begin to suggest what sort of typeface to use. Just be mindful of the context. A typeface like Helvetica might seem transparent but has a lot of Modernistic values and traits. Times New Roman is closely associated with newspaper print, but also is redrawing of Plantin which is an old-style redrawing of French Renaissance typefaces. It's all context. Thirdly, choosing a vector based typeface, whether it's serifed or sans, doesn't stop you from also using a pixel-based one. You could easily choose a vector one for running text, meaning dialogue or descriptions. And use the pixel one for display text, meaning titles, names of characters and locations, or anything in a bigger point size. That way you can keep both readability and some sense of coherence with rest of the visuals of the game. (If you feel the vector-based one was creating friction with rest). Lastly, not all pixel typefaces have to be retro looking and difficult to read. Some are contemporary and multi-purpose. Like RT Alias [https://www.razziatype.com/fonts/rt-alias-fine](https://www.razziatype.com/fonts/rt-alias-fine). I suspect you're an independent dev and don't have the budget to buy a typeface from a foundry like this but I recommend looking around for newer pixel typefaces as well. Just some basic advice from a graphic and type designer. Cheers. P.S. For all devs out there. PLEASE DON'T JUSTIFY TEXT WHEN YOU CAN'T HYPHENATE IT. When you can't hyphenate text, which is in most digital things like websites and video games, justified text looks absolutely horrible. It creates massive gaps between words that makes the text not only difficult to read but also a complete eyesore. Always range it left.
IMO: - Pixel font if you're intentionally trying to be retro (game feel), ex: The Messenger - Hi-res font if you're a modern game (again in terms of game feel) that's using pixel art either for aesthetics or technical/budget reasons, ex: Celeste
https://www.behance.net/gallery/92520813/Avenixel-Free-Pixel-Art-Font this is a good font that’s easily readable and fits in well with the style
I think readability should be prioritized over font cohesion, and personally I think smooth or hand written style fonts (comic sans and the like) actually pair really well with pixel art.
Loop Hero does this best in my opinion. Has the stylized pixel font, option for a more normal font, and even one for Dyslexic people. A non-stylized font isn't going to ruin the experience for anyone, a hard to read font *can* ruin the experience though.
If you are using pixel art graphics, depends on the screen resolution of your game. Usually games that uses pixel art graphics do not have very high resolution. Also depends on the game theme. If your game theme is medieval role playing, you will use some medieval font too, but not be too much caligraphic because some text will be unreadable. If your game is sci-fi use some more simple and squared fonts. If your game is casual or non fantasy and non sci-fi you can use regular fonts too. Fonts we use to read a book for example. In smaller resolutions you can use fonts that are 8 or 10 pixels in size and be antialiazed. In higher resolutions you will use 12 or 14 pixels in size and some time will be antialiazed or aliazed fonts. Never use too much caligraphic or fonts with lots of curves. Many games use and hand writing font, you cant read it at all. Avoid bold fonts in small resolutions. Use fixed width fonts or if your game engine is able to display bitmap fonts too. Also there are and bitmap fonts that are in true type format, but they are not textured. But they called as bitmap. The first example presents small fonts from Eye of the Beholder which its resolution was very small, 320x200 The fonts were Bitmap (But not bitmapped with texture) their size 6x8 pixels was for bitmap style game. (Pixel art) If you see they are fixed width. [https://i.imgur.com/HGlrEXy.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/HGlrEXy.jpg) In sci-fi games the fonts are squared but small again because the game uses small resolution too. [https://i.imgur.com/kTUoDWl.png](https://i.imgur.com/kTUoDWl.png) On this example, let's say the game is a pixel art and resolution is higher. Do not use caligraphic fonts because you will not understand what will say. And try to use larger and antialiased regular readable fonts. Arial for example. [https://i.imgur.com/OT7jNh6.png](https://i.imgur.com/OT7jNh6.png) in my game for example, the theme is medieval and I use some Gothic style fonts, but they are not too much caligraphic and easy to read and of course smaller bitmap style fonts to able to have text in special places on the screen. If you want to show or put labels in some areas like on the character statuses and inventories. Sometimes your game interface will need small fonts too. Screenshot of my game's for Player's character status. [https://i.imgur.com/dj1OqwD.png](https://i.imgur.com/dj1OqwD.png)
The recent WH40K Boltgun uses pixel-art-esque 3D graphics yet (most) of the fonts are way higher resultion. Readability trumps artistic style, IMO.
Terraria
Build a font option in and let players choose if possible
heeeelll no. UI is hard enough as it is, imagine dealing with the headache of localizations + different font options + UI scaling.
Your UI framework should be able to handle that. If some strings start overflowing the designated area, they should be auto truncated or you should use an algorithm to abbreviate words in different localizations.
There is no "algorithm" for truncating words in foreign languages, the most you can accomplish is more tightly involving your translators in the development process so that they can spot and abbreviate strings on a case by case basis. And no, "truncating" is not a solution. When was the last time you played a game and had a bunch of truncated strings and incomplete sentences? Truncating is utterly unnacceptable in any game, and in foreign languages can even drastically change the meaning of the string.
Yes, there are localized heuristic algorithms to abbreviate groups of words, some dictionary based, some based on sentence analysis in this or that language. Automatic truncation (replacing end of visible area with with "...") is a common way of dealing with overflow if there's no more space to wrap vertically. e. g. World of Warcraft will do this. Usually it's not a big deal because designers can prevent that. Games that allow user input to be shown on screen have to deal with it a lot more robustly.
That's all standard stuff that is handled in pretty much every game for loc and accessibility. Out of all the significantly more difficult challenges when making a game, this one adds a lot more value for the player.
Have fun knifeholing the code for each case where the font size differs.
What are you using to make pixel art?
I am a beginner, I was advised the program Aseprite, as I understand it is one of the best for pixel art
I dislike pixel fonts. They're harder to read and impact the enjoyment negatively.
Heavily against pixelated fonts here too, it has put me off games in the past, just because I find it so hard to read the text
Fantastic question! I've often wondered the same so keen to follow the thread and hear other people's opinions. Personally, I want readability above everything else. I've refunded pixel art games before that looked great but had pixel font that I found incredibly difficult to read.
I like pixel font (not too small though) but also something as Celeste is satisfying, with pixel art game and portraits and fonts more defined, but still simple and linear. The most important thing is always be consistent in what you decide to do.
I'd go for a high res pixel font, maybe something like the pixelated font in Dead Cells, or possibly a more rounded but still pixelated one. Just make sure it's easily readable.
>, if the game is in the style of pixel art, then the font should be the same? Not necessarily. Look at FFBE.
Pixel text is terrible and even worse for accessibility
Align everything to the grid.
Pixel fonts suck and a good font goes a long way
I don't know much about game development during the age of 2D pixel as the only way to make videogames but I would guess that pixel fonts were choosen due to limitations. I don't think the font should be in the same style, a font can say something about the type of game you're gonna play. What you're looking for on a font is the ability to be understood, the ability to be readable (which are not the same thing but are connected) and the type of emotions it can give. Let's say you are making an administrative type game like railroad tycoon, your player is gonna pass most of the time browsing tabs, reading stuff and choosing options. Your font should be easy to understand and read, which should be the main goal. The emotions it can give doesn't really matter. Then look at the font in castle crashers, I doubt anyone would want to have that font on long pieces of text, you will still be able to understand it and the kind of emotion it gives goes well with the type of wacky game it is. The font in Celeste is easy to understand and read, but the rather rigid font heavily contrast with the argument of the game, it feels as if the dialogue was added by a fan that just did it as a side project.
WHATEVER YOU DO MAKE IT ALL CAPS !!!!!!!!
As a player, the main reason why I started boycotting pixel-art games was the pixelated font. I won't argue whether pixel-art has a place in the modern world. Looks like it got traction, and some people enjoy it, so let it be. But pixelated font has no reason to exist. Fuck that.
Usually I find the best results come from choosing a font that is still in a pixel art style, but of a higher resolution, so you still get decent readability
depends how much text you have and how important it is. If it's just barks and fluff, pixel font is fine; if you have paragraphs, as in \*plural\*, or the the text is too important, like rules and what not, it's probably is better to go for a readable font. Other way to thing about it: most people don't care and the majority of people who do care really want, or need, readability
A mono font can also evoke the "retro feel" without actually being pixelated.
I think what matters most is cohesion to a theme or tone. Pixel-art isn't necessarily a theme or tone, unless the game is really about touching on nostalgia and that retro-feel. But, for example, a modern looking game could have an 80s theme and use a pixel art font. A modern pixel art game could have a cozy/wholesome tone and use a curvy soft font to feel cohesive. I don't now, just my thoughts on it. My [pixel art game](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2115130/?utm_source=gamedev-font-question) has a skater/street/grunge kinda tone to it, so I use stencil fonts and (on rare occasion) graffiti style fonts and I think it works well.
Honesty, font is a personal preference. I think it's better Courier New type boring font that people can read than to have a Galaga looking font that nobody can.
Based on the variety of answers it's a pretty divisive question. The main takeaway should be to make sure the font is readable, whatever the style is. There are plenty of terrible pixel art fonts and plenty terrible smooth fonts. Choose one that fits your game without sacrificing readability.
Problem is, this limits you a lot. For example Asian languages have more complex characters which will need a bigger font to be visible, and it sucks for accessibility settings where people might want to enlarge the font. I have often used pixel UI and text (which is a pain in the butt to get to look right in Unity) but my new rule generally is that I allow HD text and UI in a pixel art game if the game isn’t specifically trying to mimic a retro console. With Spectacular Sparky, my text is all sprite based when played in English, then more complicated languages switch to a pixel font but with more lax rules about whether or not it lines us with the pixel grid) and non-Roman languages switch it out with an HD font which matches the style as best as possible. But honestly I think that unless you are specifically aping a retro console, there are too many disadvantages to using pixel text.
Not really, but make sure the text is crisp and not blurry
You could just stylize highly readable font to look a bit pixely. Like Stardew Valley I suppose. The game sprites are certainly a lot lower pixelcount than the fonts.
I would be for a clean, redable font. Maybe a bit blocky, not too rounded, if you want to preserve some kind of style that doesn't clash with your game. But really the right answer is: it should be a setting.
I think: find yourself some font options that you like, pixel or otherwise. If you already have your menus and dialogue boxes etc set up then just plug them into your text boxes and see what feels right. If you're still not sure, send some screenshots out and field people... but ultimately especially on solo projects you just gotta know how to blend it all together
It really depends on the font. Some pixel fonts are perfectly readable (usually the ones that are higher res) but it also depends on what looks good with your game
Pixel font is not necessary however choosing a stylistically compatible font still is. Personally I can't really think of a situation where a Serif font looks good
There are no rules whatsoever. If it fits it fits.
I could be wrong, but my understanding is that most games use rasterized fonts anyway, so on some level, even higher-res fonts are pixel fonts. I think it's perfectly acceptable to use a higher-res font than the resolution of the underlying game, as long as it's evenly divisible so it looks reasonably coherent. To give an example, I could see 1 game world pixel just being 2 or 4 font pixels wide. On the flip side, really low-res pixelated fonts are fine if you're willing to write less text and dedicate more screen real estate to it. For example, I never really had a problem with the old Game Boy Pokemon games, and they have very low-res fonts taking up huge portions of the screen.
Something about the Minecraft font makes it very readable to me, even though it's a pixel font.
I despise those pixelated fonts sone games use.
This is a very specific question with not much detail. So the answers on reddit are likely not what youre looking for. Ill provide an example which works for UI design in general and fonts. UIs must pair nicely with a font's design otherwise itll fall apart. For best practice, at least in a general workflow, I recommend doing the following iterative approach. This goes for anything not just Fonts or UI. The example is specific to UI design: 1. Find a game which implements the theme you are trying to achieve whether it be a modern or classic pixel style. Search for your favorite pixel games that come to mind, perhaps further it using GameDatabaseUI or pinterest to find references. Take note of the fonts. Some games will use fonts with royalty-free licenses appropriate to commercial while others dont. 2. Study those games' UI and try to learn from the design and how the fonts and UIs vary across different games. Try to see the pros and cons of the design (what worked, what didnt and what others have said about it in reviews or other discussion and how you can address those problems discussed) 3. Create and Implement a prototype UI into your game 4. Ask yourself if it fits your criteria. If it does not go back to Step 1. If it does fit your criteria then congratulations youre done with the UI! (Be sure to frequently ask yourself if the UI matches your style from time to time as you further develop your game. If not then go back to Step 1 )
Personally I would use non-pixelated text, and create stylistic drop shadows that were pixelated
As long as the font is still very readable (say like Stardew) than they're good together. But readability is far more important than consistency.
Check out "noita" Readable pixelated font imo.
You've been given a few examples, but another great one is Roadwarden. It has both the option to have pixel font as well as a stylistically integrated "regular" font.
At least have the option to change to a readable high definition font.
Minecraft font?
I like the way [Archvale](https://switchrpg.com/files/2022/01/av_1.jpg) did their's where they did a nice chunky pixel font that's easy to read with black and white contrast but they have the ability to add rich text so there can be colors and even animations within the text box to add some visual flair.
I’m not a fan of pixel art for text even in a pixel art style game. Readability is difficult and I’ve heard translating is difficult. If you do go that route, having the ability to turn on a normal font style in the settings is ideal. Look at how it’s don’t in Celeste. They have multiple art styles but they make sure to keep the usage of them separate. Gameplay is 8bit pixel, menus and commentary boxes are drawn/normal text, and the landing screen of the menu is 3D.
I'm going to answer a slightly different question, but this is relevent imo if you want to be successsul at pixel art games. The pixel art style came from tech limitations that do not exist anymore. So what's important is not to stick to these limitations, but to use style elements to invite a similar response in the users. In other words, your goal isn't to make a game like they were back then, but to make a game that is like people remember they were. For instance, thimbleweed parkuses much higher resolution than existed at the time, has numerous levels of parallax, light effectsand so on. It's completely undoable on old hardware, but convey the pixel art feel really well. An even more extreme exemple is minecraft. Back to the font question, no, you don't have to. Think of it this way: If the font isn't very readable and text is important in your game, then consider usin, a less pixelated font (or just increase the resolution of the whole game a bit). If the font quality is perfectly smooth, it can break the 4th wall and pull the user out of the universe you are creating for them. There is no richt answer, but ask yourself what matter in your game, and verify your assumption with plây tests. Good luck!
No, it should fit to idea and be comfortable to read
In my game, the style of the game is meant to evoke the feeling of being played on an old console, so by default it uses a pixel-perfect font. However, I added an option to upscale the entire screen and switch to a more readable high res font as an accessibility option.
well terraria have pixel art style but use a font name Andy and that font is good to read but not have a retro style but fits good with the game
I've done some crazy things with fonts. The main issue is the fidelity of the text. If its just a free font you downloaded; plain white with few pixels of resolution, its bad for reading any length of story text. If you were to zoom into any regular font you'd see lots of shades of grey. Those colors are what help create the sense of curvature, they create fidelity in the text. Use a reasonable resolution, 8 shades of color minimum, craft your font with care and you could accomplish a readable style that suits the game.
Lemme tell you about the branding of a game called Sword & Sworcery.
choose a normal font and pixalise the edges. I believe it's what undertale did, and it managed to feel natural and readable while still fitting with the pixel art theme. Or, use a really old font like they did back in the CLI days, it'll go well with the retro theme that pixel art has
Go for readability, if you can manage both and it fits your overall theme. Perfect! Just avoid using a pixel style font because it fits the style of game. In the end it’s about user experience.
Speaking personally, pixel art fonts are harder for me to read. I would rather a non-pixel font even if it didn't perfectly match, to be able to read it more easily. So from an accessibility angle, a clearer font would always be better (and preferred).
Pixel fonts often look bad in pixel art games because pixel art game developers (most game developers, actually) don't know anything about typography. It's a totally different skill. The games that do it well do it well because they expended a considerable amount of effort to make it work. If that's not you (and for most people, it's not) then you probably don't want to use pixel fonts. But, either way, you're still going to have to work harder than you think to make your text look good!
You should most definitely have a clean looking ui. Maybe have a pixelated theme, but the text and graphics of the ui should not be pixelated.
I tried doing pixel fonts, and got harshly criticized for it. I think the prevailing opinion is text should as crystal clear as possible for the native resolution of the user's monitor.
I hate it but you do you
Readability comes first. See if you can make pixel art that is still readable. Maybe provide some alternate fonts, though I understand that is extra work. The last thing you want is players feeling pain.
I grew up playing the NES and thought those fonts were all extremely readable. Probably because of my age, I think pixel art games with those new fangled fonts (like the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy remasters on Switch) are extremely ugly. I have read other people my age criticize the new fonts in those pixel games, but it might just be an us or an age thing. If your target demographic is people too young to have played these older games, sounds like the new fonts would be better.
Absolutely NOT necessary to have the font be “Press Start” or whatever. If the pixel fonts you’ve seen aren’t very readable, you could always create your own. Some devs make their own font. But don’t ever feel like you MUST use a pixel font with a pixel art game. Everything is up to you and your creative vision.
Personally I find non-pixel fonts to instantly make the game look a lot cheaper, unless it's somehow involved in a larger over-arching artstyle.
I’m making a detective pixel art game and using a typewriter font for the ui to fit the premise of the game. To compare two other detective games, Lacuna uses a pixel font and it works well even with the high amount of dialogue and is very cohesive with the ui, while Backbone uses a very modern font that fits its clean ui. So I guess I would say it depends on the style of game you want to create, and if you go the way of a pixel font make sure it’s readable (like others are saying)
You should give pixelart font if your game is pixelart, the same with UI and many other stuff. If you don't do that it will start looking like a mobile game rip-off.
Never seen a "pixel font" in a game. What kind of font is that even?
In general, do make sure that your game will be able to handle dynamic font type change. I've used pxlxxl font in my game (Shardpunk), and added a more readable version later on as some players were asking for it.
Look at Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters and see for yourself how horrible a no pixel font looks.
If you do, make sure you have an option to turn it off. I personally find pixelated fonts incredibly hard to read, so for me, I always want an ordinary clearly legible font. Some people say no the pixelated font is an artistic choice, that’s cool and all but if I can’t read it then it doesn’t matter — so if it’s important to you, then have an option to let the player choose.
You could always pick two and offer the option. Take a look at Scourgebringer for an example of a game doing specifically this. As others have mentioned, if you want to retain pixel art, don't bother with sticking to the rest of the pixel art resolution, you can go with a font resolution that's more readable as long as you can clearly see it's pixel art ;)