Sheng Ji (Tractor) Card Game
- Created: 25 Jan 2024
- Modified: 25 Jan 2024
Motivation
Recently, I built Sheng Ji (Tractor) at Studiolanes. It’s a popular Chinese trick-taking card game that has made its way as a pastime for folks in the US. The games can last pretty long, since the goal is to level up until you hit Ace, starting from a rank of 2 after playing many rounds. It’s a collaborative game that requires two teams that work together to take tricks to level up.
The game has been traditionally passed down from parents to their children and has spread through friend groups who play together in their younger years, at least in the US. There are a lot of different house rules and people typically like to stick with the ones that they started learning with. A lot of people I have spoken to have also learned to play from their peers in college.
I started thinking about the game in the wintertime of 2023 after playing it with several friends in some game nights. I was motivated to get a version out for folks to play since there weren’t good mobile implementations online in English. I was also curious if there was a notable cultural element that can make this more widespread in the US. So, I made a web, iOS, and Android version and have have been maintaining them ever since.
If you have a chance, check them out and feel free to reach out with any feedback or ideas for improvement!
Other Implementations
Online Rules:
Wikipedia
Pagat Tractor
Pagat Finding
Robert Ying
Benjamin Zhang
Jessie Yang
Finding Friends
Web:
shengji.world (My Version) - Can play with friends and beginner bots
Robert Ying’s Version - Most popular web version with 1k weekly active users. Can play with friends online
min2win - Can play with bots
shengji.io - Can play with friends
ZTA Mobi - 4 or 6 players
Android:
Shengji (My Version)
ZTA Card
天天拖拉机 - 双扣 升级 80分 - Chinese App