The Notepad Hack: A Surprising Discovery
Balatro, the immensely popular roguelike card game, has taken the gaming world by storm, selling over 3 million copies and earning prestigious Game Awards. However, its journey to success was not without hiccups. According to Wout Van Halderen, communications director at Playstack, the game’s publisher, Balatro’s first demo contained a surprising vulnerability that allowed players to unlock the full game simply by editing a file in Windows Notepad.
How Players Unlocked the Full Game
Initially, the Balatro demo limited players to 50 rounds. Once those rounds were completed, the demo would end. However, some resourceful players discovered a way to bypass this restriction by modifying a few lines of code using Notepad. This simple trick enabled them to access the entire game without any official purchase.
The Developer’s Reaction
Naturally, this loophole caught the developers off guard. While it was alarming to see their game exploited so easily, they also recognized it as a testament to the game’s appeal. “It was kind of scary, but at the same time, you see the effort to crack your game and pull exploits because they want to play it so much. That was nice,” admitted Halderen during a talk at GDC.
Addressing the Exploit: A New and Improved Version
With reports surfacing online about pirated versions of Balatro circulating, the developers knew they had to act swiftly. Since they lacked a vast legal team to combat piracy aggressively, they decided on a more practical solution: releasing a newer, improved version of the game that would make the cracked demo obsolete. “We did want to bury it as soon as possible because the whole game was available,” explained Halderen. “So making sure there was a newer, shinier version of the game—it was very important to do that quickly and to make sure it was better than the cracked version.”
A Lesson in Game Development and Security
By September 2023, the developers had successfully launched a refined demo that prevented such easy exploits. Despite the initial mishap, the experience proved to be a valuable lesson in game security and player engagement. Halderen ultimately viewed the situation as a sign of the game’s popularity: “It was a sign of health for how many people wanted to play the whole thing. But that was not the experience we wanted them to have, so we gave them something shinier, something newer with the demo.”
The strategic response paid off, as Balatro went on to achieve critical and commercial success, ultimately earning PC Gamer’s prestigious Game of the Year award.
