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Alienae Litterae

What is it?

Alienae Litterae is a JavaScript based typing game with the aim of improving the reading speed of historical fonts and scripts in a playful way. There are currently 14 different fonts from various times in European history to choose from:

  • Old Roman cursive
  • New Roman cursive
  • Insular minuscle
  • Rhaetian minuscle
  • Carolingian minuscle
  • Rotunda
  • Textura
  • Gothic cursive
  • Antiqua
  • Schwabacher
  • Kurrent
  • Older Fraktur
  • Newer Fraktur
  • Sütterlin

Some fonts (mostly medieval ones but not exclusively) have abbreviations. You can select or deselect them in the font menu as you please.

The game is based on the Tetris principal: Words keep on falling from the sky and will start stacking on top of each other unless they are “typed away”. If you are typing too slow and the words are stacking up faster than you can type, the words will eventually reach the ceiling – Game Over. If you did well enough, you may add your name to the leaderboard – congratulations!

Game Elements

Game elements
  1. The score. The more points you are accumulating the better you are. Points are gained by typing words (longer words equals more points) and by simply surviving.
  2. The current highscore of this font and the person holding it as a little motivation. Can you beat them?
  3. The current level of the game. Levels are reached by typing words. The game gets harder and harder, words get longer and longer in the higher levels but you get rewarded for your skill by a significantly higher point gain!
  4. The current combo bonus. This bonus rewards you for making as little mistakes as possible when typing by multiplying the normal point gain you would get for a correctly typed word by this factor! The combo bonus will shrink fast if you make too many mistakes or take too long, so be careful!

Alphabet

Credits

Thanks to all creators who allowed me to use their work. They are listed below.

Fonts

Historic

Design

Sounds

Images