万字精译｜《Balatro》开发全纪实：从48愿望单到百万销量的历程

本文为《Balatro》开发者LocalThunk开发日志完整中译版，首次揭露Steam独立游戏黑马的完整心路历程。

完成这篇近两万字的开发日志翻译，总共投入两个我晚上的时间，远比预想中更费时费力。最初以为只是简单的技术复盘，但随着时间线推进，字里行间逐渐显露出独立开发者孤身奋战时的焦虑、创作困境与商业抉择。当最终译至“香槟与汉堡的庆功夜”时，有种自己做了一个爆款独立游戏的恍惚感

以下将还原这段开发历程的全貌，本文采用中英对照形式，严格遵循原始时间线编排。

The Balatro Timeline

自我开始开发《Balatro》已过去近三年，而这段时间里我几乎没有留下任何开发日志。这一直让我耿耿于怀，尤其是游戏发售后，我发现自己常会遗忘开发过程中的重要节点。现在动笔记录虽然有点迟，但总比没有强。

It’s been approximately 3 years since I began work on Balatro - and in that time I have personally documented almost nothing about the journey. This is something that has bothered me since the game launched. I am constantly forgetting major moments in development or milestones. It’s about time I start writing down what happened, I say better late than never!

本文将按时间顺序详述《Balatro》开发的每一个关键事件，包括发售当天的细节。它不仅是一段故事，更是未来回顾时的“真相之源”——毕竟连我自己向朋友、玩家和媒体讲述时，也偶尔会前后矛盾。随着记忆逐渐清晰，我会持续更新此文档。

This is an account of everything related to Balatro development in chronological order, up to and including the launch day. This should tell the story but more importantly it will serve as a source of truth for me when I look back on this time in a few years to recall the details correctly. I already notice talking to friends, players, and media that I contradict myself on some of the details from time to time. I’ll try and keep this up to date as I remember more about what happened.

December 13th, 2021

这一天，我在我的Learning/Lua/目录下创建了一个名为template的文件夹，这个项目最终成为了《Balatro》的雏形。

This is the creation date for template, a folder in my Learning/Lua/ directory. This is the creation of the project that would eventually become Balatro.

当时我攒了3周的工作年假，由于公司不允许跨年累积，我索性在12月休长假投入个人项目。起初我专注于开发一款名为Autohike的游戏，但不久后便失去了兴趣，随即清理代码并构思新项目。

I had saved up about 3 weeks of vacation time from my IT job, and since they didn’t allow people to accrue vacation year over year I just took off a bunch of time in December to work on some kind of project. At the very beginning of this time off I was working on a game called Autohike. I had been working on this game for a few months at this point but I wasn’t really feeling it anymore, so very early into my vacation I pivoted to cleaning up the code I had created and making a template for a new game.

12月13日的初步灵感是制作Big Cheat的在线多人版本——这是多年前我与朋友们基于纸牌游戏Big 2和Cheat自创的玩法。

The initial idea on Dec 13th was to create an online multiplayer version of Big Cheat, a game that a few friends and I had invented many years prior and played a ton based on the card games Big 2 and Cheat.

这一周的主要任务是将Autohike的引擎改造为更适合卡牌游戏的框架，

This whole first week was mostly me trying to upgrade the engine I built with Autohike to better fit a card game,

December 20th, 2021

创建了名为CardGame的文件夹（至今仍是Balatro的源码目录），懒得改名。

This is the creation date for CardGame, my current production working folder for all Balatro source code. I never bothered changing the name.

花了很多时间制作红色卡背和卡面的像素画——这是我第一次正经尝试的像素画。

I remember spending a long time making custom pixel art for the red deck back and all the playing cards. It was the first time I had tried making proper pixel art.

End of December 2021

此时的原型极其粗糙，没有“小丑牌”，没有可选择的“盲注”，升级系统仅是随机抽取卡牌并附加怪异“增强效果”。但此时已能看出《Balatro》的雏形，我也彻底放弃了Big Cheat的在线多人游戏的构想。

I had a very weird prototype. There were no Jokers, there were no blinds to select, the upgrade system consisted of randomly choosing a card from the deck and slapping a weird ‘enhancement’ on it. But it definitely had the bones of Balatro at this point, so it was pretty clear that I abandoned the online Big Cheat idea immediately.

游戏中已有筹码×倍数机制。我不记得这灵感从何而来，但作为得分系统他莫名符合游戏基调。十二月初，我观看了游戏主播Northernlion的《Luck Be a Landlord》（幸运房东）实况视频，其中的“积分挑战”玩法概念，为我后续开发这款游戏指明了方向。

The game had the CHIP X MULT mechanic already. I really don’t know where this idea came from but it seemed very natural for a scoring system. Earlier in December I was watching videos of Luck Be a Landlord from Northernlion and that whole score attack concept really fuelled the direction I wanted to go with this game from this point onward.

从此刻起，我也刻意不再接触任何肉鸽类游戏。需要明确的是，这并非因为我认为此举能提升游戏品质，而是因为：对我而言，制作游戏是纯粹的爱好，发行盈利并非目的。正因如此，天真地探索肉鸽机制（尤其是卡组构筑设计——此前我从未接触过此类游戏）本身便是乐趣的一部分。我渴望犯错，甘愿“重复造轮子”，而非借用现有游戏中那些久经考验的设计。诚然，遵循成熟框架或许能让游戏更趋完善，但这将背离我投身游戏创作的初心。

I also made a very conscious effort not to play any more roguelike games starting now. I want to be crystal clear here and say that this was not because I thought it would result in a better game, this was because making games is my hobby, releasing them and making money from them is not, so naively exploring roguelike design (and especially deckbuilder design, since I had never played one before) was part of the fun for me. I wanted to make mistakes, I wanted to reinvent the wheel, I didn’t want to borrow tried-and-true designs from existing games. That likely would have resulted in a more tight game but it would have defeated the purpose of what I love about making games.

我开始向少数朋友分享进展，但尚未发布测试版本。

I started sharing progress with a few of my friends, but no builds were shared yet.

January 2022

假期虽已结束，我却彻底陷入痴迷——这是我最钟爱的状态。大学时期，我常熬夜至凌晨捣鼓那些古怪的游戏项目，待父母清晨煮咖啡时与他们道声早安。如今我重拾这种节奏，自一月起便深陷其中，欲罢不能。

My vacation is over, but I am now fully immersed and obsessed. This is my favourite feeling in the world. When I was back in University I would routinely stay up until the wee hours of the morning working on my weird game projects and greet my parents while they made their morning coffee. I got back into this groove and starting in January I was hooked.

夜晚与周末都献给了Joker Poker的开发（Balatro的初期开发代号，暂定于本月上旬）。

Evenings and weekends were Joker Poker time (my working title for Balatro, likely decided on early this month).

在迭代开发中，我尝试了若干奇特版本，例如某一版设定为：所有升级只能通过“伪商店”机制提升牌组中的卡牌等级，且卡牌可多次升级（类似Super Auto Pets里宠物通过合成积累经验/等级的机制）。

I iterate through some weird versions of the game, including a version where the only way to upgrade anything is to upgrade the cards in your deck in a sort of pseudo-shop, and those cards can be upgraded multiple times (think like Super Auto Pets, pets have different XP/levels when combined, same idea)

February 2022

我开始在游戏中加入「小丑牌」（Jokers）。同期因临时外派工作数月，导致《Balatro》开发时间大幅缩减。

I started adding Jokers to the game. I also was temporarily working remotely out of province for a few months starting at this time and found that my Balatro dev time took a pretty big hit.

我开始为游戏加入不同的「Boss级盲注」（Boss Blinds）。

I started adding different boss blinds to the game.

March 2022

三月初，《Balatro》迎来开发历程中的重要转折点——我决定彻底暂停项目，并在此回溯事件原委。

Early March marked an important event in the history of Balatro, and I wanted to describe why things happened the way they did. I stopped working on the project entirely.

投身游戏开发十年，视觉艺术创作更久，我养成了一条至关重要的创作信条：若对某项目丧失内驱力，便果断搁置。此举基于两大原因：其一，避免在旧项目上耗尽热情，从而能全身心投入新灵感；其二（也是一个重要的原因），我能心安理得地暂停项目，未来重启时亦无需背负情感包袱。

由此引出……

I have been making games for about 10 years now and I have been doing visual art projects for much longer, and a very important habit I have developed for creative hobby projects is to stop working on something when I no longer feel the drive. This is for 2 main reasons; first, it allows me to move on to the next idea without totally burning out on the last thing. Second, and more importantly in this case, it allows me to take time off guilt free and possibly come back to the project later on without wrapping it in negative emotions.
That leads us to…

May 2022

我们回来了！尽管这是我在外的最后一个月，但我已开始抽离夜晚与周末，重启Joker Poker的开发。

We are so back. This is the last month I am away from home but I start carving out my evenings and weekends to work on Joker Poker again.

此刻我灵感爆棚，对游戏的热情再度拉满，我简直势不可挡！

My brain is teeming with ideas, I’m so excited about the game again, and I have a ton of momentum.

我设计（并迅速推翻）了一批新系统用于测试，例如：独立于常规货币的重掷代币机制，以及“金色封印”系统——当玩家跳过所有盲注时，可为卡牌附加封印，使其使用后回收至手牌。

I create (and quickly scrap) a bunch of new systems to test, such as a separate currency for rerolls outside of $, and a ‘golden seal’ to be added to playing cards when you skip all blinds that returns that card to hand after it has been played

正是在这段高效创作期内，我首次萌生将游戏发布至Steam的念头——这甚至是我八年游戏开发生涯里，第一次考虑公开自己打造的作品。以往，这些作品顶多分享给几个好友；坦白说，它们存在的意义本就不是“供人游玩”，而是“为创作而创作”。

It is during this burst of productivity that I first start thinking about a possible Steam release of the game. This was the first time in my then 8 years of game development that I had even considered publicly releasing a game I had made. Normally they just end up going to a couple of friends, but honestly the main purpose of my games wasn’t for them to be consumed, but rather for them just to be made.

促使我考虑Steam发布的另一层现实因素是——女友的博士学业即将完成。随着她求职进入尾声，迹象表明我们很可能将永久搬离现居地。若成真，我不得不辞职另谋生计，于是萌生念头：不如尝试寻找游戏开发相关工作？ 而拥有一款Steam游戏作为作品集，无疑是求职时的显著优势。

Another factor me starting to consider a Steam launch was that my partner was almost finished her PhD and the writing was on the wall that we may be moving out of province for good as she looked for a job. If this was the case, I would have to quit my job and look for work. I thought why not try and get a game developer job somewhere? To accomplish that, I thought having a Steam game in my portfolio would be a big benefit.

彼时我对商业化成功毫无奢望。当时对Steam的认知仅限于——平台游戏已达百万量级，真正能靠此维生者寥寥无几，自然视其为遥不可及的选项。

I really didn’t have any commercial aspirations at this time. All I knew about Steam is that there were about a million games on there and that very few could realistically make a living, so I didn’t think it was possible to consider it.

也正是在这个月，我正式启用了沿用至今的开发者ID——LocalThunk。

It was in during this month that my eventual developer name - LocalThunk - was incepted.

当时我的女友正在学R语言，她问我：“你怎么给变量起名？”我立刻大谈一通命名规范——驼峰命名法、描述性词组、下划线……等她听完后，淡定甩出一句：“我就爱叫它们thunk！” 这大概是我听过最冷幽默的编程梗了。

My partner was learning to code in R at the time, and she asked me “How do you name your variables?” I went on some rant about casing, using descriptive words, underscores, etc. She waits until I am finished and says “I like to call mine thunk”. I thought that was just about the funniest thing I had ever heard.

Lua语言中声明变量的方式（有时）会用到 local 关键字，由此诞生了“local thunk”这个组合！尽管我并未立即采用此名，但当最终决定创建线上开发者账号时，回溯的正是这一灵感瞬间。

The way variables are declared in Lua is (sometimes) with the local keyword, thus local thunk was born! I wouldn’t choose this name for quite a while yet but this is the moment I looked back on when I was finally ready to create a developer handle online.

June 2022

开发仍在推进（具体新增内容已记忆模糊）。此时，Joker Poker已初步构建经济系统，并加入大量小丑牌机制，整体框架接近当前版本的《Balatro》。

Still working on the game (details of what exactly I was adding at this point are fuzzy). I think by this time Joker Poker has economy, a bunch of Jokers, and generally resembles the current version of Balatro.

此时，我将新版游戏分享给了几位好友。

I share a new version of the game with some friends.

August 2022

数月后，某位参与内测的朋友突然发来盛赞——远超预期的那种。他甚至提到自己已沉迷测试版几十个小时。

One of those friends gets back to me months later with very high praise. Unexpectedly high. He mentions that he has played the beta for dozens of hours.

在我向朋友分享项目的这些年里，从未收获过如此热烈的反馈。我几乎不敢相信，而这股认可彻底激发了我的决心——必须全力完善这个项目。我很高兴得知这款游戏竟能让我熟识的人乐在其中，同时也让我更想向他、其他好友、女友、家人，以及我自己证明，我能打造出真正有趣且令人着迷的作品。

In all my years of sharing projects with friends I had never received feedback like that. I couldn’t believe it, and it really pushed me over the edge to fully flesh out this idea. It was really great knowing that this game was actually being enjoyed by someone I know, and I wanted to prove to him, my other friends, my partner, my family, and myself that I could make something really fun and interesting.

此时，我开始疯狂拓展内容！更多小丑牌、手柄/触控支持、贱萌教程角色Jimbo、专属原声、精细音效、特殊卡牌……无数新点子挤爆需求清单。我感觉自己就是Scope Creep的化身，这感觉还挺爽！（译者注：Scope Creep为项目管理方面的术语通常指项目需求失控扩张的负面现象）

At this point I started really increasing scope. More Jokers, Controller support, touch support, Jimbo the cheeky tutorial character, a soundtrack, proper sound effects, special editions for cards, and way more got added to the docket. I felt like scope creep incarnate, and it was amazing.

January 2023

如预期一般，伴侣在外地斩获一份理想工作，我随之辞职迁居。我对开启人生新篇章满怀热忱，同时做出关键决定：未来3-6个月暂不求职，全身心投入Joker Poker的全职开发。

As anticipated, my partner got a really great job in a different province and I quit my job to move there with her. I was really excited for this new chapter in our lives, and I also decided to not look for work for the next 3-6 months and develop Joker Poker full time.

这无疑是以游戏开发者身份全职投入的千载良机（即使零报酬），而我深知此等契机恐难再现。既然现在有些许积蓄，此刻我将全力以赴。

It was the perfect opportunity to work as a game dev full time (even if for free) and I didn’t know if I would ever have the chance again. I had some money saved up, so starting this month I really leaned into it.

February 2023

我短暂休假，与好友共赴加州冲浪。途中，向他们展示了新版游戏——正是几个月后即将登陆Steam的版本。此刻，游戏中已实装“优惠券”（Vouchers）系统！

I took a brief vacation to surf in California with some friends. I showed them the new build I had been working on - a version that would end up on Steam within a few months. This version now had Vouchers!

March 2023

本月，我在自由职业平台Fiverr上联系了作曲家Luis Clemente，他为Joker Poker创作的原声带完全超出预期！尽管这笔支出（当时）是我为游戏投入的唯一一笔资金，但整个过程仍让我忐忑不安。

This month I contacted Luis Clemente on the freelance website Fiverr and he delivered an absolutely amazing soundtrack for Joker Poker. Really knocked it out of the park. I was very nervous about this because it was (at the time) the only money I had spent or planned to spend on the game.

某次Discord通话中，我向好友展示游戏，其中一人提议：“如果打出神级牌组，得分该有火焰特效！” 起初我嗤之以鼻，但冷静下来一想，意识到自己大错特错——这个火焰特效竟与我想打造的游戏气质完美契合。多亏听了他的！

I also showed the game to some friends during a discord call, and one friend made the suggestion that there should be a flaming effect on your score if you get a really good hand. I hated the idea at first, but I sat with it for a while and knew I was wrong. That flaming score effect really fit perfectly with the game I was trying to create. Sure glad I listened to him!

我反复筛选出约20个候选游戏名，发现Joker Poker已被应用商店某应用占用，且其调性远偏离了我预期的氛围。将名单发给好友征集反馈，尽管《Balatro》也在其中，却无一人选中。但此名却如魔咒般萦绕心头，最终我选择孤注一掷押注直觉。

I workshopped a list of ~20 names for the game. I saw that the game ‘Joker Poker’ was already an app on the app store, but beyond that it felt just a bit too silly for the vibe I was shooting for. I sent this list of new names to my friends and got all of their feedback. Balatro was among that list but nobody picked it. Something about it really stuck with me so I just went with it.

April 2023

本月，我正式启动商店资料筹备：制作预告片、整理游戏截图，并咬牙支付了Steam平台100美元的上架费。与此同时，项目迎来大规模代码重构。

I started creating store assets this month. I created a trailer, got my screenshots, and paid the very scary $100 Steam fee to upload a game. I also had a pretty massive code refactor at this point.

至此，《Balatro》成为正式名称。

The name is officially Balatro.

面对Steam平台，我彻底手足无措。光是研究如何发行独立游戏就让我焦虑不堪——Steam每天有大量游戏上线，各种关于该做什么，不该做什么的噪音，以及应该制作什么类型的游戏、如何营销的建议。最令我震惊的是，尽管投入了大量时间开发游戏，但似乎这些并没有人在意。事实上，之前我从未奢望过游戏能卖出多少份，而初期的调研更让我确信。

I was pretty overwhelmed by Steam, just starting to look into things like how to launch an indie game? was really freaking me out. There are so many games released on Steam every day and so much noise about what you should and shouldn’t do, what type of game you should make, what method you should use to market it. It was a real shock to me that even though I had this game that I poured so much time into that it didn’t really seem to matter. I didn’t think this game would sell any copies before this and my initial research into Steam reinforced that idea to me.

May 2023

我下载了杀戮尖塔并首次游玩。我超！这才是真正的游戏！

I downloaded Slay the Spire and played it for the first time. Holy shit. now that is a game.

这次试玩杀戮尖塔是为了研究卡牌游戏的控制器输入处理逻辑（当时我正面临手柄适配的技术瓶颈），然而实际体验后却被其设计深度彻底吸引。值得庆幸的是，此前我始终避免接触此作——若过早体验，无论有意或无意，我恐怕都难以避免对其精妙设计的过度借鉴。

I did this because I was having some troubles in my controller implementation and I wanted to see how they handled controller inputs for a card game but I ended up getting sucked in. Thank goodness I avoided playing it until now because I surely would have just copied their incredible design (intentionally or subconsciously).

五月底，我将首个公开的Beta版本上传至Steam，正式上线商店页面，结果正如我所料——反响寥寥。不过，正是这种本就不抱期待的心态，让我省去了一些心痛。因为我最终并没有因为我的免费Beta版本从玩家那里获得冷淡回应而感到沮丧。

In late May, I uploaded the first public Beta build to Steam, set my store page live, and saw exactly what I expected to happen happened: nothing. The fact that I wasn’t anticipating any fanfare probably saved me some heartache because I didn’t end up feeling dejected from the very tepid response my free Beta was getting from players.

Beta玩家开始提供反馈。这标志着我将更加以玩家为中心的发展策略的开始，而不仅仅是一直听从我的直觉。

Feedback started coming in from the Beta players. This marks the beginning of a more player-focused development strategy I would adhere to instead of just listening to my gut all the time.

截至5月底，《Balatro》在Steam上仅有48个愿望单

By end of May, Balatro had 48 wishlists on Steam

Early June 2023

正是在这一时期，《Balatro》对我而言不再只是一项单纯的爱好。

This is about the time when Balatro stopped being a pure hobby for me.

此时，YouTuber们开始关注这款游戏。尽管以中小型独立游戏频道为主，但随时间的推移热度确实开始增长。为收集反馈而建的Discord服务器逐渐占据我更多精力，但此时仍无任何迹象表明游戏将开始流行。

YouTubers started covering the game. It was mostly small and indie game specific channels, but the attention definitely started growing over time. The Discord server I had made for feedback about the game started taking up more of my time. However, at this time there was nothing to indicate that the game was going to start popping off.

尽管如此，我开始认真审视这款游戏的商业前景。我真的能以此谋利吗？我似乎窥见一丝可能，它或许真能变成什么。

Even so - I started really thinking about the commercial viability of the game. Could I actually make some money from this? I saw a glimmer of a possibility that this might turn into something.

我与女友开启了一段为期数日在偏远地区的野外独木舟之旅。旅途中，我们探讨了这款游戏的未来走向及其对我职业生涯的影响。尽管进展平缓，我还是准备好继续前进，毕竟年初我就向她承诺开发周期至多六个月，而此刻实际已持续开发一年半，我觉的我不应该在拖太久了。

My partner and I went on a big backcountry canoe trip for a few days. During this trip we talked about the future of this game and what it meant for my work. Even with the mild momentum I was ready to move on, and since back in January I told her this would be at most 6 months I felt that I shouldn’t push it too much longer. It had already been a year and a half of dev at this point.

我准备在两周内退出游戏。我在Steam页面敲定发布日期，同时我开始考虑再次找工作，回到正常的软件/IT工作中。

I prepared to launch the game in 2 weeks. The release date went live on my Steam page, and I started thinking about moving on to looking for a job again and getting back into normal software/IT work.

我在推特上收到Playstack发行商的私信，我既兴奋又倍感纠结。此刻恰逢开发历程中最为迷茫的节点，因为我正困在理想与现实的夹缝中，既想放弃这个游戏又想继续我的生活，又忍不住幻想或许真能以此为业？

I got a DM on twitter from a scout at Playstack, my eventual publisher. I was super excited but this also complicated things. This was a very tumultuous time in the history of the game because I was in limbo between nothing will come of this game and I want to move on with my life and what if I could do this as a job?

截至6月10日，《Balatro》在Steam上已有183个愿望单

By June 10th, Balatro had 183 wishlists on Steam

Mid June 2023

头部主播Dan Gheesling（是一个很棒的家伙）在他的直播中试玩了《Balatro》。它开始让我的愿望单数量飙升。

Dan Gheesling plays Balatro on his stream. This is a massive streamer for my game (and a great guy!), and it starts making my wishlist numbers spike.

中型YouTuber与主播陆续加入试玩行列，它正在积聚势头。至此，游戏传播已完全依赖玩家自发安利，尽管我曾在Reddit、Twitter零星发帖，却始终未激起波澜，现在这个游戏自己有了惯性。

Other medium sized Youtubers and streamers start playing the game, it is building momentum. At this point the game was spreading entirely from word of mouth. I had posted a few things on Reddit and Twitter but really nothing that ever gained meaningful traction; now the game had inertia by itself.

我渐渐明白我应该再深入追求这个游戏。此时，几家发行商与我接洽。父母对当前所有状况给予了充分支持与切实建议。尽管我认真考虑过独立发行，但也清楚自己需要外部协助：无论是市场推广、多平台移植，还是应对这个我完全陌生的新领域。

It becomes clear that I should pursue the game a little further. I am approached by a few different publishers around now. I get some really great support and advice from my parents about everything going on. I strongly consider going it alone, but I also know that I need some help with all the public facing things, marketing, possible porting and just navigating this new thing I knew nothing about.

我聘请了一名律师来帮助我进行所有合同谈判，帮助我注册一家公司，在与过去合作过的工作室交谈后，我决定与 Playstack签约。他们可以取代我本来可以从 IT 工作中获得的任何薪水，所以这就是我现在的工作。

I hire a lawyer to help me with all the contract negotiations, help me set up a business, and I decide to sign with Playstack after speaking to studios that have worked with them in the past. They can replace whatever salary I would have made from an IT job, so this is my job now!

尽管这是段令人心潮澎湃的时光，却也充斥着始料未及的压力。我不习惯同时与这么多人打交道，且来自不同方面的压力远超我的预期。

While this was a very exciting time, it was also incredibly stressful. I’m not used to dealing with so many people, and I felt pressure from so many different directions that I wasn’t expecting.

随着我的免费Beta测试队列的增长，我推出了仅支持50回合体验的试玩版。此时，我有300名完整游戏的beta测试人员，真的不需要更多了。这个策略并不是最好的主意，但它让人们窥见《Balatro》的核心魅力，又不至于免费获得完整的游戏。试玩版日均同时在线玩家约10-20人，这在当时对我来说真的很令人兴奋。

I created a demo version of the game that only lasted 50 rounds after my free Beta tester queue started getting bigger. At this point I had 300 beta testers for the full game and didn’t really need any more. This demo strategy wasn’t the best idea, but it allowed people to see what Balatro was all about without just getting the full game for free. The demo was getting around 10-20 concurrent players, which was really mind blowing for me at the time.

截至6月底，《Balatro》在Steam上有2440个愿望单