Blind Mahjong - A new game for the blind and visually impaired

Hey Ming,

You may try searching "星光麻将" if your App Store language is Chinese. Also, just in case, this app is currently not available to the App Store in mainland China due to their game restrictions. Stores in any other countries or areas will work.

Thanks.

1. If another player discards a tile, say 3 bamboo, and you have two 3 bamboo, you can claim a pung. Here are the steps:
a. Press the Pung button to make the claim.
b. After the app tells you to show your tiles, double tap and hold on one of your two 3 bamboo tiles to reveal it to everybody. That gesture is for VoiceOver users. Sighted player need to long press instead.
c. Do the same thing to your second 3 bamboo tile to reveal it as well.
d. If you incidentally reveals a wrong tile, say 4 character, the app will send out that alert telling you to cancel the claim. Then, after the cancellation, you can claim and try again if you do have two 3 bamboo tiles.
e. The app will tell you to discard a tile after you reveal two tiles. Use the same double tap and hold gesture to discard a tile.

The steps are the same when claiming chows and kongs.

2. I'll definitely consider that. I actually struggled a bit when choosing the double tap and hold gesture. Glad to use something easier.

3. Those bonus tiles are not included in this app and I currently don't plan to include them. There are many different versions of Mahjong and lots of differences are related to the inclusion and use of those bonus tiles. This Blind Mahjong is based on the national standard rules used in China, which I guess can be seen as the common denominator of many local variations.

Thanks again for the questions!

Hey Eleni,

I will consider adding a timer setting. That is currently not included. I solely rely on VoiceOver myself so I do understand your thought.

Thanks!

Hey Zack,

Good point! I'll definitely fix this in its update.

Appreciatively,

Joe

I know. I was unable to play Mahjong after I became blind simply because there was no accessible way to do that. At least partially for this same reason, there are very few blind folks who understand how to play the game. But given that Mahjong is still very popular even today among sighted people (at least in China), I believe that some of the blind folks will love it if given an accessible tool and some time.

See if you would like to play with your family or friends. This app can be used by sighted people as well and subscriptions can be shared with family members. Get good at it if you are interested and maybe one day you can beat me - smiling

Hey Zack,

I just sent out an update to fix an issue in screen orientation (now version 1.1). It also includes a change on the winning message. Thanks again for bringing that up.

It will take a while for new players to get familiar with the rules of Chinese Mahjong. But after that, they won't need to check the rules again. The playing screen is already busy. So I did not put anything there linking to the rules.

The Quit button allows you to quit playing with the current group and all scores will be removed as well. The Stop button allows you to stop the current game. But you still remain on the playing screen, the same group are still there, scores are still there, and you can simply restart another game.

I think the nature of the Mahjong game lends itself well to the real time multi-player model rather than a turn-based model. For example, after someone discards a tile, who gets that tile needs to be determined in real time (e.g., pungs take priority over chows, and somebody can win with that tile, etc.).

And SwiftUI is not used in this app.

Thanks.

Hi Chrystal,

After you claim to chow, pung, or kong, you need to show your tiles to other players. You do that by show the tiles one by one, just like you discard a tile (double tap and hold on a tile). Of course, for chow and pung, you only need to show two tiles because the tile discarded by another player is already shown. For kongs, you need to show three tiles for exposed kongs or four tiles for concealed kongs (refer to the Chinese Mahjong section in the how to play guide for the terms).

The just discard or shown tiles will be placed in the middle of the screen, slightly above the row of your own tiles. Move your finger tip to that area and you can hear the tiles.

All the shown tiles of your chows, pungs, and kongs will eventually be moved off from the shown tile area and be placed to the right side of your tiles. They can't be changed for the rest of the game. That is to prevent players from using those tiles to form other sequences. One exception is that, if you get a pung sequence and later you self-draw the same tile again, in that case you can used the already shown pung sequence together with the newly drawn tile to form a kong.

You are correct that the tiles of East, South, West, North, Red, Green, and White can only form pung and kong sequences. Only the dot, character, and bamboo tiles can form chow sequences.

There is no limit on how many chows, pungs, or kongs that you can make in a game. As long as you get four sequences and one pair, you win.

Let me know if you have more questions. I'm sure that you will get familiar with the rules if you play more.

Hi Ashleigh,

You need to show two or three tiles after you make a claim of chow, pung, or kong, unless you win the game by making that claim. For example, if somebody just discarded a Three Dot tile and you happen to have two Three Dot tiles, you can press the Pung button to make a pung claim. Of course you need to do that quickly, within that waiting period.

Then, the game will ask you to show your tiles. In this case, because the just discarded Three Dot tile is already shown in the shown area (please see my response to Chrystal for where the shown area is), you only need to show your own two Three Dot tiles to the group. You show them one by one, just use the double tap and hold gesture. Right after you finish showing the tiles, the game will ask you to discard a tile. After you discard a tile, the three tile pung sequence will be removed from the shown tile area and will be placed to the right end of your own tiles (see my response to Chrystal).

If you claim for a concealed kong, you will need to return four tiles. You will return three tiles if that is a exposed kong. Check the Chinese Mahjong section of the how to use guide for the terms.

When you show those two, three, or four tiles one by one after making a claim, the game will remove them from the row of your own tiles and add them to the shown tile area. That is what I said to show the tiles to the group. You will only hear a short sound. The app won't speak out the tiles and say whether it is revealed. After the tiles have been moved down to the right side of your tiles, you can put your finger tip on them and hear "revealed." That means that those tiles can't be changed/used for the rest of the game. There is an exception, please see my response to Chrystal.

Although you can use a braille display to operate the app because all the buttons, labels, and views are standard elements and are clearly labelled, I strongly recommend you to use your fingers to physically locate and press the buttons and tiles. Because of the complex layout of the playing screen, using a display to nevigate from left to right and from top to bottom will make the screen very hard to understand.

Hope this helps. Thanks for you interest in trying this game.

Hey Ashleigh,

The Help button is right above the Wait button. When you play a local game, those two buttons are the bottom two of the group of five along the left edge of the screen. They will become Chat and Text when you play an online game. I do understand that it is hard to miss the Help button since you already found the Wait button. So just in case.

During a local game, pressing the Wait button would have no effect if it is your turn to draw or discard a tile, simply because in those cases the game timer is already off. When it is the turn for a computer player to do something, the Wait button should work.

Could you please try again? I don't think iPhone 8+ is a factor here. I'm using an old iPhone 8 myself.

Thanks.

Joe

Hi there,

Thanks for the question. We have no plan to change the current subscription model.

Happy holidays, everybody!