萬字精譯｜《Balatro》開發全紀實：從48願望單到百萬銷量的歷程

本文爲《Balatro》開發者LocalThunk開發日誌完整中譯版，首次揭露Steam獨立遊戲黑馬的完整心路歷程。

完成這篇近兩萬字的開發日誌翻譯，總共投入兩個我晚上的時間，遠比預想中更費時費力。最初以爲只是簡單的技術覆盤，但隨着時間線推進，字裏行間逐漸顯露出獨立開發者孤身奮戰時的焦慮、創作困境與商業抉擇。當最終譯至“香檳與漢堡的慶功夜”時，有種自己做了一個爆款獨立遊戲的恍惚感

以下將還原這段開發歷程的全貌，本文采用中英對照形式，嚴格遵循原始時間線編排。

The Balatro Timeline

自我開始開發《Balatro》已過去近三年，而這段時間裏我幾乎沒有留下任何開發日誌。這一直讓我耿耿於懷，尤其是遊戲發售後，我發現自己常會遺忘開發過程中的重要節點。現在動筆記錄雖然有點遲，但總比沒有強。

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!

本文將按時間順序詳述《Balatro》開發的每一個關鍵事件，包括髮售當天的細節。它不僅是一段故事，更是未來回顧時的“真相之源”——畢竟連我自己向朋友、玩家和媒體講述時，也偶爾會前後矛盾。隨着記憶逐漸清晰，我會持續更新此文檔。

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

這一天，我在我的Learning/Lua/目錄下創建了一個名爲template的文件夾，這個項目最終成爲了《Balatro》的雛形。

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.

當時我攢了3周的工作年假，由於公司不允許跨年累積，我索性在12月休長假投入個人項目。起初我專注於開發一款名爲Autohike的遊戲，但不久後便失去了興趣，隨即清理代碼並構思新項目。

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日的初步靈感是製作Big Cheat的在線多人版本——這是多年前我與朋友們基於紙牌遊戲Big 2和Cheat自創的玩法。

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.

這一週的主要任務是將Autohike的引擎改造爲更適合卡牌遊戲的框架，

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

創建了名爲CardGame的文件夾（至今仍是Balatro的源碼目錄），懶得改名。

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

花了很多時間製作紅色卡背和卡面的像素畫——這是我第一次正經嘗試的像素畫。

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

此時的原型極其粗糙，沒有“小丑牌”，沒有可選擇的“盲注”，升級系統僅是隨機抽取卡牌並附加怪異“增強效果”。但此時已能看出《Balatro》的雛形，我也徹底放棄了Big Cheat的在線多人遊戲的構想。

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.

遊戲中已有籌碼×倍數機制。我不記得這靈感從何而來，但作爲得分系統他莫名符合遊戲基調。十二月初，我觀看了遊戲主播Northernlion的《Luck Be a Landlord》（幸運房東）實況視頻，其中的“積分挑戰”玩法概念，爲我後續開發這款遊戲指明瞭方向。

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.

從此刻起，我也刻意不再接觸任何肉鴿類遊戲。需要明確的是，這並非因爲我認爲此舉能提升遊戲品質，而是因爲：對我而言，製作遊戲是純粹的愛好，發行盈利並非目的。正因如此，天真地探索肉鴿機制（尤其是卡組構築設計——此前我從未接觸過此類遊戲）本身便是樂趣的一部分。我渴望犯錯，甘願“重複造輪子”，而非借用現有遊戲中那些久經考驗的設計。誠然，遵循成熟框架或許能讓遊戲更趨完善，但這將背離我投身遊戲創作的初心。

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.

我開始向少數朋友分享進展，但尚未發佈測試版本。

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

January 2022

假期雖已結束，我卻徹底陷入癡迷——這是我最鍾愛的狀態。大學時期，我常熬夜至凌晨搗鼓那些古怪的遊戲項目，待父母清晨煮咖啡時與他們道聲早安。如今我重拾這種節奏，自一月起便深陷其中，欲罷不能。

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.

夜晚與週末都獻給了Joker Poker的開發（Balatro的初期開發代號，暫定於本月上旬）。

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

在迭代開發中，我嘗試了若干奇特版本，例如某一版設定爲：所有升級只能通過“僞商店”機制提升牌組中的卡牌等級，且卡牌可多次升級（類似Super Auto Pets裏寵物通過合成積累經驗/等級的機制）。

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

我開始在遊戲中加入「小丑牌」（Jokers）。同期因臨時外派工作數月，導致《Balatro》開發時間大幅縮減。

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.

我開始爲遊戲加入不同的「Boss級盲注」（Boss Blinds）。

I started adding different boss blinds to the game.

March 2022

三月初，《Balatro》迎來開發歷程中的重要轉折點——我決定徹底暫停項目，並在此回溯事件原委。

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.

投身遊戲開發十年，視覺藝術創作更久，我養成了一條至關重要的創作信條：若對某項目喪失內驅力，便果斷擱置。此舉基於兩大原因：其一，避免在舊項目上耗盡熱情，從而能全身心投入新靈感；其二（也是一個重要的原因），我能心安理得地暫停項目，未來重啓時亦無需揹負情感包袱。

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

我們回來了！儘管這是我在外的最後一個月，但我已開始抽離夜晚與週末，重啓Joker Poker的開發。

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.

此刻我靈感爆棚，對遊戲的熱情再度拉滿，我簡直勢不可擋！

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

我設計（並迅速推翻）了一批新系統用於測試，例如：獨立於常規貨幣的重擲代幣機制，以及“金色封印”系統——當玩家跳過所有盲注時，可爲卡牌附加封印，使其使用後回收至手牌。

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

正是在這段高效創作期內，我首次萌生將遊戲發佈至Steam的念頭——這甚至是我八年遊戲開發生涯裏，第一次考慮公開自己打造的作品。以往，這些作品頂多分享給幾個好友；坦白說，它們存在的意義本就不是“供人遊玩”，而是“爲創作而創作”。

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.

促使我考慮Steam發佈的另一層現實因素是——女友的博士學業即將完成。隨着她求職進入尾聲，跡象表明我們很可能將永久搬離現居地。若成真，我不得不辭職另謀生計，於是萌生念頭：不如嘗試尋找遊戲開發相關工作？ 而擁有一款Steam遊戲作爲作品集，無疑是求職時的顯著優勢。

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.

彼時我對商業化成功毫無奢望。當時對Steam的認知僅限於——平臺遊戲已達百萬量級，真正能靠此維生者寥寥無幾，自然視其爲遙不可及的選項。

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.

也正是在這個月，我正式啓用了沿用至今的開發者ID——LocalThunk。

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

當時我的女友正在學R語言，她問我：“你怎麼給變量起名？”我立刻大談一通命名規範——駝峯命名法、描述性詞組、下劃線……等她聽完後，淡定甩出一句：“我就愛叫它們thunk！” 這大概是我聽過最冷幽默的編程梗了。

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語言中聲明變量的方式（有時）會用到 local 關鍵字，由此誕生了“local thunk”這個組合！儘管我並未立即採用此名，但當最終決定創建線上開發者賬號時，回溯的正是這一靈感瞬間。

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

開發仍在推進（具體新增內容已記憶模糊）。此時，Joker Poker已初步構建經濟系統，並加入大量小丑牌機制，整體框架接近當前版本的《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.

此時，我將新版遊戲分享給了幾位好友。

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

August 2022

數月後，某位參與內測的朋友突然發來盛讚——遠超預期的那種。他甚至提到自己已沉迷測試版幾十個小時。

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.

在我向朋友分享項目的這些年裏，從未收穫過如此熱烈的反饋。我幾乎不敢相信，而這股認可徹底激發了我的決心——必須全力完善這個項目。我很高興得知這款遊戲竟能讓我熟識的人樂在其中，同時也讓我更想向他、其他好友、女友、家人，以及我自己證明，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.

此時，我開始瘋狂拓展內容！更多小丑牌、手柄/觸控支持、賤萌教程角色Jimbo、專屬原聲、精細音效、特殊卡牌……無數新點子擠爆需求清單。我感覺自己就是Scope Creep的化身，這感覺還挺爽！（譯者注：Scope Creep爲項目管理方面的術語通常指項目需求失控擴張的負面現象）

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

如預期一般，伴侶在外地斬獲一份理想工作，我隨之辭職遷居。我對開啓人生新篇章滿懷熱忱，同時做出關鍵決定：未來3-6個月暫不求職，全身心投入Joker Poker的全職開發。

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.

這無疑是以遊戲開發者身份全職投入的千載良機（即使零報酬），而我深知此等契機恐難再現。既然現在有些許積蓄，此刻我將全力以赴。

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

我短暫休假，與好友共赴加州衝浪。途中，向他們展示了新版遊戲——正是幾個月後即將登陸Steam的版本。此刻，遊戲中已實裝“優惠券”（Vouchers）系統！

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，我在自由職業平臺Fiverr上聯繫了作曲家Luis Clemente，他爲Joker Poker創作的原聲帶完全超出預期！儘管這筆支出（當時）是我爲遊戲投入的唯一一筆資金，但整個過程仍讓我忐忑不安。

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通話中，我向好友展示遊戲，其中一人提議：“如果打出神級牌組，得分該有火焰特效！” 起初我嗤之以鼻，但冷靜下來一想，意識到自己大錯特錯——這個火焰特效竟與我想打造的遊戲氣質完美契合。多虧聽了他的！

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!

我反覆篩選出約20個候選遊戲名，發現Joker Poker已被應用商店某應用佔用，且其調性遠偏離了我預期的氛圍。將名單發給好友徵集反饋，儘管《Balatro》也在其中，卻無一人選中。但此名卻如魔咒般縈繞心頭，最終我選擇孤注一擲押注直覺。

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，我正式啓動商店資料籌備：製作預告片、整理遊戲截圖，並咬牙支付了Steam平臺100美元的上架費。與此同時，項目迎來大規模代碼重構。

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》成爲正式名稱。

The name is officially Balatro.

面對Steam平臺，我徹底手足無措。光是研究如何發行獨立遊戲就讓我焦慮不堪——Steam每天有大量遊戲上線，各種關於該做什麼，不該做什麼的噪音，以及應該製作什麼類型的遊戲、如何營銷的建議。最令我震驚的是，儘管投入了大量時間開發遊戲，但似乎這些並沒有人在意。事實上，之前我從未奢望過遊戲能賣出多少份，而初期的調研更讓我確信。

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

我下載了殺戮尖塔並首次遊玩。我超！這纔是真正的遊戲！

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

這次試玩殺戮尖塔是爲了研究卡牌遊戲的控制器輸入處理邏輯（當時我正面臨手柄適配的技術瓶頸），然而實際體驗後卻被其設計深度徹底吸引。值得慶幸的是，此前我始終避免接觸此作——若過早體驗，無論有意或無意，我恐怕都難以避免對其精妙設計的過度借鑑。

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，我將首個公開的Beta版本上傳至Steam，正式上線商店頁面，結果正如我所料——反響寥寥。不過，正是這種本就不抱期待的心態，讓我省去了一些心痛。因爲我最終並沒有因爲我的免費Beta版本從玩家那裏獲得冷淡回應而感到沮喪。

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玩家開始提供反饋。這標誌着我將更加以玩家爲中心的發展策略的開始，而不僅僅是一直聽從我的直覺。

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上僅有48個願望單

By end of May, Balatro had 48 wishlists on Steam

Early June 2023

正是在這一時期，《Balatro》對我而言不再只是一項單純的愛好。

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

此時，YouTuber們開始關注這款遊戲。儘管以中小型獨立遊戲頻道爲主，但隨時間的推移熱度確實開始增長。爲收集反饋而建的Discord服務器逐漸佔據我更多精力，但此時仍無任何跡象表明遊戲將開始流行。

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.

儘管如此，我開始認真審視這款遊戲的商業前景。我真的能以此謀利嗎？我似乎窺見一絲可能，它或許真能變成什麼。

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.

我與女友開啓了一段爲期數日在偏遠地區的野外獨木舟之旅。旅途中，我們探討了這款遊戲的未來走向及其對我職業生涯的影響。儘管進展平緩，我還是準備好繼續前進，畢竟年初我就向她承諾開發週期至多六個月，而此刻實際已持續開發一年半，我覺的我不應該在拖太久了。

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.

我準備在兩週內退出遊戲。我在Steam頁面敲定發佈日期，同時我開始考慮再次找工作，回到正常的軟件/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發行商的私信，我既興奮又倍感糾結。此刻恰逢開發歷程中最爲迷茫的節點，因爲我正困在理想與現實的夾縫中，既想放棄這個遊戲又想繼續我的生活，又忍不住幻想或許真能以此爲業？

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個願望單

By June 10th, Balatro had 183 wishlists on Steam

Mid June 2023

頭部主播Dan Gheesling（是一個很棒的傢伙）在他的直播中試玩了《Balatro》。它開始讓我的願望單數量飆升。

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與主播陸續加入試玩行列，它正在積聚勢頭。至此，遊戲傳播已完全依賴玩家自發安利，儘管我曾在Reddit、Twitter零星發帖，卻始終未激起波瀾，現在這個遊戲自己有了慣性。

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.

我漸漸明白我應該再深入追求這個遊戲。此時，幾家發行商與我接洽。父母對當前所有狀況給予了充分支持與切實建議。儘管我認真考慮過獨立發行，但也清楚自己需要外部協助：無論是市場推廣、多平臺移植，還是應對這個我完全陌生的新領域。

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.

我聘請了一名律師來幫助我進行所有合同談判，幫助我註冊一家公司，在與過去合作過的工作室交談後，我決定與 Playstack簽約。他們可以取代我本來可以從 IT 工作中獲得的任何薪水，所以這就是我現在的工作。

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!

儘管這是段令人心潮澎湃的時光，卻也充斥着始料未及的壓力。我不習慣同時與這麼多人打交道，且來自不同方面的壓力遠超我的預期。

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.

隨着我的免費Beta測試隊列的增長，我推出了僅支持50回合體驗的試玩版。此時，我有300名完整遊戲的beta測試人員，真的不需要更多了。這個策略並不是最好的主意，但它讓人們窺見《Balatro》的核心魅力，又不至於免費獲得完整的遊戲。試玩版日均同時在線玩家約10-20人，這在當時對我來說真的很令人興奮。

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個願望單