Pentiment director explains how going all-in on fonts helped elevate the medieval Detective RPG.
Obsidian Leisure’s Pentiment has certainly been one of the developer’s most unconventional role-playing experiences, a 2D detective narrative set within an illustrated book situated in 16th-century Bavaria. While Pentiment may not possess the expansive scope of the developer’s more recognized titles like Fallout: New Vegas or the upcoming Avowed, the game’s director had a unique vision for the storytelling that required significant persuasion to align the team—and that involved the appearance of fonts within the game.
During GDC 2025, game director Joshua Sawyer (who previously led Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity) shared insights on his efforts to conceptualize and craft Pentiment‘s capability for text-centric storytelling and the necessity for the game’s fonts to transcend mere static characters in speech bubbles in order to authentically represent an evolving game world with diverse cultures through a “typographic voice.”
Rats, horse testicles, and fonts—OR: Learn how to go the extra mile with your game
During Sawyer’s session titled “Justifying Absurd Investments in Fonts and Other Quirky Features,” he outlined some common pitfalls developers often encounter when attempting to deliver a product. Frequently, developers produce a game perceived as a “minimum viable product,” particularly in its early stages, which consists of basic elements without much else. An alternative approach is to pursue the idea of the “maximum viable product.”
Related:‘We write smooth stuff in the pub:’ the comedy-first approach to Thank Goodness You’re Here
Some illustrations he provided included A Plague Tale‘s dynamic and vividly animated rat swarms, which appear as a living mass to players. In another instance, Sawyer mentioned Red Dead Redemption 2‘s realistic horse testicles, which shrink when exposed to cold weather. As Sawyer expressed, these elements—while not always essential for a game—contribute significantly to enhancing the experience into something richer.
“What about the maximum viable product? It’s much more than what’s necessary, you have every feature and enhancement—you’re creating new features, and you’re aiming to elevate the experience through a brand of unique maximalism that hasn’t been witnessed [in a game],” stated Sawyer.
Following this, Sawyer elaborated on his vision for Pentiment, a 16th-century European detective experience where players must read and interpret intentions and actions from character interactions to make significant decisions. Influenced by games like 80 Days and Night in the Woods, Pentiment‘s innovative approach to storytelling showcases its dynamic text presentation, incorporating appealing medieval-style typography that changes for each interaction and NPC. This gives Pentiment a feeling that you’re viewing a living medieval illustration or illustrated manuscript being developed as you progress—which Sawyer noted aimed to portray the “physicality of writing in books.”
Related:Why your next game needs a babygirl
Based on your choices and the protagonist Andreas’s state, the game’s text will evolve and change throughout the experience. As the game director explained, being passionate about a feature is the initial step to getting your idea off the ground, but the subsequent steps involve securing your team’s commitment to the concept and then bringing it to life in an engaging manner—which naturally presents its own unique challenges.
“One of the issues we encountered was [letter] character set problems, so these may have supported the languages they were originally designed for,” noted Sawyer. “For instance, many of the [characters] stemmed from German or Swiss origins; while they were clear, they didn’t include the characters that might be required in Polish, Spanish, French, or others. So that was challenging. Additionally, when they looked period-appropriate, they were often quite difficult to read. Yes, we wanted them to seem authentic, but the problematic readability is not ideal for a game filled with text.”
What’s in a font?
Sawyer characterized Pentiment as “not a small game, but not an ‘indie’ game,” given its support from Microsoft Game Studios. With over three years in development and a team of 13 by the end of production, it was a moderately sized game, but Sawyer’s strategies for incorporating dynamic typography into its storytelling presented a complexity that required time to resolve.
What distinguishes
Pentiment aside from a fair amount of reading-heavy RPGs, such as Disco Elysium or Pillars of the Earth, truly stands out as the finest experience. It transforms the act of reading—and interpreting text—into part of your skill set. You genuinely take on the role of a medieval detective. This was indeed one of the foundational goals of Pentiment, as 16th century Bavaria was a vibrant blend of diverse cultures and societal lessons. The main character, Andreas, must navigate a complex society filled with unique characters, each with varied philosophies and perspectives, all represented through the font style.
To develop a complete array of custom typography, the creators engaged Lettermatic founder Riley Cran. Collaborating with Cran’s studio, they crafted six unique fonts for the game—Peasant, Cursive, Humanist, Printed, Textura, and Thread Puller. By designing each font—prioritizing authenticity over absolute precision—the developers gained greater control over the text, albeit at the expense of time. Sawyer noted that while developers should strive to create their fonts, it’s essential only to do so if they possess the necessary resources and expertise.
“The freedom you have with the fonts is unmatched; it’s incredible,” he stated. “You can achieve exactly what you envision; you can accommodate any localization you wish, and it’s your font. You don’t need to be concerned about ongoing licensing complications and all that sort of hassle. Ultimately, we released our fonts for largely free to the public, and people use them for creating memes and humorous posts, which is the pinnacle of it.”
Another essential asset that Obsidian Entertainment relied on was the accessibility teams at Microsoft, who assisted in refining the visual presentation of the text for all types of readers and text associated with specific cultures. Sawyer pointed out instances where the game addressed particular themes, and Microsoft’s sensitivity readers provided feedback to help enhance it further.
One technique that Sawyer proposed to enhance the presentation of the text and provide a lively feel was the rendering of letters stroke-by-stroke in real-time, which he noted was not met with overwhelming enthusiasm from the team. “When I suggested stroke-by-stroke rendering to the group, it wasn’t that people disliked the idea; rather, there was some skepticism about it,” remarked Sawyer. Ultimately, the engineering team—bypassing his initial suggestion of using various alpha channels for smoother transitions—adopted his concept and created it using Adobe Illustrator, employing gradients and animation to simulate real-time illustrative pen strokes on parchment.
Promote your vision
Sawyer concluded the discussion by providing attendees strategies on how to effectively present their ideas