Indie developer Zachtronics has released Nerts! Online, yet another strange game in its growing catalog of wonderfully weird indie titles. Best of all, you can play it for free with your friends right now!
Nerts! Online is a competitive multiplayer solitaire game. One might wonder how solitaire — a game that is intended to be played alone — can be made into a multiplayer experience, but apparently they've managed it.
Have a gander at the game's reveal trailer to see how it plays for yourself!
Zachtronics Artist Kyle apparently played Nerts after lunch at the company's office. As time went on, the team refined the game and made it into a digital product, eventually turning it into the game you see today.
That's not all that's happened, though — Zachtronics added some flourishes of their own. For example, players can move cards between their Nerts pile and the tableau once a "nerts" has been called.
Nerts! Online Makes a Niche Game Digital
It should be noted that Nerts isn't an original creation, mind. The United States Playing Card Company lists the rules on its website. There is one tiny bonus, though: owning other Zachtronics games will unlock special card backs for you to use throughout the game.
The game pretty much is multiplayer Solitaire — each player is trying to get rid of cards by placing them in common piles based on standard Solitaire rules. That is, you have to continue building up the community piles by adding your cards in sequence.
I've never heard of Nerts before today, but it certainly seems like a pretty cool little pastime! You can play Nerts! Online for free on Steam right now with a maximum of six people. Have fun!
Did you ever play Nerts growing up? What's your favorite game played with a standard deck of playing cards? Let us know in the comments below!