Balatro developer Local Thunk recently shared a fascinating development history on their personal blog, revealing a surprising detail: they avoided playing most rogue-likes during Balatro's creation, with only one exception.
Their blog details a conscious decision, starting December 2021, to refrain from playing rogue-likes. Thunk explains this wasn't to create a superior game, but rather to embrace the experimental nature of their hobby. The goal was to make mistakes, reinvent the wheel, and avoid directly borrowing from existing designs. While acknowledging this might have yielded a more polished game, it would have sacrificed the inherent joy of independent game development.
However, this self-imposed rule cracked just once a year and a half later. The game that broke the streak? Slay the Spire. Thunk's reaction? A simple, awe-struck, "Holy shit. Now that is a game."
The reason for this one-time indulgence? Thunk was troubleshooting controller implementation and sought inspiration from Slay the Spire's card game controls. The result? A complete immersion in the game, prompting relief at having avoided it earlier to prevent unintentional design mimicry.
Thunk's post-mortem offers numerous other insights. The game's original working folder was unimaginatively titled "CardGame," a name that surprisingly persisted. The working title, "Joker Poker," also provides a glimpse into the game's early evolution.
Several scrapped features are detailed, including: a system where card upgrades were the sole method of character progression (similar to Super Auto Pets); a separate currency for rerolls; and a "golden seal" mechanic that returned played cards to the hand after skipping all blinds.
The number of Jokers (150) resulted from a miscommunication with publisher Playstack. Thunk initially proposed 120, but a later discussion led to a change to 150, a number deemed superior.
Finally, the origin of the developer name "Local Thunk" is revealed as a programming joke stemming from a conversation with their partner learning R programming. The combination of Lua's "local" keyword and their partner's whimsical variable naming preference, "thunk," led to the memorable handle.
Thunk's blog post offers a wealth of additional information on Balatro's development. IGN, clearly impressed, awarded Balatro a 9/10, praising it as "A deck-builder of endlessly satisfying proportions…the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans…"
