Ivory is currently undergoing a total rewrite that will lead to what we hope will be the best mahjongg game on the iPhone/iPad. New features will include retina display graphics, as well as new layouts and a new tile set. We do this in our spare time, so there’s no ETA on a release date, but we can assure you we’re hard at work on improving Ivory for the latest devices. Stay tuned!
If anyone has had trouble installing Ivory for iPhone, give it another try. The app has re-entered the App Store. Sorry about that everyone!
It appears that Ivory for iPhone and iPod Touch has disappeared from at least the Canadian App Store (possibly from the App Store entirely?). We’ve contacted Apple and hope to have it resolved ASAP. In the meantime, you can still download and install Ivory Free for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
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!
I know, I know. It’s been a few months since we released Ivory for iPhone with the added tile set, layouts and high scores feature. The desktop release is almost ready to go, but of course real life has been getting in the way of launching it.
It’s coming soon, we promise. Stay tuned.
We’ve also been getting some donations rolling in for the desktop version, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. As we’ve said many times, Ivory for desktop will always be free, but it sure is nice to recover the costs of hosting! Please continue to enjoy Ivory, and keep the feedback and praise coming in. It’s a huge boost to keep us working on the game.
After a relatively speedy approval in the App Store, we’ve released an update to Ivory on the iPhone. We’ve added a new tile set, two new layouts and most importantly, online high scores. So if you’ve grown bored with playing against yourself, get ready to compete against the rest of the world!
We’ve had a lot of comments from people saying that they’d like to make a small donation for our efforts on Ivory. As we’ve stated before, Ivory for desktop will always be free. We do, however, both work full-time and devote our free time to developing Ivory, so of course any donation is welcome. It lets us know that you appreciate our efforts, and gives us further incentive to continue development.
So if you like Ivory, feel free to submit a donation through PayPal via the button to the right.
To help kick off the upcoming Ivory update for both the desktop and iPhone versions, IvoryMahjongg.com has a sleek new site design. We’re just finishing up our testing on the new release, and we’ve incorporated some pretty nice additions into the game.
In addition to the new diggs, we’ve also created a Twitter account, where you can keep up to date on all the Ivory news and releases.
Stay tuned…
We’re currently working on significant updates to Ivory for both the desktop and iPhone versions of the game, and while we do that we’ve reduced the price from $1.99 to $0.99. We think that making half the profit will provide effective incentive to get off our lazy asses and put out a new release.
The sale won’t last long, so get it while it’s cheap!
After a few weeks of back-and-forth with Apple, Ivory Free is finally released for the iPhone/iPod touch. Who would have thought it would be so much easier to get the paid app approved than the free one?
This limited version of Ivory includes:
“The table tilt is great, it’s not too sensitive and behaves exactly how you’d expect it to. I like how you can turn it off and play in bed.”
“One of my favourite games is Mahjongg solitare and I have been on the lookout for a nice little version for the iPhone. This appears to answer the call….”
“Apart from the obvious point and select and landscape only it has a rather nice zoom and pan which shows the tiles more clearly. If this turns out to be as good as it appears then I will certainly be shelling out the readies for the full version.”
“Thank you for creating a very beautiful game.”
“I cant tell you how pleased I was to discover your site, your MJ is the best I have ever encountered and the superb graphics make it a pleasure to play.”
“I play this one all the time. By far, the best MJ app. The 3D tiles and the ability to rotate the tiles make this an addictive time waster.”