How One Person Created ‘Balatro,’ the Year’s Best Game
In a year filled with massive open world RPGs and AAA live service games with ambitious season passes, it’s incredible that the title that truly captured the hearts (and free time) of players in 2024 was actually just a silly little poker riff called Balatro.
Produced by a single anonymous developer who goes by the name LocalThunk, Balatro is a game that defies simple explanation, one whose appeal falls squarely into the “you just have it play it to see” category. But that hasn’t prevented the game from becoming a smash hit, garnering numerous “game of the year” nominations, and pulling attention away from the industry’s heavy hitters.
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For many, Balatro has become an obsession, an endlessly playable and perpetually surprisingly anomaly that demands just another round, keeping gamers glued to their screen from the comfort of their couch to the morning commute.
Balatro‘s ascent in the mainstream zeitgeist is unprecedented for an indie game of its kind, even garnering a nom for “Game of the Year” at the industry’s biggest annual event, The Game Awards. Although the crown ultimately went to PlayStation’s darling Astro Bot, Balatro still pulled off the hat trick of “Best Indie Game,” “Best Debut Indie Game,” and “Best Mobile Game” at the ceremony.
The game has been heralded as both a critical and commercial success, with over 3.5 million units sold as of December, and ranks at or near the top of digital storefronts across every platform from consoles to PC and mobile. It’s taking over social media as well; both the game’s official account and fans have been disseminating images of Balatro’s clown mascot, Jimbo, to spread the fever, which now haunts the mentions of everyone from YouTube star Markiplier to former U.S. President Barack Obama.
But the breakout game of 2024 started its journey like most indie titles do, fighting for attention against an endless sea of others. Rolling Stone recently spoke with LocalThunk about Balatro’s road to launch, its effect on the wider industry, and what the elusive developer envisions for the ongoing future of the game.
What is Balatro?
Balatro is a round-based roguelike card game in which you score points by building poker hands using your deck. Basic hands like a “pair” or “high card” are worth less while more advanced ones like a “full house” or “straight flush” are worth much more. As the run progresses, players will earn money by beating rounds (called Blinds) which can be used to purchase Jokers (permanent modifiers and multipliers), Tarot cards (one-time use effects), and Planet cards (poker hand level ups).
Playing cards and jokers can be equipped with enhancements that will increase your score. Permanent vouchers can be purchased that give you an extra playing hand or discard per round, or provide greater odds of already enhanced cards appearing in the pool.
The variety of cards you can pick up and enhance contribute to a countless amount of builds you can make during a single run. With 15 unique decks, stakes (difficulty modifiers), and specialty challenge modes, there’s a reason fans of the roguelike genre have been dumping thousands of hours into Balatro: it’s endlessly replayable.
The roguelike element of Balatro guarantees that no run is identical, even if you’re playing with the same deck and difficulty stake. And when a particularly nasty blind removes your go-to hand (mine is a full house), there’s no greater or more satisfying challenge than having to pivot to a completely new strategy mid-run.
One of the game’s greatest strengths is that it doesn’t have its own deck of original or fantasy cards for players to learn. Using the visual language of poker, it’s easy for casual players to glean the methods of building a hand, but the game doesn’t rely on the actual rules of that poker or Texas Hold ‘Em that might put people off. Even the jokers, which do each have their own special ability, are quick to pick up — with their wildcard capabilities made easy to understand as they’re applied mid-round. Picking up a joker card that you don’t quite understand often leads to a big “a ha!” moment when it finally clicks, reeling in a whale-sized score.
Altogether, Balatro’s blend of familiar elements pulled from tons of different sources coalesce into something inherently easy to understand, if you’re willing to give it a chance.
How the cards fell in place
Before Balatro became a dark horse success, it was just the latest in a series of small individual passion projects that LocalThunk was developing on the side. While working full-time in IT (he wouldn’t elaborate further), these side projects were more of a hobby than anything else. After sharing an early build with friends, he began to see what a time sink the game could become, and therein laid its potential.
“I showed this game to like three or four people, and usually I just send a link to my friends and most of them don’t even touch it,” LocalThunk says.” It’s another one of those crazy project things that I can’t expect people to invest their time into. But one of my friends ended up putting ten, 20, 30 hours into it, and I hadn’t even played it that much at that point. And that got me thinking there was something here.”
The game first appeared as a demo on Steam in 2023, “to no fanfare, of course,” LocalThunk laughs. “I had no following. The first couple weeks I was getting ten to 40 wish lists, which is what I was expecting, so I wasn’t disappointed or anything. But a couple really small YouTube channels started posting about it, and right around that time someone from the Playstack publisher DM’d me. It grew from there, and the game kinda blew up.”
The only thing that stalled the game’s momentum was a sudden change to the game’s PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) content rating from 3+ to 18+ back in March, a ruling made due to allegations that Balatro featured “prominent gambling imagery.” The change, while also limiting the game’s potential reach, also resulted in the game getting delisted from stores in certain countries.
The reasoning behind the change is ironic given LocalThunk’s vehement opposition to gambling, which is so serious to him that he drew up a will to include a stipulation that the “Balatro IP may never be sold or licensed to any gambling company or casino.” This past month, with Balatro still rated 18+, LocalThunk has hammered PEGI for allowing loot box-centric games with “actual gambling mechanics” like EA Sports FC to maintain a 3+ rating, making them available to a younger audience than Balatro‘s despite potentially having more addictive, real world implications on player’s wallets and spending habits.
“Gambling to me, it preys on a misunderstanding of probabilities,” the developer says. “I think it’s very predatory to hijack people’s brains to make money off them. I’m against microtransactions and I don’t want to be predatory in the monetization of this game. My game is very math-y and statistics heavy, and if you understand probabilities, will probably do better in the game. I like that it’s giving people a more intuitive understanding of what one-in-four actually means. And I think the smartest gambler understands that for every dollar they put in the machine, they get 95 cents back.”
Balatro’s next big breakthrough came in September, when it was released on mobile devices, a market almost tailor made to card games. It was once again an instant hit, becoming the number one paid app across the iOS and Android app stores — practically to the chagrin of many existing players, many of whom jokingly bemoaned the many hours they’ll once again lose to the game after clocking in plenty on previous platforms. With the holidays ahead, and gamers looking to do anything other than talk to extended family members, Balatro will certainly appear in more and more player game libraries, especially at a low price point of less than 15 dollars.
Balatro is an indie lottery ticket
With its nomination for the top prize at The Game Awards 2024, Balatro has defied the odds, cementing its legacy with a landmark moment for indie gaming. While not the first card game to get a “Game of the Year” nomination (that would be Hearthstone in 2014), it is the first game developed by a single individual to be honored in that fashion.
While obviously happy for himself, LocalThunk is more thrilled that the discussion around Balatro’s nomination has prompted more players to check out other big indie titles of the year like Shared Memory’s Animal Well or the Mossmouth’s UFO 50 collection. “I just happened to have made the indie game that got really popular this year,” he says. “It’s a beautiful corner of the industry full of creative people that are super passionate about what they do. Oftentimes [they’re] making these games not because they’re expecting any payout, but because they have an artistic vision and they want to see it through.”
Balatro’s nomination at The Game Awards did, inevitably, incite some online discourse among detractors who believed a simple “card game” didn’t deserve the top honor or that the hype was unwarranted. But LocalThunk welcomes the scrutiny, and is happy to see people openly wonder why Balatro was nominated, saying that it brought more attention to both his game and indie titles in general. To him, any press is good press.
But he also notes that, while the trials and failures of AAA game development are certainly more publicized, it’s still happening frequently in the indie space. “The people who are asked about this are people like me; like you’re asking a lottery winner if you should buy a lottery ticket,” he says.” [Indie developers] are still struggling, a lot of them have to go back to work because they can’t make enough money to sustain themselves. It’s still a tricky industry to get into on the low end.”
What’s next for Balatro?
Following the release of Balatro, LocalThunk and publisher Playstack have not slowed down in the slightest. One of the most endearing post-launch additions has been the three “Friends of Jimbo” updates, which added collaborative cosmetic card packs from more than a dozen poplar titles including The Witcher, Dave the Diver, Cyberpunk 2077, Stardew Valley, and Cult of the Lamb.
LocalThunk says the recognition from both smaller studios and larger names like Larian Studios (Baldur’s Gate 3) and CD Projekt Red (Cyberpunk 2077) has been “really, really special.” He specifically praises Stardew Valley’s creator, another pseudonym-wielding solo developer called ConcernedApe, for taking the time to personally draw the in-game art “as a challenge” to himself.
So what does the future hold for Balatro? As an indie title, it’s not up to a board or shareholders. LocalThunk holds all the cards, but he’s not giving anything away just yet.
“I still have a lot that I want to do with the game. I imagine I’ll keep adding content that I think players will appreciate,” he says. “I don’t want to show my hand too much but [content] that I think players will appreciate, and that will bring players back in so they can re-experience what they originally liked about the game. I’m thinking I want to keep doing that until it’s just not doing it for me anymore. I want to treat this as a hobby for as long as I can, [but] I don’t know how long that’s going to be.”
Balatro is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, macOS, and mobile devices.
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