Played a lot of it today! I’ve known this game forever but still don’t understand the exact rule. Also, it didn’t work well offline (I was on a boat most of the time so I had trouble restarting new games)
Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
51–60 of 88 posts
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#52Note: this is Mahjong Solitaire. I went in expecting either riichi or Chinese mahjong based on the title.
I’m not sure I’d describe the multiplayer mahjong games as “relaxing”. Riichi specifically gets into really intense situations.
Wow! Didn’t know Japanese played majhong too! What are the differences?
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#53Nice! Some feedback, maybe not specifically for your implementation, I think these are the reasons I've never gotten that into Mahjong even though I really like these kind of games. - Some of the bricks are too similar for me. Red symbol with a smaller black symbol above. As those symbols are meaningless to me, I'm unable to pattern match quickly. (It's probably the standard look, but having variations would be nice)…
Thanks a lot for the great feedback! - I'm considering creating a Western variation of the tile set where the black characters (Chinese for 1 - 9) are replaced by 1, 2, ... 9, which might help a bit with the pattern matching (you might get used to the Chinese characters after a while, though!) - 100% agree, the depth perception could be better - the flower pot is a progress marker
Please don’t westernize the game by translating the characters, that’s like what’s so special about the game!
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#54Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#55Well done! I enjoyed playing your game and thank you for making and sharing it.
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#56Nice! Some feedback, maybe not specifically for your implementation, I think these are the reasons I've never gotten that into Mahjong even though I really like these kind of games. - Some of the bricks are too similar for me. Red symbol with a smaller black symbol above. As those symbols are meaningless to me, I'm unable to pattern match quickly. (It's probably the standard look, but having variations would be nice)…
Thanks a lot for the great feedback! - I'm considering creating a Western variation of the tile set where the black characters (Chinese for 1 - 9) are replaced by 1, 2, ... 9, which might help a bit with the pattern matching (you might get used to the Chinese characters after a while, though!) - 100% agree, the depth perception could be better - the flower pot is a progress marker
The game is pattern matching, so if you make a western version, make it a non-default option. FWIW you could make shapes, or famous buildings, etc., but I have only ever seen the proper tiles in use before. I don't even remember which Chinese numbers are which, and I have no idea the characters for which directions are which, either. But it doesn't matter as long as you can remember the shape and colour. I definitely prefer the "authentic" look. Besides, eventually you come up with nicknames for remembering what you're searching for: there's a stickman, a house, a mustache, the underlined th, the letter x, the letter k, etc...
Depth perception caught me a few times because certain tile positions overlap at the same angle. I don't know how hard/easy it is to do, but one of the best versions I saw added a bit of a shadow as if the light was coming from the rear right side to make those more clear. That way it makes the tiers more obvious while still looking natural.
Anyway, your game is pretty much spot on, and plays as quick/smoothly as a desktop app, so that's a good thing. Once in a while the gets delayed, but that might be my far-too-many open tabs interfering.
I like the flower-meter. Nice subtlety.
Some people might want a timer. It would be a nice addition as an option, but not default. "Relaxing" goes out the window if there's a timer, and I tend to lollygag and carry on conversations while playing games like this.
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not sure I’d describe the multiplayer mahjong games as “relaxing”. Riichi specifically gets into really intense situations.
Wow! Didn’t know Japanese played majhong too! What are the differences?
The most distinctive feature of the popular Japanese mahjong variants (as opposed to other mahjong gambling games) is probably the own-discard furiten rule: players can't win off others' discards if any tile they previous discard during that hand would complete their hand. (This is distinct from and in addition to more common "sacred discard" restriction against winning off a discard after letting another winning tile pass during the same round.) To facilitate keeping track of this, in Japanese mahjong separate discard piles are kept for each player through the entire hand.
(The other distinct feature is the riichi yaku, which essentially lets a player (discretionarily) raise their stake and declare that the won't change their wait to increase the potential score of the hand on completion. This is pretty distortionary since it's by far the most common yaku at about twice as frequent as tanyao.
It is the reason "riichi mahjong" is a common name for the most popular family of Japanese mahjong variants. It's pretty distinctive. I rate it as less distinctive mainly because, when everyone at the table knows what they're doing, it mostly only affects gameplay around the edges, whereas the own-discard furiten rule has wide-reaching implications for "defensive" play.)
Aside from that, there's the usual mess typical of regional scoring variation.
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#58Love this. I used to play this as a kid. Love the different patterns. Thanks for creating this. Bookmarked!
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#59It was relaxing until there were no more moves. Then I jumped a little in my seat at the noise.
That's a good point - I guess that sound effect doesn't go so well with the rest of the atmosphere.
I would also suggest letting the user stew for 10 seconds or so before declaring "No More Moves".
Re: Show HN: I made a Mahjong browser game
#60Very nice! Are all hands solvable?