15 Design games for when you feel like procrastinating

Most of the time you’re in the flow, and time goes by very fast. You’re focused, motivated, and happy to work.
But from time to time, like every other human being, you have a bad day. You postpone what you have to do, and you just don’t feel like doing anything. Maybe it’s a creative block, or maybe it’s just boredom.
Either way, that’s ok. Design doesn’t need to be all work and no fun.
If you’re having a rough day, and you feel like procrastinating, you should check out some of these games.
From typography to color, I can guarantee that these design games will get you in a better mood and, possibly, motivate you to get back on track in no-time. Check out the following list and have fun, even if it’s just for a little bit!

Typography

Type Connection
We’re starting our design games’ list with a love scenario.
The goal of this game is to pair typefaces as if they were people looking for the perfect match.
You will be the matchmaker, and at the same time, you will learn about terminology, history, and more.

Typewar
On the other side of the spectrum of these design games, we have this one.
In it, you will either go on quests, or you choose to stay in the main game.
The goal is to identify letter fonts just by looking at them and by making a wild guess according to the two options.

Shape Type
There’s no secret to this game. The goal is to shape letters to make them perfect.
As a professional, unless you’re a type designer, you don’t have to know how to design fonts, but it sure helps if you have some notions about letter anatomy.
Let’s put that knowledge to the test!

Kern Type
As you might have guessed, your goal on this one is to distribute the space between letters. Doing this daily can be tedious but in this game, it is very addictive.

Helvetica vs. Arial
If this isn’t a classic, then I don’t know what it is.
The debate Helvetica vs. Arial as been a long, non-stoping battle.
Despite loving or hatting Helvetica, in this design game, you use it to crush Arial, literally.

Fathom
Between the crazily annoying music, and the, even more, crazy annoying space in the text, you will feel like you need to conquer this challenge, regardless of how much time it takes.
Just go easy on it, otherwise, you may end up losing your mind.

To the point
“I shot the serif, but I didn’t shoot the sans serif.”
This is precisely the goal. You have to be quick enough to choose only the serif fonts, and leave the rest of them alone. Do you think you can do it? It’s harder than it seems.

Color

Hex Invaders
Think about Space Invaders, and had a color challenge. That’s what you get with Hex Invaders.
To destroy the invaders, you will have to keep an eye on the Hex color code on the top of the screen.

Color
Color is about choosing the right hue considering the one that you see on the screen.
It’s quick, so there’s not much room for mistakes unless you know what you’re doing, you’re going to lose.

Logo

Logo Design Quiz
Yet another classic.
I don’t know why, but designers are fascinated with logo guessing games. In this one, 26 squares represent both the alphabet letters and company names.
Your mission is to write down without typos the name of the companies to get them all right and move to the next level.

Corporate Logos
Similar to the previous one, you will have to tell which company belongs to each logo. The only downside to this design game is that you have to log in to play.

Drawing

The Bézier Game
Even though this is not a direct drawing game, it’s one that allows you to master the pen tool effectively and, as a consequence, you will be faster and better at drawing shapes.

Pixactly
So you think you think you have enough experience to know your pixels well. The question is, are you ready to put it to the test? In this pixel game, you will have to draw boxes that match the exact dimensions given by the game and see if you’re really the pixel master.

Quick, draw!
Probably you know this one. Besides being highly addictive, it doesn’t require much effort. You simply draw a certain object in a 20-second interval, until it detects it correctly.

Code

Code Combat
This option is more in line with web designers and programmers (pun intended), but it can also be a good way if you want to learn how to code. To make your character move across the game, you will need to learn and use basic Javascript and Phyton code lines.

Originally posted on October 13, 2019.