Contents

Intro

Inspiration

Concept development

Font design

Interface design

Intro

When I was in elementary school, it became incredibly apparent that I could not say /r/. I would instead replace this sound with /w/— the word “squirrel” would sound like “squiwwel”. This phenomenon, known as rhotacism, is incredibly common. It affects “12.9% of preschool aged children” and is conquered by speech therapists through a variety of exercises built to correct tongue placement.

Such exercises were given to me once a week to practice in the mirror for homework. A great idea, except I was 8 years old and lacked discipline or any sense of motivation to conquer my rhotacism. The worksheet was boring and couldn’t offer any insight as to whether or not my /r/ was improving. Thus, I didn’t do my homework. Over time I was able to correct this impediment, but it likely would’ve improved much sooner with consistency.

Another thing about me in elementary school— I loved rhythm games. I would spend hours on end playing a game called Rhythm Heaven Fever. Through repeated exercises, cute visuals, and catchy melodies, I quickly became a pro at this game.

Rhythm Heaven Fever gameplay for the minigame “Flipper Flop”

So, when I began to take the course Type and Games in my Spring 2025 curriculum, this game was at the top of my mind. Additionally, with an interest in linguistics and a fascination with preserving the International Phonetic Alphabet, it only made sense to gamify the homework that I never did.