I Laid Out One Board Myself and Gave Up

After finishing ZenoWorks Connect, it occurred to me that Mahjong Solitaire is a similar kind of game, just solved differently, so most of what I had built could probably be reused. I figured I would give it a try.

It turned out to be far harder than Connect.

The gap between desktop and phone could be handled by using fewer tiles. But arranging the board layout is a huge job, and it is three-dimensional, several layers deep.

I tried laying out one board myself, and gave up.

So I went online to look for open-source layouts. Like matching games, Mahjong Solitaire comes in countless versions; not every developer can be designing boards from scratch.

And I found one: ffalt/mah. Thank you.

It Would Not Fit on a Phone

But one problem remained: it would not fit on a phone. Not even held upright.

So I trimmed the ends off the layouts to make a version that suits phones.

Too Dull to Get Past Me

Once I finally had a playable version, I noticed a problem: it was dull.

Unlike Connect, Mahjong Solitaire has no gravity, and every board is solved in much the same way. Its fun lies in how the tiles are laid out, and in the visuals, music and sound.

But I had not used many graphics, and the interface was fairly bare. If a game is too dull, it does not get past me.

So I came up with this: when you clear a pair, the two tiles grow, come together and vanish, with light and sound effects.

Hm. Not bad.

I let Iris try it. Watching her tap away like mad, pair after pair growing and popping out, I found it fun just sitting beside her.