A mahjong puzzle drawn from Turkic myth
Mahjong Balbal
Take a free tile from the pile and it slides into your tray; find its twin and the pair bursts. Fill the tray and the level ends.
Every board is solvable
A level is proven solvable before it is dealt. If you get stuck it is not your fault — and there is always a way out.
No timers, no forced moves
No countdown, no lives, no energy. It is not how fast you finish but which tile you take, and when.
Plays offline
No internet needed. On the road, on a plane, out of signal — it works in full.
Three realms, thirty floors
The journey starts where people stand, descends into the underworld, and climbs out through the sky. Every floor has its own ground, its own sound, its own four colours.
Latest posts
Three realms, seven layers, nine layers: where the numbers come from
Balbal's thirty floors are not an arbitrary number. Why the underworld has seven and the sky has nine — and why the middle world grows sideways.
What "every board is solvable" means, and how it is guaranteed
Unsolvable boards are a familiar complaint in mahjong solitaire. Balbal does not deal at random and hope — it generates the solution first and builds the board from it.
What is a tamga? Writing that is recognised, not read
A clan's mark, struck on animals, rock, carpets and coins. Not an alphabet, though an alphabet grew from it — and it branches like a family tree.