Final fontasy: Video game offers typographic tour

France – Smartphone video game Type:Rider has the unusual distinction of being the first game in which the player is a punctuation mark, a colon.

Type:Rider, a creation of French designer Cosmografik, combines a simple-platform game with a history of typography. Each of the 12 levels is themed after a different typeface. As players move through the levels, solving riddles about Garamond, Helvetica and Comic Sans in order to progress, they also move in time. By the end of the game, they have travelled from prehistoric rock paintings all the way to pixel art.

The game is the latest in a wave of video games that takes inspiration from literature the printed word. For more, read our Innovate feature on Device 6.