Our recipe

Ikan Bilis Studio teaches real traditional games properly, through play that's cute, funny and fair.

Small fish, big flavour.

The nine pillars

Every game is made to these nine, and checked against them at every milestone.

Authentic rules
Real rules, from sources we cite.
Learn by playing
Short lessons and puzzles lead you to the practice table, with a coach who explains.
Cute voxel toys
Chunky characters and props, built block by block in code.
Comic drama
Glowing auras, dramatic close-ups and big shouts. Funny, never mean.
Fair opponents
Computer players are only ever shown what their own seat could see. Automated tests check that a discard's pause looks and lasts the same whether or not a computer player could claim it, and that the computer players decide the same whatever tiles the others hold. Tested, not assumed.
Two languages
English and Traditional Chinese side by side from day one, with a Cantonese flavour.
Every screen, every player
Phone first. Full keyboard play, screen readers, colour-blind and reduced-motion modes. Sound is never needed to play.
Original only
Inspired by the classics, copied from none: no other game's characters, art, sound or name.
Fair price
A free first chapter, then one clear, one-time unlock. Paying never buys an advantage, nothing paid is random, and we never push you to pay.

Research the real rules and how to teach them, and cite every source.
Design the look, and how every screen works.
Plan the build, the milestones and the price. No code until Ikan Bilis says go.
Build one milestone at a time. When the tests pass, work stops until Ikan Bilis has reviewed it and said go.
Playtest with real people. Voxel Mahjong has had a first playtest, and more are planned.

Every game keeps an inspiration log: the ideas we borrowed, and what we made our own. It's checked at every milestone.

A UK base is being set up.

Ikan Bilis owns the studio. Twelve specialists, each named after a food, look after the rest.