Balatro developer Local Thunk has shared a detailed account of the game's development on his personal blog, revealing a unique approach to game design. Throughout the development of Balatro, Local Thunk consciously avoided playing roguelike games, with one notable exception. As of December 2021, he decided to steer clear of these games to preserve the joy of exploring roguelike and deckbuilder design independently. He emphasized that this choice was not driven by a desire to create a superior game but rather to enjoy the process of making games as a hobby, without the influence of established designs.
However, in a surprising turn of events, Local Thunk broke his rule once after a year and a half, when he downloaded and played Slay the Spire. He was overwhelmed by the game, exclaiming, "Holy shit, now **that** is a game." Initially, he sought to study Slay the Spire's controller implementation for his own project, but found himself captivated by the game's design. He expressed relief at having avoided playing it earlier, fearing he might have inadvertently replicated its design.
Local Thunk's blog post provides fascinating insights into Balatro's development. Early on, the project was simply named "CardGame" in the working folder and remained unchanged. The game was internally referred to as "Joker Poker" during much of its development. He also shared details about scrapped features, such as a system where players could only upgrade cards in a pseudo-shop, multiple upgrades akin to Super Auto Pets, a separate currency for rerolls, and a 'golden seal' mechanic for returning played cards to hand after skipping all blinds.
An amusing anecdote explains how Balatro ended up with 150 Jokers. A miscommunication during a meeting with Playstack, the game's publisher, led to the increase from an initially planned 120 Jokers to 150, a number Local Thunk felt was more suitable.
Lastly, Local Thunk shared the origin of his developer handle, "Local Thunk." It stems from a programming joke with his partner, who humorously suggested naming variables "thunk." This, combined with Lua's variable declaration using the "local" keyword, inspired the name.
For more insights into the making of Balatro, you can visit Local Thunk's blog [ttpp]. IGN has praised Balatro, awarding it a 9/10 and describing it as "A deck-builder of endlessly satisfying proportions, it's the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans as you stay awake far too late staring into the eyes of a jester tempting you in for just one more run."
