Setting up players and game play options

Once you have selected the tilesets to use for a particular game, you need to set up the players and other characteristics of the game. Select Setup players... from the Game menu and the Setup players dialog will be displayed (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1. The Setup players dialog

Using this dialog, you can add new players, delete players and select which players will compete in a game. Each player can also be assigned a handicap - this handicap determines the number of points which the player starts with at the beginning of a game. Values between 0 and 1000 are valid. For example, to give a player a handicap of 10 points, put '10' into their respective handicap box and when the game starts their score will be set at '-10'. Thus, they will have to get more tile matches to win against other players in the game.

If you play a 4 player game, the last player added will be able to use the mouse to make their selections during the game. If you play with 3 or fewer players, the keyboard is used by all players. This is thus as fair a system as possible, where each player generally has the same advantages and disadvantages in control.

The keyboard controls for the different players are shown on the right side of the Setup players dialog. The first two keys control vertical motion of the tile selector, the next two keys control the horizontal motion of the selector and the last key selects the tile under the tile selector. The keys for each player are shown in Table 1 below. You may notice that the keys are spread across the keyboard so that all players have easy access to their control keys, even if 4 players are playing.
 
Player
Up
Down
Left
Right
Select
1 **
a
z
s
d
f
2
j
m
k
l
;
3
4
1
5
6
+
4
mouse
mouse
mouse
mouse
mouse

Table 1. Player control keys

** If you start a game with only a single player selected, use the mouse to select tiles.

Sound effects are also used to enhance gameplay significantly: a lion roar is played for the first highest point score awarded for matching tiles and an elephant trumpet for any subsequent highest point scores awarded. A turkey gobble is played for the first lowest point score awarded and a goat bray for any further lowest point scores awarded. Sound effects can be switched on or off using its checkbox in the Setup players dialog.

A game can be played with tiles covering the play area (to increase difficulty), or the play area can be left open. If you are in the process of learning new Kanji, you could leave the play area open. This mode is also a great way for a single person to revise Kanji, their readings and their meanings for an upcoming test. To play a game with tiles, check the cover the play area with tiles checkbox.

A wide selection of attractive tile styles come bundled with Kanji Safari, including a number of cartoon animal tiles, geometric tiles, marble textured tiles and others. Thus, you can select a tile texture which suits your mood. The Tile selector tint can also be changed to suit the tile texture selected.

You can also select one of three different play area sizes: small, medium and large. Each play area size has a different number of double and triple match tiles, as shown in the Table 2 below. Of course, the larger the play area size, the more challenging the game.
 
Play area size
No. of double matches
No. of triple matches
Small
3
2
Medium
6
4
Large
12
8

Table 2. Play area sizes