Look. If you just wanna shuffle decks, there’s no shortage of good card games on PC, But if you wanna cheat at cards? Well, there really ain’t much stock for your kind. Enter Card Shark, a con-artist’s dream of cheating your way through 18th-century France in search of fame, fortune, and a seat at the king’s table from the creators of Reigns. Just don’t get shot on the way, yeah?
Announced during Nintendo’s indie showcase earlier today, Card Shark is a game about tricking your way into high-stakes card games by becoming the most treacherous swindler in all of olde France.
Where Reigns put you at the top of the social food chain, Card Shark slams you down to the bottom. You’ve got nothing but a caravan and a fast card hand, sure. But play it smart, and you’ll be able to con your way up into high society, using your winnings to buy your way onto higher-stakes tables. The end goal? Scam the King of France, robbing him of his dignity before the revolution inevitably robs him of his head.
Rather than become a better card player, Card Shark asks you to become a better crook by adding new cheats to your bag of tricks. Stack decks in your favour, hide an unfavourable card up your sleeve, pull dupes from a pocket while your opponent’s distracted. Just don’t get sloppy – your foes are quite trigger-happy when it comes to being flogged out of their fortunes.
It helps that Card Shark is proper gorgeous, too, presenting a warmly lit hand-drawn tapestry of olde fashioned crime. Card Shark shuffles onto Steam sometime next year. Until then, Nerial have that recently-announced adaptation of Orwell’s Animal Farm to get out the door.
