The Challenge
Developing and publishing Leon’s Mahjong was, and continues to be, a challenge in many aspects. But there was one particular challenge I didn’t see coming: how much “retro” to incorporate into the retro software we create?
The more faithful it is to its original versions from 20 or 30 years ago, the more it clashes with current user experience practices and modern devices.
The Mahjong solitaire that Leon’s Mahjong is based on dates back to the late 80s. Back then, there were no mobile devices with touchscreens, computer screens only existed in 4:3 aspect ratio, and color palettes were generally restricted.
The phrase coined by my son Leon that’s part of the game’s story: “…so it works on modern devices,” has this challenge implicit within it. Modern devices have extremely high-resolution screens and varied aspect ratios across computers, tablets, and phones. Add to that the fact that phones can be used in both portrait and landscape modes, and you get an infinity of possibilities that didn’t exist before.
In a way, Leon’s Mahjong, from its first version in August 2024 until today, has undergone several changes related to this very issue. The first version had a 4-color palette for the intro screen similar to the Commodore Amiga 2.0 operating system.
The 4-color palette from Amiga Workbench 2.0 that inspired the first version of Leon’s Mahjong
The current version has a pixel art background with unlimited colors that automatically changes with the seasons of the northern hemisphere. At the time of this publication, you can see the autumn background, and it automatically changes on March 21st, June 21st, September 21st, and December 21st.
Version 1.0 - August 2024: 4-color palette inspired by Amiga Workbench 2.0
Version 1.34 - October 2025: pixel art background with unlimited colors and automatic seasonal changes
Brief aside: northern hemisphere vs. southern hemisphere
When I implemented this feature, it didn’t seem right to me that the background should match the northern hemisphere. The alternative was to check the player’s GPS coordinates, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for the game to ask the player for their location. So I had to opt for the northern hemisphere (where most players are located).
But coming from the southern hemisphere, this decision hurts a bit. Like all the Christmases of my childhood: eating winter foods, with snow decorations, when it was 30 degrees Celsius outside.
Mafalda watches as Libertad puts a world map upside down on her bedroom wall. Mafalda: ‘But Libertad, you’re putting it upside down!’ Libertad: ‘Upside down relative to what? The Earth is in space, and space has no up or down. This idea that the northern hemisphere is on top is a psychological trick invented by those who think they’re on top, so that those of us who believe we’re below keep believing we’re below. And the bad thing is that if we keep believing we’re below, we’ll keep being below. But from today, enough is enough!’ Mafalda enters her house. Mom: ‘Where were you, Mafalda?’ Mafalda: ‘I don’t know, but something just enough-is-enoughed.’
Like also the releases of cultural elements like: this spring Star Wars XV arrives… and the announcement was always for the northern hemisphere spring… The great video game history podcast “Modo Historia” resolves this very well by talking about boreal summer or boreal spring (or austral), to refer to this specific point in time.
<End of hemispheric complaints>.
Zoom & Pan
Getting back to the retro topic, one of the first issues was zoom. My son Leon wanted to add zoom that could be activated with the “pinch” gesture. Of course, this never existed in the 80s and 90s versions. In this case, the scale tipped toward modernity. I think zoom is a good feature that makes for a good user experience.
Leon’s Mahjong at maximum zoom: pixel art that stays sharp regardless of scale
Selecting Boards
In this case, I could have implemented (and I’m still considering it) a board selector that uses the slide gesture with horizontal (or vertical) scrolling to access all the boards (which at the time of this publication total 27).
But in the end, I leaned toward the retro side. Six boards are shown per page, and there are two buttons to go to the next and previous page. I think this adds to the retro aesthetic with buttons shaped similar to UIs from the 80s and 90s.
The Tiles
I think this is the most complex point of the matter. The 72 tiles are hand-crafted pixel art created by me. Each shadow they generate is created by hand and calculated according to various factors of neighboring tiles. It was quite complex to program. Perhaps it would have been easier to create a tile in 3D and let the engine’s physics handle the shadows, but that path would have discarded the magic of pixel art.
This is one of the strongest criticisms from some players, who prefer a modern aesthetic and clear visualization since their device allows it. For me, changing this and making higher-resolution tiles would mean losing a large part of the essence of retro graphics.
There were very strong criticisms, saying the graphics are CGA and such. And in parentheses, I’ll probably enable a CGA mode, which is one of the DOS color palettes I detest most in all of history.
This is how Lemmings looked with the dreaded DOS CGA palette
Assists
There’s a reality that goes hand in hand with retro vs. modernity in user experience, and that’s the degree of difficulty or assistance given to the player. In the case of Mahjong solitaire, there aren’t too many options, although new ones can always emerge.
For example, a user on Reddit mentioned it would be good to have a place to see all the tiles the player has already removed. I hadn’t thought of something like that because I partly think that task (remembering which tiles were removed) belongs to the player and is part of the game’s challenge.
At some point, it’s like the map in open-world video games. Decades ago, maps generally weren’t part of the gameplay, and being able to navigate and not get lost within each of the virtual universes was part of the game’s difficulty. Nowadays, we take for granted that there’s a map showing us where we need to go. Making an open-world video game without a map would be crazy and an assault on the player’s experience, but at some point, this becomes a pattern where games somehow become easier. Of course, there’s also a balance here, but it’s something that happens and we can’t avoid it. There’s a very good video by Bait (in Spanish) that talks about this, and it’s truly wonderful.
Requests I received for Leon’s Mahjong:
Show all free tiles at the same time. I refrained from doing this for now because I think it removes all challenge.
Have at least one possible solution. In this case, I implemented it after several months of internal debate and searching for an appropriate algorithm, which I finally found and implemented.
A board where you can’t lose. This was a request from my wife, and for that I designed the Happy board, which only has flowers. Interestingly, some players think it’s a bug when they see it.
A place to see all the tiles that have been removed. This was recently requested, and I mention it in the previous section. I think it adds value, if it’s not too complex I’ll probably implement it.
Conclusion
In the end, how much “retro” to put into a retro game is very complicated to determine, and you have to find the balance in each component. We’ll see how the future of Leon’s Mahjong continues! Maybe new versions will no longer have pixel art and only 3D graphics with ray tracing (I don’t think so!)