Hey everyone! 👋
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/
⚖️ Balance — this one's tricky: opinions 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