{"rewrite":{"id":"r_efe988e5fa13d0ffd78b561b","clusterId":"c_6d4e1c48b1e766d89a26e8aa","slug":"worjong-hands-carry-over-between-rounds-its-solo-developer-says","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"WORJONG Hands Carry Over Between Rounds, Its Solo Developer Says","summary":"WORJONG is a mahjong-style competitive PC game built from alphabet tiles A to Z, developed solo by KEN and shown at Osaka Indie Games Summit 2026 on October 3 and 4. Hands hold 11 tiles, and four 3-letter English words make the win. Yaku include riichi and ippatsu plus English-specific ones such as Grammar Established, where the four words form a sentence. It releases on Steam on October 30.","whyItMatters":"The carry-over rule inverts mahjong's reset: only the winner rebuilds, so a tenpai hand can survive into the next round, which is the design decision the developer spends his own interview time explaining.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eKEH built the dictionary before the game. He mechanically pulled 3-letter words from existing dictionaries, then removed entries he judged problematic for overseas distribution, and spent about a year on that and on the grammar judging system that checks whether four words fit the conditions for a sentence. KEN also notes Q is weak: only three 3-letter words contain it. A is the most common letter, but E doubles as the East wind tile alongside S, W, and N, so his friends disagree about which letter is strongest.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"WORJONG's win condition is four 3-letter words, which means 11 tiles in hand are already dead weight for the next round. The carry-over rule turns every hand into a bet on the round after it.","twitterPost":"WORJONG's carry-over rule means a hand built for this round constrains the next one, so four 3-letter words is a two-round commitment.","threadsPost":"WORJONG's four 3-letter words have to be arranged inside 11 tiles, and the developer's carry-over rule means whatever you hold stays with you. That turns each hand into a constraint on the round after it, not a reset.","newsletterBlurb":"WORJONG, a mahjong-style game played with alphabet tiles, was shown at Osaka Indie Games Summit 2026 and is dated for Steam on October 30. Solo developer KEN built the dictionary and grammar checker over roughly a year, then the game itself. The rule that separates it from mahjong: hands carry over between rounds, and only the winner rebuilds.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"4Gamer.net\",\"url\":\"https://www.4gamer.net/games/047/G104761/20261004011/\",\"title\":\"Mahjong-Style Battler \\\"WORJONG\\\" Builds English Words From Alphabet Tiles; We Asked About Its Unique Rule Where Your Hand Carries Over to the Next Round and How It Differs From Mahjong [OIGS2026]\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4746,"outputTokens":600,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1791163764,"createdAt":"2026-10-05T01:24:43.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-05T01:28:21.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T01:28:21.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_6d4e1c48b1e766d89a26e8aa","canonicalTitle":"アルファベット牌で英単語を作る麻雀風対戦ゲーム「WORJONG」。手牌が次の局へ残る独自ルールや，麻雀との違いについて聞いた［OIGS2026］","representativeArticleId":"a_df7bd900e98b378157fea109","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"WORJONG\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T01:28:21.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"4Gamer.net","url":"https://www.4gamer.net/games/047/G104761/20261004011/","title":"アルファベット牌で英単語を作る麻雀風対戦ゲーム「WORJONG」。手牌が次の局へ残る独自ルールや，麻雀との違いについて聞いた［OIGS2026］"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["WORJONG"],"studios":[],"people":[],"type":"news","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}