Transcription
Balatro, an indie roguelike deck-building game, took the gaming world by storm. It received universal praise from gamers and critics, sold over two million copies just six months after its release, and even won the Best Independent Game award at The Game Awards in 2024. Impressive achievements, especially considering the game—apart from its mesmerizing music and sound effects—was made by only one person.
The anonymous creator, who goes by the pseudonym LocalThunk, never anticipated any kind of success. In fact, he only expected about six people to buy his game. When asked on Twitter if he foresaw the praise Balatro would receive, he replied: "I was expecting like four of my friends and my parents to buy the game, and that would have been awesome, so no, the entire past year has been a series of crazy events.”
So why did he only expect to sell a handful of copies? And how did a lone developer make something that turned into a global sensation? Let’s dive in.
LocalThunk’s journey into game development began during his university years. A lifelong dream of creating video games finally started to take shape during his downtime from studying mechanical engineering. Starting with smaller, simpler projects, he quickly discovered how much he enjoyed the process of making a game. This passion led him to make a sudden decision: he dropped out of engineering and joined a computer science program instead.
Meanwhile, the developer began working on a more ambitious project—a game he described as a Risk-type strategy experience. It featured a dynamic world where countries would spawn with geographically accurate names. It took him two years to complete, but despite his hard work, only a handful of people ever saw the game in action, let alone played it. LocalThunk never shared his games online. They were either personal experiments or creations he shared with close friends and family—people he knew would appreciate them. Success or profit was never a driving force for him; he simply loves the process of making games. “The motivation is that I enjoy game development – actually writing the code, a lot. Making games for my friends is a way to a kind of an end goal. These are people I've known for a long time, people I think would appreciate and have fun with these projects I've worked on. It's not playtesting. It doesn't need to be tested. Just a thing I made.”
After graduating and getting his first job, LocalThunk continued making games in his spare time. He never pursued a career in the gaming industry, opting instead for jobs doing “normal development stuff.” Years later, in 2021, his employer told him that he still had a whole bunch of unused vacation days. Rather than planning a traditional holiday, LocalThunk chose to spend December at home, immersed in prototyping and refining a new game project—his idea of the perfect vacation. That project would eventually evolve into Balatro, the game that would change his life forever.
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The original prototype was inspired by the Cantonese card game Big Two, a game LocalThunk often played with friends in high school. Big Two is designed for two to four players and involves scoring points by playing poker-style hands such as pairs, triples, and flush. Initially, his goal was to create an online version of Big Two so he could relive those childhood memories with his friends during the pandemic.
While working on this project, the developer stumbled across a roguelike slot machine game on Steam called Luck Be a Landlord. He became obsessed with the game, spending hours watching YouTube videos of others playing it. He actually never played it himself, but its unique theme and design captivated him—there were no opponents to fight; the gameplay was simply about numbers getting bigger, and he loved the simplicity and appeal of that concept. Inspired by this, he decided to pivot his project. He dropped the competitive online element and reimagined the game as a single-player experience focused on meeting score requirements. Using a game development framework called Löve, the early fundamentals of Balatro started coming together.
Creating a functional card game was one thing, but LocalThunk knew he needed a strong theme to make it more engaging and fun to play. A theme with a distinct identity, rich iconography, and familiar imagery. Poker, with its striking visuals, resonant sounds, and well-known terminology, seemed like the perfect fit. That said, his goal was never to design a game specifically for poker players. In fact, the gameplay intentionally avoids relying on the key skills that define a good poker player. While the early prototypes focused primarily on mechanics, as development progressed, LocalThunk gradually incorporated more poker-inspired elements into the game.
Before Joker cards became the main gameplay focus, the core of Balatro was about leveling up your cards, similar to auto-battler games like Super Auto Pets. However, after about two months of development, LocalThunk realized the concept just wasn’t fun to play. Afterwards, mechanics like Joker cards and being able to skip rounds, started to make its way into early prototypes. Interestingly, the developer had never played a deck-builder before releasing Balatro. It was only afterward that he began exploring games in the genre. During development, he was only vaguely aware of other roguelike deck-building games, apart from major titles like Slay the Spire. Looking back, he’s glad it worked out that way. He’s convinced that designs and mechanics from other games in the genre would have influenced his design process and overshadowed his own original ideas.
LocalThunk wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or compete with existing games to sell as many copies as possible. His focus was purely on making a game he himself would enjoy playing. For him, a big part of why developing games is so fun is that he gets to tackle design challenges on his own, rather than borrowing solutions from others. This self-driven approach became a defining element of Balatro and its success.
Eight months into development, Balatro was still unbalanced from a gameplay perspective but was starting to resemble the game we know today. However, it didn’t have its final name yet. LocalThunk had brainstormed a variety of potential titles, including Rogue Hold’em, Rogue Poker, Trial of the Joker, Foolish Poker, Hand of the Fool, Hyperborean Hold’em, and Cartomancer’s Hold’em. Two names, Joker Poker and Fool's Gambit, came especially close—each even had its own menu screen for a while. However, the developer discovered that Joker Poker was already the name of an existing app, and he admits that Fool’s Gambit never quite sounded right. More importantly, they never captured the vibe he was aiming for. He eventually settled on Balatro, a term from ancient Rome that refers to a professional jester—or, more fittingly, a joker.
After working on the game for over a year, LocalThunk decided to quit his job and dedicate himself to the project full-time. This decision wasn’t driven by a belief that Balatro would become successful, but rather because he wanted to upload a playable build to Steam. His goal was to include the game on his résumé in hopes of finding a job that better suited his interests. With some savings to support himself for a while, he took the leap to focus entirely on finishing up his deck-building poker game.
Although the core gameplay loop was already very enjoyable, LocalThunk felt the game needed more variety. This led to the introduction of modifier cards, which became the planet and Tarot cards, as well as the ability to add more unique cards to the standard 52-card deck. Furthermore, expanding the collection of Joker cards became something of an obsession. The developer loves drawing in his spare time so coming up with new Joker art became a fun, creative outlet when he wasn’t busy coding.
When it came to the effect of each Joker card, it was important to keep things simple and balanced. Therefore, LocalThunk came up with a few rules for designing the Jokers. First, Joker cards need to synergize with a broad range of game elements. For example, an effect that multiplies the score of played face cards works well because it can apply to many cards in any given run. If a Joker card only synergizes with another specific Joker, the rarity of that happening would make for a frustrating experience. Additionally, Joker card descriptions have to be short—ideally no more than four lines of text. If an effect takes too long to describe, it probably doesn’t have a broad enough synergy anyways. It’s also important to the developer that choosing between Joker cards is always a tough and meaningful decision for the player. To achieve this, Jokers with more powerful effects were designed to be conditional. For example, the Driver’s License Joker provides a 3x multiplier, but only if the player has at least 16 Enhanced cards in their full deck. To balance these high-impact, conditional Jokers, LocalThunk included more “boring” but reliable Jokers. Otherwise, players might find themselves overly constrained by too many oppressive conditions. Lastly, Jokers can only work in tandem with existing mechanics and should never introduce new ones. Not only to avoid more and more mechanics creeping its way into the game, but also to avoid diluting synergies.
LocalThunk didn’t just iterate on the Joker cards—he also continuously refined the game’s visual style. One day, on a whim, he added a CRT filter to the game. From there, he began incorporating more surreal effects, such as a swirling background and gyrating cards. With each addition, the visuals started to feel increasingly cohesive, creating a unique aesthetic that tied the game together. He describes it as a very organic evolution as he never intended to make a “cursed interdimensional poker machine”.
In July 2023, after 18 months of development, the creator was happy enough with the state of the game to release a demo on Steam. However, he had no expectations that anyone would download it, let alone enjoy playing it. He did virtually no marketing beyond creating a simple, short trailer. He didn’t email anyone, didn’t invest in social media ads—nothing like that. To his surprise, Twitch creators like Retromation and Dan Gheesling discovered the demo and streamed their very positive first impressions. That marked the turning point.
As more people began to play and share their experiences, feedback started pouring in—something LocalThunk hadn’t anticipated and wasn’t quite prepared for. “Taking it public 100% was the biggest challenge. You know, I've made games for so long, and I have also had another game that I've worked on for about two years, maybe two and a half years, and I never told anyone about that game. And all I think about is just how fun it was for literally the entire time I was working on it. No pressure, I could do whatever I wanted with it at whatever timeframe I wanted. And as soon as I went public with this game, I wasn't expecting there to be chatter all the time and pressure to do things, and if there's a bug you need to fix it, and criticism. Because none of that stuff really is why I wanted to make the game in the first place. I just love making games. All that stuff seemed almost like a means to an end if I wanted to have this game on Steam. So since it went public, I think dealing with that side of it has been the biggest challenge in the entire development cycle.”
LocalThunk could hardly believe what was happening, but he decided to seize the opportunity to improve the game based on player feedback. This process became a crucial factor in shaping the retail version of Balatro. Over the next seven months, he introduced new content, including additional Joker and Tarot cards, released an updated demo on Steam, and carefully examined the influx of feedback to refine the next demo.
One recurring piece of feedback was that certain Joker cards were overpowered, while others were too weak or unappealing, leading players to avoid picking them. While the creator took much of the feedback into account, he didn’t blindly implement every suggestion. His number one goal was still to create a game that he himself enjoys playing. If a suggestion didn’t align with his vision or preferences, he simply didn’t add it. This balance between listening to players and staying true to his creative instincts was key to Balatro's development.
One suggestion LocalThunk took to heart was to better facilitate seeded runs. He describes this as one of the biggest learning moments in the game’s development. Initially, he used seeds solely to simplify saving runs for players. Almost as an afterthought, he decided to make the seed codes visible. To his surprise, players quickly embraced the idea of playing and sharing seeded runs with each other. Although he didn’t personally find seeded runs appealing, not in Balatro, nor in other roguelike games, he was curious to understand the community’s excitement. After talking to players in the official Balatro Discord, the developer made adjustments to improve the way seeds work.
Meanwhile, LocalThunk partnered with Playstack to help with publishing, playtesting, and localization. For the first time since he began developing games, the creator decided to invest actual money into his project—a decision he described as a nervous experience. He turned to Fiverr to find a talented musician to compose the game’s soundtrack. After exchanging messages and ideas, he connected with Louis F, who proved to be the perfect fit. Louis went on to create the game’s mesmerizing and widely praised soundtrack. When the game became a huge success, the developer felt guilty about how much Louis contributed and comparatively how little he got paid for his work in hindsight. To make things right, LocalThunk drew up a contract ensuring that Louis would receive 100% of the revenue from the soundtrack on Steam. The developer said that “he’s more than earned it.”
In February 2024, a little over two years after development began, Balatro was released on PC, followed by console and mobile ports a few months later. The game received universal praise from both critics and gamers, and suddenly it felt like everyone was talking about LocalThunk’s trippy poker-inspired creation. Even Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker commented how Balatro is “possibly the most addictive thing ever created.”
Unfortunately, the game’s addictive nature became a point of controversy. Shortly after its release, it was pulled from several digital stores outside the United States. Without prior warning, the PEGI ratings board changed Balatro's age rating from 3+ to 18+ due to a belief that the game contains “prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling.” It completely blindsided LocalThunk and publisher Playstack, especially since the issue had already been addressed months earlier. In October 2023, the ratings board initially assigned Balatro an 18+ rating, but after an appeal, it was lowered to 3+. No content had been altered since then. Playstack strongly refuted the decision, emphasizing that Balatro does not allow or encourage gambling, and called the ratings change completely unfounded. LocalThunk himself is firmly opposed to gambling practices and never considered implementing microtransactions or allowing players to spend extra money in the game in any other way. By March 8th, Balatro returned to most digital stores, but the 18+ rating remained in place. It’s unclear for now if the rating will be lowered to 3+ again.
Despite the age rating issue, Balatro generated an astonishing one million dollars in gross revenue within the first eight hours of release. In just ten days, it sold 500,000 copies—a figure that grew to two million within six months. At The Game Awards in 2024, Balatro won several awards, including Best Debut Indie Game. Moreover, it won the Best Indie Game award at the Golden Joystick Awards. It’s the kind of success story most aspiring game developers can only dream of.
Yet, despite all his hard work, LocalThunk attributes much of his success to luck. “That original idea was… I put no thought into it. I lucked into it. After analyzing Balatro for two-ish years, I now know that was something that people really focus on, try to get right and iterate on – the original idea, the technical alpha idea. Make a game in three days, see if the concept works. I didn't do any of that. I just started working on something that was like, 'that would probably be fun.'”
While LocalThunk is deeply grateful for Balatro’s success, which enabled him to turn his passion into a career, he’s determined not to let the game define his identity. This is part of the reason he chose to create the pseudonym LocalThunk—it allows him to maintain a life outside of the game’s success. He believes this separation is healthier in the long run.
For now, it seems LocalThunk is far from finished with Balatro. He has already released three free updates featuring cosmetic card skins inspired by fan-favorite characters from games like The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077, The Binding of Isaac, Stardew Valley, and more. Additionally, a major gameplay update is planned for 2025, promising to introduce new ideas and strategies to the game. Given his focus on expanding Balatro, it’s no surprise that the developer hasn’t started working on any major new game ideas just yet. That said, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t been thinking about the possibilities.
LocalThunk is confident that his next development journey will go much smoother now that he’s learned which pitfalls to avoid and has been exposed to so many best practices and game design techniques. However, he also believes that his experience with Balatro could have a downside. He worries it might make him more inhibited, with a tendency to be overly rigid about the kinds of design spaces he’s willing to explore. Whatever his next project turns out to be, he’s already excited about one aspect: telling absolutely nobody about it until it’s finished. That way, he can return to what he loves most about being a game developer—the pure joy of creating.
When asked by Game Informer if there was anything he wanted to say to fans of Balatro, he gave the following answer: “The thing I’m the most proud of is the fact that I've just even got to the finish line at all. But, you know, the fact that people love this game so much, and they're so invested in its future and wanting to improve it and design ideas, they've kind of allowed me to turn this into a career. It's a career that I really want to do forever. I'm grateful that they've been able to afford that opportunity for me and that they keep playing Balatro. Keep getting those high scores.”