This app was written in Unity.
There are many styles of Mahjong played around the world.
American Mahjong, for example, uses jokers and follows a new official set of winning hands published each year.
Western Mahjong uses fixed, traditional hands and does not use jokers.
This game is based on Western Mahjong.
I wrote this program because I love the way Mahjong brings people together. I teach social Mahjong for free as part of my “Act, Belong, Commit” philosophy, and there is nothing more wonderful than hearing people laugh around a table.
This game exists because people told me they had searched for a Western Mahjong app and couldn’t find one.
I am not a professional programmer. I completed a Physics degree in 1998 and, as a stay-at-home mum, I recently began learning to program out of curiosity. I discovered that I love it.
This game is calm and functional rather than bright and noisy. It allows you to practice and learn over 30 Western Mahjong hands, so that you can confidently play Mahjong at a social club.
The hands in this game are based on The Mahjong Player’s Companion by P. Thompson and B. Maloney.
In that book, red dots next to a hand indicate that the hand contains a pung (meaning you may take the third tile from a discard). This same logic is used in the game.
Some hands are intentionally excluded. For example, Confused Gates is not included because it appears that a pung should be allowed, but the book does not mark it as such.
Mahjong uses three suits: bamboos, characters, and circles.
Each suit contains the tiles 1 through 9, and each numbered tile appears four times in that suit.
In addition, there are honour tiles (winds and dragons), which are not part of any suit.
A basic winning Mahjong hand consists of:
All tiles must be in the same suit. Suits cannot be mixed.
Honour tiles may be used as a set or a pair, but they must match exactly.
In basic Mahjong, one — and only one — set of three may be a run (3-4-5). This is called a chow.
If a tile discarded by an AI can complete a pung, it will glow red. If it can complete a chow, it will glow yellow.
Choosing a chow will lock you into a basic Mahjong hand and prevent you from playing other winning hands.
You are dealt 13 tiles, and you win when the 14th tile completes a legal Mahjong hand.
This game does not teach how to build the wall, but someone at a social club can usually help. I am working on developing YouTube support for this.
If you need help with the Western Mahjong app, please contact the developer using the support email:
support [at] starkb [dot] org
The Western Mahjong app does not collect, store, or share any personal data.
The app does not use analytics, advertising frameworks, tracking technologies, or third-party services that collect user data.
All gameplay occurs locally on the user’s device.
If you contact the developer for support, your email will only be used to respond to your enquiry.
Thank you for playing.
StarkB