Some of our fans have a lot of free time on their hands. And that is AWESOME.

 

Exhibit A: this amazing stainless steel, laser-engraved Lombax Scrabble set crafted by Insomniac forum member and font creator Paul Grzelak.

 

 

Grzelak went above and beyond the call of rational fandom and sent us one of his newly minted board games. And get this—there are only 25 of these sets in existence. Which leads me to answer the obvious question: No, they aren’t for sale (sorry, folks). As if it could be any more drool-worthy, Lombax Scrabble is the definition of “Limited Edition.”

 

For a detailed breakdown of the creation of this unique collectible you can check out Grzelak’s blog here.

 

 

 

Grzelak first landed on our radar shortly after the release of Tools of Destruction in 2007. With the help of fellow forum member Midnightheist, he was able to decode the Lombax text outside of the Lava Refineries on Rykan V and set out on creating a true font file using the ancient alien symbols. Grzelak explains, “I am more a geek / engineer by nature. The mere fact that I wanted a Lombax font … was enough to get me to research font creation and start playing around with it.”

 

Having a font installed on your computer allows use of the language in any type-based program, making it a breeze to translate any text into the Lombax language by simply typing away at a keyboard. Since the text was only originally intended for use as a graphic design element in the game, producing a font was not considered a priority inside the studio. There was one problem that Grzelak ran into however: a few characters (J, X, and Z) do not appear anywhere in Tools of Destruction. What to do….

 

 

An active member on the Insomniac forums under the clever alias “pgrzelak”, Grzelak contacted one of the moderators, Insomniac Tools Programmer Paul “Pacman” Haile, who then put him in contact with Grant Hollis, Lead Artist and the original creator of the Lombax language. Grant recalls first getting in touch with Grzelak: “At the time, there was no font. I created the alphabet (A-Z and 0-9) using Adobe Illustrator and the artists had to hand-assemble any text onto the textures which would appear in the game. In exchange for the final three letters, Grzelak offered to send us a copy of the final font that he created.” Grant sent him the original Illustrator files and the rest is history. Grzelak received an in-game credit in A Crack In Time for his contribution, and his font was used throughout development.

 

So what’s up next for one of Ratchet’s biggest fanboys? Grzelak is vague about his answers: “I am from the East Coast of the US. I am old enough to have been alive before the moon landing, but young enough at the time not to remember it. I am a computer engineer by trade, and I have been working in the I.T. field at a very large company for over 20 years now.” A busy guy, with a lot of responsibilities, Grzelak can amazingly still find time now and then to check in on the forums and like every community member, make an impact on the Ratchet Universe. What more can a game developer ask of its fans?

 

May I suggest… Zoni Boggle?