Balatro Dev Admits to Playing Only Slay the Spire During Roguelike Game Development

Balatro developer Local Thunk has provided an in-depth look into the game's development journey on his personal blog, revealing a unique approach to game creation. Throughout the development of Balatro, Local Thunk made a deliberate choice to avoid playing roguelike games, with the exception of one notable instance. As of December 2021, he decided to steer clear of other roguelike titles, stating, "I want to be crystal clear here and say that this was not because I thought it would result in a better game, this was because making games is my hobby, releasing them and making money from them is not, so naively exploring roguelike design (and especially deckbuilder design, since I had never played one before) was part of the fun for me. I wanted to make mistakes, I wanted to reinvent the wheel, I didn’t want to borrow tried-and-true designs from existing games. That likely would have resulted in a more tight game but it would have defeated the purpose of what I love about making games."

However, a year and a half into the project, Local Thunk broke his self-imposed rule once by downloading and playing Slay the Spire. His reaction was immediate and strong: "Holy shit," he wrote, "now **that** is a game." He initially played it to address some issues with his controller implementation, but found himself engrossed in the game. "I did this because I was having some troubles in my controller implementation and I wanted to see how they handled controller inputs for a card game but 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)."

Local Thunk's blog post offers numerous fascinating insights into Balatro's development. He mentioned that the project initially bore the simple working folder name "CardGame," which remained unchanged throughout development. Additionally, the game was known internally as "Joker Poker" for much of its creation period.

The developer also shared details about various features that were considered but ultimately scrapped. These included a version where card upgrades were the only way to enhance gameplay, akin to the mechanics in Super Auto Pets; a separate currency for rerolls; and a 'golden seal' feature that would return a card to the player's hand after use if all blinds were skipped.

An amusing anecdote shared by Local Thunk explains how Balatro ended up with 150 Jokers. It stemmed from a miscommunication with his publisher, Playstack. Initially, he mentioned having 120 Jokers, but in a subsequent meeting, the number 150 was referenced. Unsure whether it was a mishearing or a mistake on his part, Local Thunk decided 150 was a better number and added 30 more Jokers to the game.

Finally, Local Thunk revealed the origin of his developer name. It was inspired by a humorous exchange with his partner about variable naming in programming. His partner, who was learning to code in R, suggested the name "thunk," which led to the creation of "local thunk" due to the way variables are declared in Lua. This playful interaction eventually became the basis for his online developer handle.

For those interested in the full story and more insights into the making of Balatro, Local Thunk's blog is a treasure trove of information. 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."