We like feedback, even negative feedback. It helps us find and fix bugs, and improve your experience with Ivory. So when you take the time to hit that “Contact” button at the top of the page, please give us feedback we can use. Simply telling us that the game is a piece of junk and doesn’t work is in no way helpful. We can’t test Ivory on every single version of every operating system on every device. We’re two people doing this in our spare time, and we certainly can’t afford a suite of testing devices. We rely on you to give us information that will help us pinpoint the issue. Ivory doesn’t launch for you? Tell us which operating system you’re running, or what device you’re running it on. Have problems in the game? Let us know what they are specifically.

Accusing us of knowingly putting out something that doesn’t work is just unreasonable, and when you give us nothing else to go on but “this app is stupid and sux and doesn’t work”, your email gets deleted. We don’t have the time to coax the information out of you. We’re good people, and we’ve worked hard on this, and we want everyone to enjoy it. There is a free version of Ivory for the iPhone for a reason: if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. The free version is fully functional and is only restricted in the number of layouts and the tile sets included. There is currently a review in the app store that lists several complaints that just aren’t even true. There IS a zoom feature, we’ve implemented pinching to zoom (similar to thousands of other apps). If you don’t like the tilt feature, turn it off. We get that not everyone will enjoy that.

The reviews in the app store are both a blessing and a curse. Often if someone can’t figure out how to play your game, they get frustrated and give it a low rating. Generally when people are happy with a game, they don’t review it at all. It tends to be when someone is frustrated or the game isn’t functioning properly that people feel the need to write reviews. I wish that they would contact us first with their problems so that we can figure out how to help them. We’ve thoroughly tested our app on as many devices as we can, and we want it to work for everyone, but we need your help. Getting beat up on in app store reviews certainly doesn’t inspire us to keep going. It costs us $100 a year just to have it in the app store.

So, to reiterate, love the feedback (good and bad), but do us all a favour and keep it constructive. And to everyone who sends us lovely e-mails just to tell us they enjoy the game, thank you. They really do make our day. And to the people who send us donations—amazing. It restores my faith in humanity. People really will pay for things that they like, whether asked to or not. Gives me the warm and fuzzies every time I receive a donation notification.

And if you have Ivory for iPhone/iPod Touch and are enjoying it, please, by all means go leave a review!

This is the latest news. Take a look at the old news if you're into that sort of thing.

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read the release notes

Looking for an older version of Ivory? Visit the release archives page.

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Ivory is a solitaire tile matching game based on the single player game known most often as Mahjongg, and also called Shanghai or Taipei. It is currently available at no cost for Windows, Mac OS and Linux, and for $1.99 on the iPhone/iPod Touch, with a limited free version also available in the App Store.

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Ivory will run on any reasonably modern computer.

For Windows:

• Windows 2000, XP, or Vista
• DirectX 8 or newer
• 3D graphics card
• Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or newer (Optional)

For Mac OS:

• Mac OS X 10.4 or later

For both operating systems, it is recommended that you have the most recent updates.

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Features

Current Features:

Ivory is proud of its simplicity. Our intention is to make Ivory simple, yet elegant. Current features include:

• 3D graphics, allowing movement around the game in all dimensions
• Multiple (very nice) tile sets and graphic themes
• “Fortune cookie” messages

Possible Future Features:

Ivory is still very young, and far from being complete. Some possible future features include:

• Additional tile sets and tile models
• Advanced 3D graphic features, such as shadows

If you use Ivory and would like to see your favourite features added, please email us. We would like to hear your suggestions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does Ivory cost?
A: The desktop version of Ivory is free. There is no monetary cost whatsoever, and there never will be. However, it has been known to cost a lot of time.

The iPhone/iPod Touch version of Ivory is available in the iTunes Store for $1.99, and you can check out Ivory Free to try before you buy.

Q: Is Ivory open source?
A: Not yet. The desktop version of Ivory proudly makes use of some excellent open source libraries though. At some point in the future, after we feel the source code is the kind of thing you would take home to show your mother, we will probably release it. For those libraries that require we provide the source code, we have made them available here.

Q: Why should I use Ivory instead of another of the jillion mahjongg games out there?
A: We decided to write Ivory because we didn’t think there were any free mahjongg games (for Mac OS X) that were both simple, elegant, and attractive. If you are looking for the same and Ivory meets your needs, please use it.

Q: What is a mahjongg? Is it contagious?
A: Mahjongg (also known as Shanghai, or Taipei) is a Chinese tile removal game. Mahjongg solitaire is the single player version of this game. To learn about the game, check out these Wikipedia articles.

Q: Ivory doesn’t work correctly for me. I think I may have found a bug. What do I do?
A: Email us. We’ll see what we can do to help you get going.

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