MobileAge Make With the Previews

Posted by Eric March on May 15, 2008 at 1:45 am

Commercial developer MobileAge signed on early in the SDK game, but until now nobody knows what they’ve been working out. Now they have finally released a couple of teasers for two games they are working on: Blackjack 21, and touchTile Mahjong.

Blackjack 21 is precisely what it sounds like, even if its title is superfluously redundant. It features some slick graphics and some nice features, such as a high rollers table, lots of prefs settings, and a list of achievements you can aim for. The game will use the multitouch interface to simulate real blackjack gestures: Tap the chips to bet, swipe down to hit, double-tap to double down, and swipe across to stand.

touchTile Mahjong is also obviously a Mahjongg Solitaire game. The object, for those unaware, is very simple: Tiles arranged in a particular configuration — a three-dimensional stack of tiles that are grouped into different types: Seasons, Winds, Flowers, Bamboos, Balls, and Characters. You’ll probably recognize the primary configuration all Mahjongg Solitaire games give you, known as the Dragon. All you need to do is match like tiles to each other. The trick is that a tile must be free to move — that is, it must not be boxed in by tiles on both sides, nor have any tiles on top of it. In the traditional Mahjongg Solitaire, there are also certain groups of tile types that match, even though they don’t look alike: Any season can match any other season, for example, and any flower can match any other flower. All others must be matched to their twin however. A complete list of traditional rules can be found here. I don’t know how closely touchTile Mahjong will follow the traditional rules, but it appears as though it will support different skin sets and layouts, at any rate.

No word on pricing or a solid release date yet , but MobileAge will be making these available through the App Store at some point after it goes live.

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