Hi everyone! I'm Emma, a web apps developer with a soft spot for typography and Unicode, and I've been thinking about Wingdings as a puzzle element.
For those unfamiliar, Wingdings is that old Microsoft symbol font where typing ordinary letters renders as little symbols instead — which makes it a ready-made substitution cipher. Every letter maps to a symbol, so any solver with the font (or a mapping table) can decode it.
Its most famous puzzle-ish appearance is probably in Undertale, where W.D. Gaster's dialogue is written entirely in Wingdings — players had to decode it to uncover hidden lore.
So I'm curious: has anyone here used font-based ciphers in puzzle hunts, cryptograms, or puzzles of your own? What do you see as the pros and cons versus a traditional letter substitution? On one hand it's instantly solvable with the right tool; on the other, it can be a fun "aha" layer. Keen to hear your thoughts!
For those unfamiliar, Wingdings is that old Microsoft symbol font where typing ordinary letters renders as little symbols instead — which makes it a ready-made substitution cipher. Every letter maps to a symbol, so any solver with the font (or a mapping table) can decode it.
Its most famous puzzle-ish appearance is probably in Undertale, where W.D. Gaster's dialogue is written entirely in Wingdings — players had to decode it to uncover hidden lore.
So I'm curious: has anyone here used font-based ciphers in puzzle hunts, cryptograms, or puzzles of your own? What do you see as the pros and cons versus a traditional letter substitution? On one hand it's instantly solvable with the right tool; on the other, it can be a fun "aha" layer. Keen to hear your thoughts!