KERN app for iPhone and iPad
"The game looks like something you’d expect to come out of the famous Bauhaus design movement"
- iPhoneGames Network.com
“I instantly fell head over heels for this game...A super smart concept for a game which fellow designers in particular will adore.”
- TheAppleBlog.com
“A wonderful game for a wonderful platform. For the love of type, download it.”
- CreativeApplications.net
Space, The Final Font Tier. KERN is a minimalist typography experience challenging you to precisely place a missing letter into a falling word while avoiding any unnecessary ligatures! Practice and prove your typographical acumen with a score that gives new meaning to point-size!
HOW TO PLAY:
A random type-centric word with a missing letter appears at a variable point size. As the leading begins to shrink, you navigate the missing letter to the proper space and release its handle to lock it in place. The placement accuracy is measured and your score is calculated based on the size of the type, the leading height, and the perfection of placement—all measured in points. If you miss by too much and form an unnecessary ligature, one of your five ligature tokens will be lost. Lose all five ligatures and your game is finished. How many points will you Kern?
KERN is one in a series of design-oriented games from FORMation, a U.S. graphic design studio. Look for these other these titles in the App Store:
EYE VS. EYE // Prove Your Eye for Color
A friendly color-matching duel that pits you against an opponent in a duel to the decimal!
PRESS CHECK // On your marks, get set, Print!
A designer ode to the old-school art of print plate alignment re-imagined as a challenge of speed and accuracy.
Pros and cons of KERN app for iPhone and iPad
KERN app good for
Very nice game, but theres a typo. For a future update Gutenberg just with one "t" please.
...this is the game for you. Superb graphics. I wish there were more minimalistic, gorgeous apps in the App Store.
Great work!
It looks like the bar is being raised on the design quotent for the iPhone.
Id like to see more of this -- that is: Clean design.
I bet this game would do well in Japan.
JW.
I like this app a lot. The UI is beatiful and its an enormous source of easy entertainment!
its nice how harder words are slowly introduced, but its frustrating to have to KERN the same word over and over again in different sizes when you play for long enough
This is every typographers dream. Its beautiful to look at, littered with beautiful design, etc. One thing id have to recommend, which would be especially great for us designers, would be customizable interface colors. From a programming perspective, it would be quite simple too. Just the thought of it makes me grin!
Some bad moments
Why does the word slides down so we have to “kind of guess” where the letter will be? Totally pointless for KERNing training and lerning. I want my .99 back!
I really wanted to like this, but I cant. Basically all you do is line up the letter with the space in the word as it comes down the screen. Its not even a good test of your KERNing ability.
I was really excited about this game cause Im a type junkie. But it really has nothing to do with KERNing, the words drop from the top of the screen and you have to hope it lands on the right place.
Dont be confused, this is nothing like KERNing letters. Yes, I have to KERN letters often, and this is even less tactile than option-arrowing your favorite typefaces, and there is no satisfaction from "KERNing" these words. Ugh.
Not a bad first effort but dont be fooled into thinking this has any education value about how to KERN. It may build awareness for non-designers but is more of a simple game with letters than an even mildly beneficial training tool. Lets hope it opens the doors to some application/games designers really can use and care about.
KERN is a great-LOOKING game. Its visual design is top-notch, and to be expected from a design house. More surprising, then, is the sub-par UI design, and underwhelming game mechanics that make this a very pretty, but still pretty shallow game experience. Im still waiting for that pivotal mashup of typography and game design -- this aint it.
