144 Tiles Will Not Fit on a Phone

The game in my memory ran on Windows, on a landscape screen: 36 kinds of pictures, four of each, 144 tiles in total.

What I was building was a web version, and a web version eventually gets opened on a phone.

I tried it on the first day: cram all 36 kinds into a portrait phone screen. When I saved that build, I named the folder Portrait 36 Kinds.

Unplayable.

The tiles shrank until you could not tell what the pictures were.

Cutting It Down

After some thought I simplified: 20 kinds, four of each, 80 tiles.

Eight columns by ten rows fits a portrait phone exactly. The tiles got bigger, the pictures became legible, and your finger landed where you meant it to.

Then something I had not expected happened.

Fewer kinds, easier pairs, lower difficulty, shorter clear times. Every one of those sounds like the game got easier, and therefore duller.

Playing it, the opposite was true.

With 144 tiles my eyes ached by the end, because I was constantly scanning a huge field of tiny pictures. With 80, one sweep of the eyes tells you what your options are. The pace is quick, a round ends soon, and when you finish you do not feel like you have just been released from something.

Not being tiring is its greatest virtue.

I found that out by playing it myself. Later Iris played it, and she agreed.

But I Did Not Cut the Desktop Board

The phone's problem was a small screen. A desktop does not have that problem.

So the large board stayed. On desktop it is 16 columns by 9 rows, 144 tiles, the full 36 kinds, exactly the scale of the game in my memory.