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There is a feature I would like to see, actually, in any English-language riichi mahjong computer game! (So, anyone doing so please read this!) It is the option to set the language to Japanese and English together, which will display all terms used in mahjong in Japanese and everything else in English.

zzo38 wrote:There is a feature I would like to see, actually, in any English-language riichi mahjong computer game! (So, anyone doing so please read this!) It is the option to set the language to Japanese and English together, which will display all terms used in mahjong in Japanese and everything else in English.

Good idea. But when you say "which will display all terms [...] in japanese", this means both kanji/syllables, and the reading in latin alphabet?

That could be a good choice.

Ignatius wrote:

zzo38 wrote:There is a feature I would like to see, actually, in any English-language riichi mahjong computer game! (So, anyone doing so please read this!) It is the option to set the language to Japanese and English together, which will display all terms used in mahjong in Japanese and everything else in English.

Good idea. But when you say "which will display all terms [...] in japanese", this means both kanji/syllables, and the reading in latin alphabet?

That could be a good choice.

Actually...that helps. I've been planning on including granular Mahjong term control between English and Japanese, but I hadn't considered having a preset hybrid combo like that. So it'll be English, Japanese, and English w/Japanese terminology for the main presets, and then I can allow granular term by term control later on. Consider it in - and thanks for your input!

DiddySinatra
https://www.facebook.com/readyriichi

Glad to hear you liked it.

Ignatius wrote:

zzo38 wrote:There is a feature I would like to see, actually, in any English-language riichi mahjong computer game! (So, anyone doing so please read this!) It is the option to set the language to Japanese and English together, which will display all terms used in mahjong in Japanese and everything else in English.

Good idea. But when you say "which will display all terms [...] in japanese", this means both kanji/syllables, and the reading in latin alphabet?

This could be an option too; I was thinking using the kanji/kana, although of course you could have romaji option too.

diddysinatra wrote:Actually...that helps. I've been planning on including granular Mahjong term control between English and Japanese, but I hadn't considered having a preset hybrid combo like that. So it'll be English, Japanese, and English w/Japanese terminology for the main presets, and then I can allow granular term by term control later on.!

I wouldn't think term by term control is really necessary (although of course you can add it if you want to), but having setting by category (such as menu, yaku, button, tile indices, round display, rules, chat, etc) to English/Japanese/romaji might be of interest. (Some programs have them in whatever level you want, by displaying the options in a tree view so you can easily change one branch all at once.)

zzo38 wrote:I wouldn't think term by term control is really necessary (although of course you can add it if you want to), but having setting by category (such as menu, yaku, button, tile indices, round display, rules, chat, etc) to English/Japanese/romaji might be of interest. (Some programs have them in whatever level you want, by displaying the options in a tree view so you can easily change one branch all at once.)

Yeah, the granular term-by-term changes are overkill - but that's what I'm going for. It wouldn't be in the game right away. Past launch, I'll still be adding extra levels of customization to the games depending on what I've seen, and requests from players. Sectional changes are a good idea too - that's also likely to be implemented. The order would be.

The full presets, then the sectional presets, then granular

Recent experience with a budget PS3 game has highlighted the importance of visual cues for the player. There's no clear indication when an exhaustive draw has occurred - I expect at least a quick 流局 pop-up but instead players suddenly start displaying their tenpai hands and when the first hand is exposed it's easily mistaken for a win - specifically a ron win off my last discard! Also it could benefit from a little animation or speech bubble when someone reaches (to supplement the riichi stick and perpendicular discard).

Naturally I have much experience of using a simple numeric tile counter or judging my three rows of discards, but I have been spoilt more recently by games that show the full tile wall. Some sort of visual indication of the number of tiles remaining to be drawn would be a nice feature to have, even if it was just a vertical strip down one edge of the screen.

Barticle wrote:Recent experience with a budget PS3 game has highlighted the importance of visual cues for the player. There's no clear indication when an exhaustive draw has occurred - I expect at least a quick 流局 pop-up but instead players suddenly start displaying their tenpai hands and when the first hand is exposed it's easily mistaken for a win - specifically a ron win off my last discard! Also it could benefit from a little animation or speech bubble when someone reaches (to supplement the riichi stick and perpendicular discard).

Naturally I have much experience of using a simple numeric tile counter or judging my three rows of discards, but I have been spoilt more recently by games that show the full tile wall. Some sort of visual indication of the number of tiles remaining to be drawn would be a nice feature to have, even if it was just a vertical strip down one edge of the screen.

Ah, well here is an example of how I currently (may change) plan to have it work - Every notable action or event in the game has a Sound, Color, and Shape associated with it. For instance, if you have the helper on and you draw the third tile of a Triple/Pon, the left-most tile of the trio will animate in a floating green Tri-Dot asset above it that sends (animates) out a green line 'lassoing" around the relevant tiles and will play a very short sound. If the tile isn't discarded, it then is auto-sorted together and has a very short flash and the effects fade/animate away. The effect will fade back in via hovering or a button press over one of the tiles, or both - haven't decided yet.

For the wall, I've considered two paths - Having all of the tiles actually there in the center (seems like a waste of triangles, but people like what they're used to seeing) or Having a series of light panels that are lit to represent a tile, and go off when that tile is drawn. The dead wall will not be in lights, those tiles will actually remain along with the actual hands and discards.

You made me realize that I still have a lot of 'splaining to do about my vision and what all I have planned. That'll all be in the Kickstarter write up and subsequent updates. Starts FRIDAY

It certainly sounds like a complicated vision that needs some explaining. The helper sounds very interesting and the counter lights are basically what I was imagining. Perhaps if there was room in the UI you could represent the full live wall as a continuous horizontal row of small tiles, stacked two high like the real thing, along the bottom of the screen.

Good luck with the KS launch!

Update: So it turns out that PS3 game does have an option for prominent colour-coded directional katakana text effects to show when a player calls/reaches/wins. One of the first things I did when I got the game was disable the "Animation" option to remove the ugly "mouse pointer trails" effect each time you draw or discard a tile and it seems that this disabled the pop-up text too! There's still no proper indication for an exhaustive draw though.

Kickstarter is live!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/did ... -your-turn

or go to thetablegames.com or thetablegames.net!

A couple of really basic things for MJ game design.

Scrolling through your hand tiles with a joypad (or keyboard) can be a little slow. It helps a lot if you can scroll through your hand when it's not your turn. Also it's really nice to have a button that lets you jump the cursor instantly back to the tile you just drew - very few games have that.

This might just be me but it's unsatisfying when you reach in a single-player game and the discards - with your non-winning tiles discarded automatically - don't maintain a regular tempo! (instead of 1...2...3...4... it's often 1...2...3.4) I hate that!

Update on this soon

Waiting for it...