Hey all, I have some big Balatro news to share today, but before I do that I wanted to say how unbelievable the love and support I’ve received in recent weeks has been - the groundswell of community passion for this game completely caught me off guard and has been both inspiring and terrifying. There is a huge amount of work up ahead so I’d like to explain how Balatro will evolve in the upcoming months. To make sure that Balatro reaches its full potential, I have enlisted the publisher Playstack to help support it. Playstack has supported some amazing games such as AK-xolotl, The Case of the Golden Idol, The Last Faith and Mortal Shell, so I’m really excited for their help. Having Playstack take care of some of the day-to-day stuff will allow me to refocus on developing Balatro, and their expertise will help me better navigate through many of the new challenges I have been facing. Their help will also afford me to do things I wouldn't be able to do alone, such as potentially releasing on other platforms and high quality localization support. This does mean there will be some quick changes that I want everyone to be aware of and, with you as my earliest supporters, I want to be transparent: [h2]Balatro Playtest is closing [/h2] If you’re queueing for the Playtest, I know you will undoubtedly be disappointed that we are closing the Playtest plan. The truth is that the queue for the Playtest has outgrown its intended size by many orders of magnitude. As the line of people patiently waiting grew rapidly, the Playtest suddenly no longer fit its intended purpose which was to allow a few people to play the game and give me feedback. However… [h2]New demo: Coming September[/h2] In September I will be launching a new Balatro demo that will be accessible for everyone. This demo will be more compact and focused, offering a smaller slice of the full Balatro experience (This demo will not be capped at 50 rounds). The September demo will NOT be an official entry of the October NextFest, however it will be available to download and play during the same time as the festival runs. You can get notified of the new demo going live, and stay notified on all future demos and releases, by joining our exclusive newsletter here: www.PlayBalatro.com [h2]The NextFest demo: Coming February[/h2] Balatro will be releasing early next year, and in February I’ll launch the official NextFest demo. Details on this demo are still coming together, but my intention is to expand on the September demo with more Jokers, new ideas, and different scenarios. Like with the September demo, you can sign up to the Newsletter on www.PlayBalatro.com to stay in the loop. Thank you again for your support, and I can’t wait to share the next demo in September! - LocalThunk