Balatro developer, Local Thunk, recently shared a fascinating development history on their personal blog. Surprisingly, they confess to minimal roguelike game play during Balatro's creation—with one notable exception.
Their development timeline reveals a conscious decision, starting December 2021, to avoid playing roguelikes. Thunk explains this wasn't about creating a better game, but rather about the inherent joy of their hobby: "Making games is my hobby, releasing them and making money from them is not…naively exploring roguelike design was part of the fun. I wanted to make mistakes, reinvent the wheel, and not borrow designs. That likely would have resulted in a tighter game, but it would have defeated the purpose of what I love about making games."
However, a year and a half later, this self-imposed rule cracked. Thunk downloaded *Slay the Spire*. Their reaction? "Holy shit," they wrote, "now **that** is a game." The reason? Troubleshooting controller implementation in their own game. They admit, "I ended up getting sucked in. Thank goodness I avoided playing it until now because I surely would have just copied their incredible design (intentionally or subconsciously)."Thunk's post-mortem offers further intriguing details. The game's initial working folder was unimaginatively titled "CardGame," a name that stuck surprisingly long. The working title, "Joker Poker," also reveals an early design direction.
Several scrapped features are detailed, including: a pseudo-shop card upgrade system (similar to Super Auto Pets), a separate currency for rerolls, and a "golden seal" mechanic for returning played cards to hand.
The number of Jokers (150) also has a quirky origin story: a miscommunication between Thunk and their publisher, Playstack. An initial mention of "120 Jokers" evolved to 150, a change Thunk felt was ultimately superior.
Finally, the name "Local Thunk" itself has an amusing backstory. It's a programming joke stemming from a conversation with their partner learning R programming, resulting in the memorable and fitting developer handle.
Thunk's full blog post offers a much deeper dive into Balatro's creation. IGN clearly appreciates the result, awarding it a 9/10 and praising it as "A deck-builder of endlessly satisfying proportions…the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans…"
