West of Dead brings Ron Pearlman to afterlife as a dead cowboy with a burning head. He also has burning issues with the various demons that inhabit Purgatory, Wisconsin. They lurk in the shadows; you, as the player, have to bring them to the light. Then shoot them extra dead.
While the interplay of light and dark is key to your survival, developer Upstream Arcade leaned into the aesthetic. West of Dead is a cell-shaded western shoot ‘em up. When environments and monsters aren’t shrouded in a darkness as deep and real as Ron Pearlman’s voice, they exude endless style: a classic western dragged to hell and back.
To express this style in the West of Dead logo and marketing materials, publisher Raw Fury needed a rugged western font. They found it in BLKBK’s typeface Diamond Creek, a slab-serif, wild-west font, inspired by woodblock printed WANTED posters. BLKBK drew Diamond Creek freehand, sculpting the outline with a thin-tip marker like a sheriff would have carved woodblock with a Bowie knife, before inking it in. The result is gritty as sand in skulls—perfect for the West of Dead.
