Now that I've got a little bit of playtime in, I can share some initial thoughts. :)
This game is quite challenging! I'll need a fair bit more practice to start building more than just menzen tsumo, tanyao, etc.. I found that receiving tiles in fixed triplets sometimes makes it tricky to access the center tile, especially with only straight-line melding to work with. However, having access to a Hold function seems very useful; I'll have to practice using it more effectively.
Have you considered also melding tiles in L-shaped formations (Puyo Puyo, China Town, Geki-Toride, etc.) or along diagonals (Columns, etc.)? That might give the player a bit more leverage while working within the restriction of receiving tiles in fixed triplets.
I like the idea of awarding additional fu for chaining. :) I think that's a nice way of rewarding some puzzle game actions while still keeping things integrated into the riichi mahjong theme.
Also, I have a question about special hands; from the included screenshots, I see that kokushi musou is implemented. Given the straight-line detection of other melds, does kokushi need to be built in a single 14-cell column of the playfield? Is there also detection implemented for chiitoitsu?
Thanks haha. I’ve thought about making melds clearable in more formations but honestly I like the more restrictive and challenging way it is right now (with melds being more visually simple too). Considering you only need to clear 5 things per round, I think the tradeoff of those clears being harder to achieve is fair.
The straight-line melds combined with your straight-line pieces means you can get screwed over by drawing a tile in the wrong spot (similar kind of feeling as in regular mahjong when you get screwed over by drawing something that would’ve worked with something you just discarded), like having something in the outer columns that your middle tile can’t get to.
Your dropped pieces having two outer tiles and one inner tile means it’s less likely for the tile you need to be in the middle, which is something you can take into account when filling up the board, but that’s a risk you have to take, as that can still go wrong a third of the time! It’s that nagging feeling of failed setups being your own fault that I love to see happen when I’m playing it myself too.
And yes, kokushi and chiitoi have to be built as 14-tall columns :) They’re just as risky, inflexible and hard to change course from as in regular mahjong. Also, the tiles in those hands have to be fully closed and you get locked out of it if you clear any melds that round!
Is there a way to play this without a physical Playdate? I couldn't seem to get it working with the simulator. I love mahjong puzzle games (China Town is one of my favorite arcade games ever), so I was delighted to see this in the list and hope I get a chance to play it. :)
(Funny enough, my two choices for game designs to visit for this jam were "tessellation game remix" and "China Town remix," so there very nearly could have been two riichi puzzlers submitted. ;) )
Ahh crap okay so this is why; I’d have to build the game on Windows (I only have Linux). I’ll see if I can get the game to build on my VM when I can find the time.
Aha, interesting! Well, that piece of information got me thinking that I might be able to use WSL to spin up the Linux build of the simulator, and that does seem to work! :D
EDIT: I'll need to contend with the lack of keyboard remapping in the simulator for flipped screen, but I think I'll be able to find a workaround with AutoHotKey or similar. :)
Comments
Now that I've got a little bit of playtime in, I can share some initial thoughts. :)
This game is quite challenging! I'll need a fair bit more practice to start building more than just menzen tsumo, tanyao, etc.. I found that receiving tiles in fixed triplets sometimes makes it tricky to access the center tile, especially with only straight-line melding to work with. However, having access to a Hold function seems very useful; I'll have to practice using it more effectively.
Have you considered also melding tiles in L-shaped formations (Puyo Puyo, China Town, Geki-Toride, etc.) or along diagonals (Columns, etc.)? That might give the player a bit more leverage while working within the restriction of receiving tiles in fixed triplets.
I like the idea of awarding additional fu for chaining. :) I think that's a nice way of rewarding some puzzle game actions while still keeping things integrated into the riichi mahjong theme.
Also, I have a question about special hands; from the included screenshots, I see that kokushi musou is implemented. Given the straight-line detection of other melds, does kokushi need to be built in a single 14-cell column of the playfield? Is there also detection implemented for chiitoitsu?
Thanks haha. I’ve thought about making melds clearable in more formations but honestly I like the more restrictive and challenging way it is right now (with melds being more visually simple too). Considering you only need to clear 5 things per round, I think the tradeoff of those clears being harder to achieve is fair.
The straight-line melds combined with your straight-line pieces means you can get screwed over by drawing a tile in the wrong spot (similar kind of feeling as in regular mahjong when you get screwed over by drawing something that would’ve worked with something you just discarded), like having something in the outer columns that your middle tile can’t get to.
Your dropped pieces having two outer tiles and one inner tile means it’s less likely for the tile you need to be in the middle, which is something you can take into account when filling up the board, but that’s a risk you have to take, as that can still go wrong a third of the time! It’s that nagging feeling of failed setups being your own fault that I love to see happen when I’m playing it myself too.
And yes, kokushi and chiitoi have to be built as 14-tall columns :) They’re just as risky, inflexible and hard to change course from as in regular mahjong. Also, the tiles in those hands have to be fully closed and you get locked out of it if you clear any melds that round!
Is there a way to play this without a physical Playdate? I couldn't seem to get it working with the simulator. I love mahjong puzzle games (China Town is one of my favorite arcade games ever), so I was delighted to see this in the list and hope I get a chance to play it. :)
(Funny enough, my two choices for game designs to visit for this jam were "tessellation game remix" and "China Town remix," so there very nearly could have been two riichi puzzlers submitted. ;) )
Hmmm which version of the simulator are you running and on which OS?
Version 2.7.6 on Win11. The error I get when selecting YakuHigh from the game list is "Update error: Couldn't find pdz file main.pdz"
Ahh crap okay so this is why; I’d have to build the game on Windows (I only have Linux). I’ll see if I can get the game to build on my VM when I can find the time.
Aha, interesting! Well, that piece of information got me thinking that I might be able to use WSL to spin up the Linux build of the simulator, and that does seem to work! :D
EDIT: I'll need to contend with the lack of keyboard remapping in the simulator for flipped screen, but I think I'll be able to find a workaround with AutoHotKey or similar. :)