Deploy to Steam

Your game runs inside Tabletop Simulator, which is sold on Steam. Every player at your table needs a copy of Tabletop Simulator, but they do not need Runner accounts or anything else. Once your game is loaded, up to a full table of players can join a session, pick up cards, roll dice, and play with real physics, while your automated rules handle dealing and turn flow.

Runner offers three ways to get your game out. Local Play is free and best while you are iterating: you export a ZIP and install it on your own machine with the Tabletop Deployer. The Export Package, also free, is for designers who want to host their own game assets: it produces the same game with placeholder web addresses plus a guide for pointing them at wherever you host the images. Managed Hosting is the paid option, where Runner hosts the assets for you so sharing the game requires no technical setup at all.

For most of development, Local Play is all you need. The moment to think about hosted assets is when you want playtesters to load the game without you in the room, since hosted images load for everyone automatically instead of living only on your computer. That is the point where blind playtesting becomes practical: strangers can download Tabletop Simulator, load your game, and play from your written rules with no help.

Whichever route you choose, the game itself is identical. You are choosing where the images live, not what the game can do, so there is no penalty for staying on the free tier until your playtest circle outgrows it.