Joker Madness is now available in Early Access worldwide 🃏

Joker Madness is now available in Early Access worldwide — and it's on sale right now! 🎉 Let me tell you what this game is about, where it stands today, and what's coming next (it's Early Access after all! 🚧).

🃏 What is this game?

It's a card strategy game with roguelite elements.

The base deck is 54 cards (2 through Ace + 2 Jokers).

Your goal

score as many points as possible.

The game has 2 modes

Strategy (PvE + PvP) and Madness (PvE).

♟️ Strategy Mode:

• At the start of each match, every player drafts 2 out of 4 random Jokers. You can't skip the draft — it sets the tone for the entire game

• Players take turns, and you can see all of each other's cards 👀

• Almost all active Jokers affect both players

• Each turn you choose 1 of 2 cards: the one you pick goes to you, the other goes to your opponent

• Besides the Jokers in the deck, there's a Joker Shop 🏪 — buy suit/rank killers and boosters with your points, plus special Jokers that bring chaos (controlled and… not so much 😈)

• The deck Jokers aren't simple either! 🔴 Red Joker revives 2 adjacent cards but gets penalized if your opponent buys a special Joker. 🔵 Blue Joker gives you a free shop purchase but kills 2 adjacent cards

• Build poker combos! Card position on the table is crucial — the right arrangement can give you an absolute advantage. To rearrange, just grab a card with LMB and drag it 🖱️

• Stonks system 📈📉 — Joker cards in the shop rise or fall in price based on supply and demand. Spam killers and they'll skyrocket, but boosters might drop to 0!

• When the deck runs out — it's time for the Final Shopping. You can buy up to 3 Jokers and make your last rearrangement

• Whoever has the higher final Total wins! 🏆

🌀 Madness Mode:

• Similar to Strategy, but…

• No shop at all! All Jokers come only from a regular draft every 3 turns and on the second-to-last turn

• Matches have Mutators — random events (panel at the top). A Mutator might boost a combo, add new Jokers to the deck, shuffle cards on the table, "blind" your draft choices, etc. 🎲

• This turns the game into something wild and heavily RNG-dependent! 🤪

🎮 What else is in the game:

• Joker's Shop 🛒 — some Jokers are locked at the start. Win to unlock them! You can also find deck skins there

• Tutorial pop-ups appear early on. Annoying? Turn them off in Settings ⚙️

• Settings also include: windowed mode, music, deck swap, background swap, and more

• The game supports Xbox gamepad 🎮 — which means it should work on Steam Deck too. Gamepad cursor can also be enabled in Settings. If you can share your experience running Joker Madness on Steam Deck — that would be a huge help! Post here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/4356020/discussions/0/806848332664342962/

🌐 How PvP works:

• In the PvP tab on the main screen there are two buttons: Create and Join

• When creating a game, the host gets a lobby code — your friend joins using that code

• The host always goes first

• After a match, you can jump right into another one 🔁

• ⚠️ Important! When creating a lobby, the game checks which Jokers are unlocked for both players — only those will be available. To unlock more, you both need to earn wins!

• PvP works Windows↔Windows / Mac↔Mac as well as Windows↔Mac

• There is no Matchmaking at the moment. Why? Without a large player base it only hurts the experience — you'd constantly fail to find opponents. If the game builds a serious audience, I can bring it in very quickly ⚡

🗺️ Early Access Roadmap:

• 🐛 Bug fixes — the game has already been tested by players and influencers, and a lot has been fixed thanks to them. Report bugs here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/4356020/discussions/0/806848332664343098/

• Adjusted⚖️ Balance — this one's trickyopinions vary wildly, and it's hard to find patterns with a small group of testers. I need community feedback! What should be improved, what content is missing? Post here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/4356020/discussions/0/806848332664343212/

• 🆕 New content — Jokers, decks, music, and even new modes + a story campaign (at least in concept it looks awesome! 🤞)

• 🔧 Improvements — expanding PvP to other modes, UX improvements, daily challenges, AI behavior in PvE, and much more

The game is available now! 🚀

Please play and share your impressions — including those of you who only tried the Demo! Every piece of feedback means the world 💛

— BadGafi