So. I'm making a game, cruising along, it's reading heavy so you know fonts are important. I wanted something that added to the mood and
hey the internet is full of fonts that are free to try out and use personally and enjoy. But a font for personal use is NOT the same thing as a font for commercial use. You knew that right? Does that mean you have to pay for an expensive license?
Of course not. Don't panic. Have you looked at your fonts lately? Clearly, some games require no fonts to operate, but I feel like that's a minority. Where did you get your fonts from? Are they boring? It's entirely possible that's okay. At this point, many fonts we see every day are sort of invisible. The add nothing to what you're reading, but maybe more importantly, they take nothing away. I love pretty handwriting and pretty fonts, but I'll be the first to note that my crappy old eyes just can't read extra super fancy fonts for long anymore. So, here's the thing, you can go for a simple invisible font, that's a good option. A safe option. But what if you want something that adds to the mood or feel of your game? Where do you find them? How do you know their safe to use?
My own experience went something like this 'oh, this font is cool and she's got a reasonable commercial price I'll happily pay for!' and away I went making my game! I figure if it went from hobby to something more serious (as it has now) then I'd go ahead and pick up the license and easy peasy done!
Whoops. I assumed. Guess what that makes me?
I can't get through to her. Haven't heard anything. I've got what's potentially marketing material and now I'm super anxious about it because this is not a free font and I want to always do right by a creator's wishes, what do I do? Do I wait it out? Do I assume it's free now because she's not answering email? Ew. No. Don't do that. I did the hard thing, the right thing, and went through and changed the font in my game, on my material. It is a pain in the ass, but at the end of the day I have no one to blame but myself. Secure your licenses before you release anything to the public. When it goes from personal use to marketing that shit gets real and its time to make sure you're doing right by creators.
BUT! There are plenty of options to do right. Some creators just want a donation or a credit and they're happy. Some want a link back to your project on their Facebook, for example. (Which is technically a benefit to you, because, hey! Marketing!) Doing right has a funny way of paying off.
And if you can't or you can't afford fonts? (Which honestly can be little more than a cup of coffee with a lot of font makers on Dafont ect.)
Google's got you covered, tho. Google Fonts, if you've never seen it, are a collection of totes free to use commercial or personal fonts and some of them are just straight up lovely! You can find some alternatives to a lot of different fonts from handwritten stuff to more specific needs like wide or narrow or whatever. They even have analytics on pairing the fonts up with other fonts for making sure that flow is tight! Which I enjoyed playing with a little too much, tbh.
Ethical problems with Google? Oh. I hear you. Well, there's a number of open source options too! Font Awesome, the MIT font license, you can do some searching and find countless free (for commercial) fonts for your game. So. Do it right! It's awesome to be cool to creators!