StumbleBumps Unite Sprint Blog 3

This sprint was a particularly tough one. Not only did I have to learn how to create a font from scratch, I also had to make sure the font would work in most programs. This task took up most of the sprint, but I am grateful for the opportunity to learn this skill. The first task I had to do was to create each font character in my own handwriting. In prior sprints, Donovan and Micheal liked my handwriting so much that they wanted to incorporate it into the final game.

This first part of creating the font was rather simple. I did forget a few characters such as “*”, and the “i” and “j” didn’t have their dots properly loaded in, but those can always be improved upon for the revised font for the final game. The next part, however, had me stumped for a good majority of the sprint. I could not understand what plugins to find and use within Illustrator. When I asked for help with the plugin, Donovan accidentally sent me the wrong page for a plugin. But after researching plugins, I decided to use Fontself. Not only was it the simplest one to use, it also worked directly with Adobe illustrator. It did cost some money, but I had enough to buy it with no issues. It took a while to import the letters, but after a few hours, I had my text officially ready to go.

Luckily, the font came out looking great to work with. However, I will be refining the font to not only include some missing characters, but also replace some of the wonkier characters and improve the default text size. Once the font got approved by Donovan and Micheal, I got to work on my final task for this sprint. I had to draw a simple button background that all of the main game buttons would use. I decided to use the color green to represent said buttons. I chose this color because when I look at it, I see a childlike, yet friendly and fun feeling within said color, and it evoked the spirit of StumbleBumps Unite quite nicely. I also improved the shape of the button itself, though I hope I can make it even better within the next sprint.

This sprint was rather tough, but I’m glad I managed to push through and complete some of the most important tasks. I’m particularly proud of the font I have created so far, because not only am I honored for my handwriting to be incorporated into the game, but I also learned a brand new skill for the first time. A previous skill of mine also came into play when converting the pixel-based characters into vectors, thanks to learning “image trace” from my digital modeling and digital texturing classes prior to this one. I am quite happy with how the game itself is turning out, and I hope to see it thrive once the game is finished and running.