Allison J. James
Serial creator. Created over 900 fonts and over 200 games to date, along with numerous other projects.
Born: May 1991
Pronouns: She/Her
Lives In: Bedwas, Wales
Also Known As: NAL, NALGames, Notalot, Allie
Favourite Colour: #FF0D6D
Favourite Music Artist: Röyksopp
Favourite Song: Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Favourite Film: Pleasantville
Favourite Video Game: Watch Dogs 2
Favourite Board Game: King of Tokyo
Favourite Social Deduction Game: Blood on the Clocktower
Favourite TV show: Futurama
oh no it’s me, hello
The Boast Board
Fonts in the Wild
Fonts and font work, between Allison’s solo font career (2011-2015) and the Chequered Ink era (2015-present), have been used by the following people.
Note: images are used for illustrative purposes only, and where possible, have been sourced from the public domain or attributed accordingly to best represent the people in question.
Musicians
1.2b listens
YouTube
Caddicarus (“Dead Font Walking”) / First We Feast / Honest Trailers / Johnstone (“She Smiles”) / Scott the Woz (multiple) / Smooth McGroove / Wrestling With Wregret (multiple)
Companies
AEW / Bayer / CZW / Dajto / DC / Funko / Head Gum / Lego / NBA / NJPW / PBS / Purina / Radiomaster / Rogue Energy / Secret Lab / Status Error / TNA / Trans World Sport / Uptime Energy / UFC / Versace / WWE
Wrestling
Braun Strowman / Bray Wyatt / Bryan Danielson / Cody Rhodes / Cesaro / Chris Jericho / Full Gear / Grand Slam / Harley Cameron / Jon Moxley / Ken Shamrock / Kenny Omega / Konosuke Takeshita / Kota Ibushi / LA Knight / Mark Briscoe / Matt Hardy / Mercedes Moné / Sheamus / Swerve Strickland / Taya Valkyrie / Thekla / Tommy Dreamer / Zack Ryder
Sports
Jim Williams / Phil “The Power” Taylor / Ricky Hatton
Miscellaneous
Derren Brown’s Ghost Train ride at Thorpe Park / Kidrobot x Mega Man
Note: the above are only examples spotted in the wild, and do not include usages where Allison James or Chequered Ink Ltd. signed an NDA during the licensing process. Also, Donald Trump and Andrew Tate have both used my fonts as well but those just make my heart hurt.
Games
Specialising in niche independent game experiences, her work is fairly underground, but here’s where you may have seen some of it.
Console Games
Ink Cipher (Nintendo Switch)
Maddening Euphoria (Nintendo Switch)
Maddening Overload (PS4)
Pong Quest (Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One)
Revolver and Co (Nintendo Switch)
Magazine Coverage
Innoquous (Edge Magazine December 2008: Internet Game of the Month)
Innoquous 3 (PC Zone: Included on DVDZone cover disc; PC Gamer: Included on cover disc)
Physical Releases
Ne Touchez Pas 5 (Super Rare Games Mixtape Vol. 2)
Pong Quest (Limited Run Games)
Website Coverage
Hi Me Ro Me (Indie Games+)
Innoquous 4 (PC Gamer)
Maddening Overload (IGN Hungary)
Maddening Relapse (Supermaddening WIP) (PC Gamer)
Maddening Relapse 2 (Rock Paper Shotgun)
Ne Touchez Pas 4 (PC Gamer)
YouTube Coverage
Dreaming On E (Vinesauce)
Dynapogo (Vinesauce)
Hi Me Ro Me (NerdCubed)
Innoquous 4 (Bytejacker; Vinesauce)
Japanese Infomercial (Vinesauce)
Maddening Relapse (CinnamonToastKen, JustSnake, Kuplinov, Willong)
madnessMADNESSmadness (Bytejacker)
Remaddening (Vinesauce)
Additional Work
250m listens
500m listens
80m listens
Video Games
60m listens
1.2b listens
TV & Movies
Board Games
600m listens
YoYo Games
Allison worked for YoYo Games Ltd. for five years, from July 2010 to August 2015, as a Game Developer. She was credited on the following GameMaker games in that time:
B.A.S.E. Jumper (Lead Programmer)
Fire Escape (Lead Programmer)
Froad (Lead Programmer)
GameMaker: Player (Prototype Programmer)
GDC Bomberman (Prototype Programmer)
GDC Cut the Rope (Prototype Programmer)
GDC Texas Hold ‘em Poker (Prototype Programmer, Typography)
GDC Veg Ninja (Prototype Programmer)
Grave Maker (QA)
greenTech+ (Additional Programmer)
Maddening (Lead Programmer, Designer, Creator)
Maddening Overload (Lead Programmer, Designer, Creator)
Mr. Karoshi (Additional Programmer, QA)
Ninjammin Beat-Jitsu (Additional Programmer)
Planet Descent (Additional Programmer)
Pollushot (Additional Programmer)
Prison Ball (Additional Programmer)
Project YourWorld (UI Programmer, Additional Programmer)
Reflexions (Lead Programmer)
Rick O’ Shea (Additional Programmer)
Simply Minesweeper (Lead Programmer)
Simply Poker Squares (Lead Programmer)
Simply Solitaire (Lead Programmer)
Simply Sudoku (Lead Programmer)
Simply Wordsearch (Additional Programmer)
Skydiver Drop Zone (Lead Programmer)
Skydiver Mach II (Additional Programmer)
Stick ‘Em Up (Lead Programmer, Typography)
Super Snake HD (Additional Programmer)
Sync Simple (Additional Programmer)
Teka Teki (Additional Programmer)
They Need to Be Fed (QA, Level Design)
Word Song (Prototype Programmer)
Atari
As half of Chequered Ink, Allison and Daniel Johnston worked with Atari and Juju Adams to create Pong Quest, a 2020 game in the storied Pong franchise that brings new RPG elements to the table. Trailer
Commissioned work and miscellaneous credits
Atari - branding font work
Atari Recharged Series - Charge Vector typeface used in logos and in-game
Beastieball - font localisation
Chicory: A Colorful Tale - expanded language support and controller prompts to main typeface
Jet Lancer - asset used
The Swords of Ditto - technical work on typeface
Wandersong - technical work on typeface
Skills
Font creation
Created over 900 fonts to date with tens of millions of downloads across multiple sites, and having been used by some of the largest businesses in the world alongside thousands of others
Game programming
Proven as an independent developer with a fast turnaround thanks to her portfolio alone, having used GameMaker since 2003 and at a professional level since 2010
Graphic design
An avid user of Fireworks since 2005, practiced in website layout design, package design, poster design, thumbnail design and beyond
Writing
A competent poet and writer of short stories and game cutscenes. Mostly comedic and sometimes adult in nature but she has occasionally dipped into more serious and personal notes
Reviewing
Casual reviewer, mostly of entertainment products, for over a decade, mostly in online magazines and independent reviewing blogs
Proofreading
Extremely eloquent when needed, with exceptional spelling abilities and a sometimes-too-good ability to spot a spelling error that slipped through everyone else’s fingers, and experience in doing so in a number of casual publications. She can even use its and it’s correctly
Music creation
Not very good at this but she’s made some music before so that’s lovely
Allison
Email: nal AT nalgames.com
Bsky: allis.ink
Facebook: AllieJJ
Instagram: allisink
LinkedIn: Allison James
Discord: allisonink
Reddit: AllisonJJ
Twitch: AllisonInk
PlayStation Network: AllisonInk
Xbox: Superplex
Switch: SW-8192-8200-7829
Chequered Ink
Website: Chequered Ink
DaFont: Chequered Ink
FontSpace: Chequered Ink
itch.io: CI
Steam: Chequered Ink Ltd
Nintendo: Chequered Ink Ltd
Mobygames: Chequered Ink Ltd