NutHouse will not open on my Mac

You double-click NutHouse and macOS shows a warning, or nothing happens at all.

Check these first

  1. "NutHouse cannot be opened" or "unidentified developer". That is Gatekeeper, the first time only. Right-click (or Control-click) NutHouse in Applications and choose Open. Then click Open in the dialog. After that it opens normally.
  2. Still blocked? Open System Settings โ†’ Privacy & Security. Scroll down. If you see "NutHouse was blocked", click Open Anyway.
  3. Is it an Apple Silicon Mac? NutHouse needs an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later). Click the Apple menu โ†’ About This Mac. If Chip says Intel, NutHouse will not run. The browser version may still work.
  4. Is macOS 11 or newer? The same About This Mac window shows the version. NutHouse needs macOS 11 or later.
  5. Did it come from the disk image? Drag NutHouse from the .dmg window into Applications and open it from there, not from inside the disk image.
  6. Still nothing? Download NutHouse again. A download that stopped early makes an app that does nothing when clicked.

Why it happens

macOS checks apps the first time they open. NutHouse is built for Apple Silicon and macOS 11 and newer, so on older Macs it has nothing to run on. Everything else is Gatekeeper being careful, and right-click โ†’ Open is the normal way through it.

Still stuck?

Try the Chocobreak tutorial, open a sample game and read its rules, or look at the questions people ask.