01
The hero
The name in rainbow cubes over pixel hills, with Build your world in grey stone, a crate, a chest, coins, an apple and a tree.
A pixel font built from toy cubes · v1.000
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Cubeforge builds letters the way you build in a sandbox game: one cube at a time. Each cube has a lit top, a darker side and a bevelled front, split into layer fonts so the same word can be stone, wood, gold, ice, lava or grass.
Type tester
Try it with your own words
All seven layers are stacked in Rainbow Build, a new colour of cube for every letter as in the hero. The cubes are exact at 60 and 120 px. Try one material for the whole word, or switch the layers off for Solid.
30 px 3×
Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the
60 px 6×
Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the
120 px 12×
Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the Level 4: find the
This preview covers Basic Latin and the icons. The full font adds every accented letter and symbol.
Features
Made for game interfaces
A pixel font where every pixel is a toy cube: seven layer fonts stack into 3D block lettering in any material, plus Solid, a flat Face and 12 builder icons.
01
Every pixel is a cube
Each square of a letter is drawn as a little block with a lit top, a shaded side and a bevelled front, so words look stacked brick by brick.
02
Seven layers, one colour each
Shadow, Outline, Side, Top, Face, Light and Shade share the same spacing and kerning. Colour them one by one and the cubes turn to stone, wood, gold or anything else.
03
Solid for one colour
When there's no room for seven layers, Cubeforge Solid draws the whole cube in a single colour and still shows the block grid.
04
Face is a flat pixel font
On its own, the Face layer is a clean pixel font for menus, HUDs and dialogue, pixel-perfect at 10, 20 and 30 px.
05
Kerned in whole cubes
Spacing moves by full cubes, never fractions, so letters stay on the grid, and every digit has the same width for scores and timers.
06
12 builder icons
A heart, gem, coin, crate, key, chest, potion, shield, mushroom, tree, apple and bomb, typed like letters and built from cubes like them.
Built-in icons
Twelve icons you can type
Each icon is a character in the font. Click one to copy it, then paste it into anything set in Cubeforge.
Builder icons
Case study
How Cubeforge was designed
Why I made it
Building and crafting games are made of blocks, and their titles usually are too: someone models letters out of cubes in a 3D app, renders them, and the look never makes it past the logo into the menus.
I wanted that toy-block lettering as a font, so a title, a score and a dialogue line could all come from the same type, and so the cubes could change material as easily as text changes colour.
One cube, seven parts
Every letter sits on a grid of cubes, and every cube is drawn on a finer grid: a front face six sub-pixels wide with two more of depth for its top and side. I split those parts into layers: a drop shadow, a dark outline, the shaded sides, the lit tops, the front faces, and a light and a dark bevel on each front.
Stacked in that order, with one colour per layer, they make a word that looks built rather than typed. The six materials in the art, stone, wood, gold, ice, lava and grass, are nothing more than seven colours each.
Small text and big titles
The cube layers have detail inside every pixel, so they are exact at 60 and 120 px, sizes for titles and big counters. For everything smaller there is the Face layer alone, a flat pixel font that is crisp at 10, 20 and 30 px, and Solid when you want the cube look in one colour.
The game engine pack has bitmap fonts at 1× and 2× for every layer, both separately and already stacked, and the 12 icons live at U+E000 to U+E00B, with ten of them also on their emoji code points, such as 🌲, 💎 and 🔑.
In use
02
The Photoshop template
The editable hero layout from the download, with the name in red brick and live type layers.
03
In a game
Stage Clear in rainbow cubes, a heart and coin HUD, World 1-1, and a dialogue box set in the flat Face layer.
04
Anatomy
A red A with each part labelled by its layer, and one cube enlarged to show its six-by-two sub-pixel grid.
05
The layers
A blue B built up layer by layer from Shadow to Shade, then Solid, Face and all seven stacked.
06
Materials
Stone, Wood, Gold, Ice, Lava and Grass, each with the seven colours that make it.
07
12 builder icons
Each icon with its name and code, U+E000 to U+E00B, and a gold line of text that types two of them inline.
08
Character set
Capitals, lowercase, figures, punctuation and the Latin Extended-A letters, 389 in all.
What you get
Everything in the download
- Desktop fontsOTF for design apps, TTF for game engines and Windows, every layer.
- Web fontsWOFF2 for every layer, with unlimited web use.
- Game engine packBMFont bitmap fonts (.fnt, .xml and .png atlas) at 1× and 2×, as separate layers and pre-stacked, for Godot, Unity, GameMaker, LibGDX, Phaser, MonoGame and Love2D.
- Photoshop templateAn editable hero layout with live type layers, layer effects and textures.
- README and licenseSetup tips for design apps, websites and game engines, and the full license.
License
Included with every purchase
- Games and apps, embedded for unlimited copies sold
- Logos, merch, videos, streams and print, with no limit on sales
- Installed on unlimited computers: yours, your team's and your company's
- Websites, with unlimited page views and traffic
Ask me first
- Products where customers type their own text in the font
- Resale in asset packs, templates or font collections
Please don't share or resell the font files. For anything the license doesn't cover, email me. idris.hadjoudj@gmail.com
FAQ
Before you buy
How do the 8 layers work?
Cubeforge comes as 8 layer fonts (Shadow, Outline, Side, Top, Face, Light, Shade, Solid) with the same spacing and kerning. Type the same text in each, stack the copies exactly on top of each other and give each its own colour. Cubeforge Solid also works on its own in one colour.
In which order do the layers go?
From the bottom: Shadow, Outline, Side, Top, Face, Light, Shade. Solid isn't part of the stack; it is the whole cube in one colour, for use on its own.
Which sizes look crisp?
The cube layers carry detail inside each pixel, so they are exact at 60 and 120 px. The Face layer on its own is a flat pixel font, exact at 10, 20 and 30 px. Turn anti-aliasing off where your app or engine allows it.
Why do some icons show as emoji?
Besides U+E000 to U+E00B, ten of the icons also sit on their emoji code points, such as 🌲, 🍄 and 💣. Some apps always swap those for colour emoji; type the U+E000 range instead, or insert the icons from your app's glyphs panel.
Can I use Cubeforge in a game I sell, or for its logo?
Yes. Commercial use is included for games, apps, logos, merch, videos, streams and print, with no limit on sales, and you can embed the fonts and bitmap fonts in games and apps for unlimited copies. Products where your customers type their own text, and resale in asset packs, need an extended license: just ask.
Does Cubeforge work in Unity, Godot and GameMaker?
Yes. Use the TTF files in any engine that imports fonts, or the included game engine pack: BMFont bitmap fonts at 1× and 2×, as separate layers and pre-stacked, for Godot, Unity, GameMaker, LibGDX, Phaser, MonoGame and Love2D.
Can I use Cubeforge on my website?
Yes. WOFF2 web fonts are included, and web use is unlimited, with no cap on page views or traffic.
Which languages does it support?
Each font has 389 characters, covering Western and Central European languages.
Is Cubeforge part of a bundle?
Yes. Cubeforge is in The Complete Font Collection, every font I've made in one download.
Give your game a voice in Cubeforge.
Related reading
The thinking behind this
Longer write-ups on the craft this font draws on.
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