Use Text Effectively to Communicate Information to Players
On this page
- Labels
- Numbers
- Objectives
- References
- Subtitles and Closed Captions
- Subtitles
- Closed Captions
- General Recommendations for Subtitles and Closed Captions
- Alignment
- Capitalization
- Color Contrast
- Configurability
- Default Settings
- Encoding
- Language
- Line Breaks
- Line Count
- Line Length
- Line Spacing
- Placement
- Post-Processing Effects
- Prioritization
- Reading Speed
- Subtitles vs. Closed Captions
- Text Block Delays
- Text Size
- Typeface
- Unambiguity of Sound Sources
- Visual Distinction Between Subtitles and Captions
- Textual Descriptions
You can use text in the following forms:
Labels
Use labels to describe objects, where each label consists of one or a few words.
Using labels is particularly helpful in the following situations:
When the purpose of a graphical element may be ambiguous.
In Tacoma, labels on graphs clearly describe what the graphs represent.
Credit: The Fullbright Company. Screenshot captured by the author.
In Tacoma, the label “AI SECURE COMMUNICATIONS RECORD” helps players better understand the accompanying text.
Credit: The Fullbright Company. Screenshot captured by the author.
- When it is necessary to refer to a specific object within a block of text.
In Frostpunk, yellow text is used to denote the labels of objects and options in the game. Players can clearly identify the label “Steam Cores” when hovering over the corresponding icon on the top panel of the GUI.
Credit: 11 bit studios S.A.. Screenshot captured by the author.
In Frostpunk, a tooltip displaying the element name appears in the top menu when players hover the cursor over items there.
Credit: 11 bit studios S.A.. Screenshot captured by the author.
When players need to know the name of an object to progress.
However, labels are not necessary when their meaning is already clear without being stated explicitly.
In Tacoma, players can easily interpret the shapes used for the rewind, pause, and play buttons, as these symbols are widely understood from real-world devices. Therefore, it is not essential to include textual labels such as “Rewind,” “Pause,” or “Play” alongside these buttons.
Credit: The Fullbright Company. Screenshot captured by the author.
In Tacoma, icons such as a thermometer, blood pressure monitor, heartbeat, and oxygen level effectively communicate their meaning without the need for accompanying labels.
Credit: The Fullbright Company. Screenshot captured by the author.
Numbers
Text can also be used to convey information that players can count. Employing numbers is especially beneficial when players need to know the exact value of a specific metric. Numerical representation provides greater precision than vague alternatives such as icons. This is particularly important for the following elements:
Score.
Standings.
Statistics.
Timers.
Objectives
The following recommendations can help make textual communication of objectives more effective:
Provide concise, easy-to-understand instructions to minimize cognitive load.
Include an option for players to access additional details about each objective.
Use text to deliver updates on current objectives.
Clearly distinguish active objectives from those that are completed, postponed, or cancelled.
Ensure that players can access objective information easily by implementing one of the following methods:
Display objectives constantly on the screen:
This is a highly accessible approach, as players always have immediate access to their current objective during gameplay. However, care must be taken to keep the objective instructions brief so they do not occupy excessive screen space. From an aesthetic standpoint, continuously displaying objectives might not be ideal, as it adds an extra visual element to the screen. As a solution, consider offering players the option to hide this information via the accessibility menu while still allowing access through a separate menu or a dedicated key.Display objectives when a key is pressed:
In this method, pressing a key either temporarily displays the current objective or opens a dedicated objectives menu. This approach enables you to include supplementary information—such as descriptive text, audio logs, illustrations, or map locations—that may assist players in achieving their goals. If you intend to show active, completed, or failed objectives, a separate menu is especially useful. Ensure that players can easily read and distinguish between objectives with different statuses.Displaying the current objective by holding a button is also a possibility, although this method may not be accessible to players who have difficulty holding buttons down for extended periods.
If the text alone does not sufficiently guide players to complete an objective, or if doing so would be unnecessarily difficult, consider supplementing textual descriptions with graphical elements. These elements may include:
Icons indicating the locations where objectives occur.
Itineraries or paths guiding players toward those objectives.
References
A common method for providing references is the use of hypertext, which consists of links embedded within the text that direct readers to additional content. Incorporating references into your text can be beneficial when players wish to quickly access related information, much like browsing websites on the internet. This feature becomes particularly useful in games that contain extensive textual content, such as detailed descriptions of the game world, its characters, or gameplay mechanics. By integrating hypertext, players can navigate more efficiently through complex information. As with web browsing, hypertext must be formatted distinctly from the rest of the text so that it is easily recognizable by players.
In Stronghold Crusader 2, players engage with embedded references while navigating the game manual.
Credit: Firefly Studios. Footage captured by the author.
Subtitles and Closed Captions
Subtitles
Subtitles are written transcripts or translations of spoken dialogue.
They are valuable to players under the following circumstances:
Players are unable or prefer not to use an audio output device such as speakers or headphones.
Players are in a noisy environment where audio output is not clearly audible.
Players require transcription or translation due to insufficient listening proficiency in the spoken or diegetic language, whether it is foreign or fictional.
Players have a hearing impairment.
If you intend to include subtitles in your game, ensure that a complete, word-for-word transcription of the audio is provided. This transcription should encompass all forms of spoken content used in storytelling, including:
Barks.
Dialogues.
Audio and video broadcasts.
Examples:
Spoken announcements from loudspeakers in streets, metro stations, or airports.
Spoken words transmitted through radio receivers or televisions.
Flashbacks.
Inner voices, visions, and hallucinations.
Monologues.
Songs.
Cinematic sequences, including the opening and closing cutscenes.
Closed Captions
Closed captions offer a transcription of spoken content similar to subtitles, but they also include textual descriptions of non-speech elements such as sound effects, music, silence, and diegetic text. These additions are essential for helping players:
Experience the intended emotional atmosphere.
Gain a deeper understanding of the narrative.
Progress within the game.
Closed captions are beneficial in all the scenarios mentioned for subtitles, and also when:
Players with hearing impairments cannot perceive non-verbal audio elements crucial for narrative comprehension or gameplay progression.
Players need transcription or translation of diegetic text presented in a foreign or fictional language.
Players require transcription of diegetic text in their native language that is otherwise difficult to read.
Players need translations of sign language used by in-game characters.
To effectively support players with closed captions, provide a comprehensive, word-for-word transcription of spoken content, covering the same storytelling methods as described in the subtitles section.
Additionally, display closed captions for the following types of non-speech content:
Diegetic Text.
Example:
When the cursor hovers over handwritten text on a wall while the player character is standing nearby.
Fillers.
Musical Cues.
Example:
A brief sound that plays when a monster is spotted in a horror game.
Sound Quality Descriptions: Descriptions of sound effects or music characteristics (e.g., distorted, muffled).
Speech Quality Descriptions.
Example:
When the player character hears distorted speech through a walkie-talkie.
- Silence.
Example:
An abrupt moment of silence before a chase sequence in a horror game, signaling a significant gameplay event.
- Sound Effects from Visible Sources: These help players identify specific sounds associated with on-screen events.
Example:
Character emotions conveyed through on-screen actions.
- Sound Effects from Invisible Sources.
Example:
Footsteps, explosions, or gunfire that occur off-screen but are vital to gameplay progression.
In Tacoma, when players hear a distant explosion, closed captions appear describing the event.
Credit: The Fullbright Company. Footage captured by the author.
Example:
Sounds from an enemy approaching from behind in an action game, indicating imminent danger.
Tone of Voice.
Volume of Sound Effects or Music.
Examples:
The increasing volume of approaching footsteps as a character nears from around a corner.
The moment during intense gameplay when the screen suddenly turns black and all sound fades, creating a dramatic pause.
General Recommendations for Subtitles and Closed Captions
Alignment
Align the subtitle and caption text to the center of the screen.
Capitalization
For detailed guidance on the use of uppercase and lowercase letters, refer to the section titled Capitalization.
Color Contrast
To maximize the contrast between the text and the background—thereby improving readability—consider using one of the following two straightforward solutions:
Apply a white color to the text and add a thin black outline.
Place the text within a semi-transparent black box (letterbox) behind white text, and allow players to adjust the transparency level if this option is used.
It is not necessary to implement both solutions simultaneously. If you are considering the use of drop shadows to improve text legibility, it is recommended to avoid them, as they are generally less effective than outlines. For example, black drop shadows applied to white text will not ensure sufficient legibility if the background is nearly white or nearly black.
Configurability
Players may prefer to play either with or without subtitles and closed captions. Therefore, provide options to enable either full captioning or subtitles only. Also, allow players to adjust the styling of subtitles and captions—such as font, size, color, and background—according to their preferences, directly through the accessibility settings menu.
For more details on customization, refer to the section Subtitles and closed captions.
Default Settings
To ensure that players who rely on subtitles or closed captions do not miss any dialogue, sound effects, or musical cues—especially during the opening cutscene—these features should be enabled by default. This is essential as players may not be able to access the settings menu in time to activate them manually.
Encoding
For further information regarding encoding, see the section titled Encoding.
Language
Ensure that subtitles and captions are displayed in a single language, based on the player’s language preference. Exceptions may be made for deliberate use of multiple languages, such as in multilingual or narrative-specific contexts.
Line Breaks
Line breaks determine where lines of text end. Insert line breaks naturally and where players would intuitively expect them to occur. Manual adjustment may be necessary to ensure a logical reading experience. Sentences that fit within the maximum character limit per line should remain on a single line. When they do not, avoid breaking lines in the following ways:
Between articles and nouns.
Don’t
Do
- Between articles and adjectives.
Don’t
Do
- Immediately after the beginning or just before the end of a sentence.
Don’t
Don’t
Do
- Between pronouns and verbs.
Don’t
Do
- Within individual words.
Don’t
Do
Line Count
Displaying too many lines of text at once may overwhelm players and discourage reading. To ensure readability and an optimal experience, display a maximum of two lines of text at a time. This also allows for subtitles or captions from up to two different sound sources—one line per source. If more than two sources produce sound, prioritize the most important two.
Line Length
Longer lines are generally harder to read. If subtitles extend beyond a single line and become too lengthy, break them into two or more lines. If you allow players to configure certain subtitle settings—such as font type or size—these settings will affect the number of characters visible on-screen.
How different typefaces, such as Arial, Helvetica, Roboto, and Verdana, influence line length.
The line length for three different text sizes of Arial, targeting 50 to 70 characters per line with a maximum of two lines. For instance, Arial 44 pt is highly legible when the player is seated approximately 60 cm away from a 25-inch 2K monitor.
For optimal legibility, aim for 50 to 70 characters per line (including spaces and punctuation). This recommendation applies to the smallest text size available. If players are allowed to increase the text size, you will naturally need to reduce the number of characters per line to fit within the maximum container width for subtitles and captions.
When displaying multi-line text, ensure the first line is the longest.
Line Spacing
For additional information on appropriate line spacing, consult the section titled Line spacing.
Placement
Position subtitles near the bottom center of the screen. Ensure adequate vertical and horizontal padding from the screen edges to enhance readability. Additionally, take into account the placement of GUI elements to prevent them from overlapping with subtitles, regardless of the selected text size.
Post-Processing Effects
If your game uses post-processing effects, ensure subtitles are excluded from their influence. Applying such effects to subtitles—such as chromatic aberration, distortion, or vignette—can hinder readability and frustrate players.
For additional information on using post-processing effects to enhance the game’s atmosphere, refer to the section Apply Post-Processing Effects to Refine the Atmosphere.
Prioritization
Subtitles or closed captions should generally be provided for sound sources that are spatially close to the player. However, exceptions apply in cases such as the rumble of a distant thunderstorm, remote explosions, gunfire, or other sounds that are significant for gameplay.
When multiple sound sources generate important audio simultaneously, it is crucial to limit the number of subtitles or captions displayed at once. This prevents players from becoming overwhelmed by too many text blocks appearing in quick succession. To manage this, you should establish a prioritization list that determines which sound sources should be subtitled or captioned first. Higher-priority sound sources should convey more critical or valuable information than lower-priority ones. The following example outlines a suggested hierarchy of sound source priorities, where “1” represents the highest priority:
Priority
Sound source
1
Storytelling methods performed by main characters, such as:
Dialogues.
Flashbacks.
Inner voices, visions, and hallucinations.
Monologues.
Songs.
2
Sound effects and musical cues critical for making further progress in the game, or story unfolding, such as:
Sounds produced by the enemy, such as:
Attacks (e.g., shooting weapons, throwing explosives).
Footsteps.
Object handling (e.g., picking up tools or weapons, reloading, opening or closing doors/windows, setting traps or explosives).
Mode switching (e.g., enabling immortality or invisibility).
Shouts.
Silence.
3
Soundtrack (including adaptive music).
4
Sounds that do not hinder progression for players with or without hearing impairments, and which are secondary in storytelling, such as:
Ambient sounds (e.g., traffic, nearby waterfalls, distant thunder)
Storytelling methods from characters, with which players do not need to interact to make progress, such as:
Dialogues between non-player characters.
Monologues.
Songs.
Reading Speed
When designing subtitles and closed captions, consider that players must simultaneously read the text and follow on-screen gameplay. The faster the gameplay, the less text should be displayed at any given time.
Additionally, the more text displayed at once, the more time players will spend reading, which could distract them from critical elements of the game, such as the user interface. Presenting too much text may also inadvertently reveal future events, diminishing emotional impact by spoiling key moments prematurely.
Refer to the following example:
Don’t
Do
Three lines of subtitles are displayed sequentially to create emotional tension at appropriate narrative moments.
To maintain narrative suspense and emotional engagement, avoid revealing too much of the storyline in advance. Because word and character counts vary across languages, you must manually adjust the reading speed for each language. Simply translating subtitles and applying the same reading speed settings will not suffice.
Recognize that it is impossible to guarantee every player will read all text when characters speak rapidly. Nevertheless, aim to ensure that the majority of players can keep up with the subtitles and closed captions.
Another essential consideration is synchronization. Display the subtitle or caption text only while the corresponding audio is playing. However, if no additional text is queued, you may allow the text to remain on screen slightly longer after the audio has concluded.
Subtitles vs. Closed Captions
From an accessibility standpoint, closed captions offer greater inclusivity than subtitles alone. They provide not only spoken word transcriptions but also descriptions of non-speech audio elements such as sound effects and music, thereby enhancing the experience for players with or without hearing impairments.
Text Block Delays
Introduce a brief delay—between 100 milliseconds and 250 milliseconds—after each block of subtitles or closed captions. This ensures players can clearly distinguish when a new block of text appears on the screen.
The example video demonstrates how three blocks of captions are displayed based on varying delays: none, 120 ms, 170 ms, and 250 ms.
Text Size
While reducing the text size might seem like an aesthetically pleasing approach, it is important to remember that the primary purpose of enabling subtitles is to ensure they can be comfortably read. If subtitles are difficult to read, the benefit of displaying them becomes questionable. It is also essential to avoid making subtitles either too small or excessively large, as this can negatively affect readability and increase the time required to process the information.
Considering the wide range of devices players use—each with varying screen sizes, resolutions, and scaling factors—and the ambiguity of the distance between the player and the screen, it is not feasible to define a single fixed text size that suits all possible scenarios.
To select an appropriate text size, you may refer to the table below to determine the required x-height.
The height of the lowercase “X” in Arial.
Below are general guidelines, based on player feedback and internal testing, for selecting text size on a 25-inch monitor:
Note: The following values are based on players’ feedback and internal testing.
25-inch monitor, 2560 x 1440 px, 125% scaling, 60 cm viewing distance (e.g., standard desktop setup)
Minimum x-height (mm)
Default x-height (mm)
Maximum x-height (mm)
16
23
31
Your text size should automatically increase when players choose higher screen resolutions and decrease accordingly for lower resolutions.
To achieve the recommended minimum text size, ensure the x-height measures approximately 16 mm when using a physical ruler placed on the screen.
To achieve the recommended default text size, the x-height should measure approximately 23 mm.
To achieve the recommended maximum text size, the x-height should measure approximately 31 mm.
When measuring the x-height, do not include any visual effects applied to the text, such as drop shadows or outlines.
To determine exact text size values for different typefaces, consider the following reference scenario:
25-inch monitor, 2560 x 1440 px, 125% scaling, 60 cm viewing distance (e.g., standard desktop setup)
Typeface
Minimum text size (pt)
Default text size (pt)
Maximum text size (pt)
Arial
31
44
60
Helvetica
31
44
60
Roboto
30
43
58
Verdana
29
42
57
Note that the x-height of the lowercase “x” varies between typefaces. Therefore, if you are using a typeface other than those listed in the reference table, you must adjust the text size to ensure it matches the recommended x-height.
To provide players with greater control over subtitle readability, allow them to select a preferred text size within the defined minimum and maximum bounds, with the default size positioned between the two.
Players who prefer subtitles to be as unobtrusive as possible will likely decrease the text size toward the minimum.
Players with visual impairments or those seated further from the screen may increase the text size toward the maximum.
Players who are not inclined to adjust accessibility settings will generally rely on the default size you define.
If, for any reason, it is not feasible to implement a slider for exact text size selection, offer at least three preset options—Small, Medium, and Large—where Medium is set as the default. These options should be defined as follows:
Small = Minimum text size.
Medium = Default text size.
Large = Maximum text size.
Typeface
For more information on typefaces, refer to Typeface.
Unambiguity of Sound Sources
When a person or object produces an important sound, ensure the source of the sound is clearly identified—whether it is visible on screen or not.
Players can recognize that the speaking character is Elena.
Closed captions clearly indicate that the sound comes from the cab door.
You may also use different text colors for identifying sound sources by name. This enables players to quickly perceive when the source of the sound has changed.
When a character is speaking, you may include a portrait of that character to provide visual context.
In Celeste, a portrait of the current speaker is shown to assist players in identifying the character.
Credit: Extremely OK Games. Screenshot captured by the author.
Visual Distinction Between Subtitles and Captions
Players should be able to distinguish subtitles from captions easily and quickly. One way to achieve this is by enclosing captions within angular or square brackets.
Textual Descriptions
Textual descriptions help clarify the meaning and purpose of various game options. When providing descriptions, it is essential to explain how a given setting impacts gameplay. Avoid simply repeating the label of the option in its description.
Don’t
When displaying a tooltip for an option such as “BORDERLESS WINDOWED,” avoid repeating the label verbatim in the description area (typically shown at the bottom of the window). This approach does not convey useful information. Instead, describe how enabling this option affects gameplay or performance.
Do
In Supraland, the settings menu tooltips clearly communicate the purpose and effect of each configuration option.
Credit: Supra Games. Screenshot captured by the author.