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—except for one.
Their blog details a conscious decision, starting December 2021, to abstain from playing rogue-likes. Thunk explains this wasn't to improve the game, but rather to embrace the fun of experimental design as a hobbyist. They relished the opportunity to make mistakes and forge their own path, rather than borrowing established designs. This approach, while potentially leading to a less polished game, aligned with their personal enjoyment of game development.
However, this self-imposed rule had one exception: Slay the Spire. A year and a half into development, Thunk downloaded Slay the Spire, admitting, "Holy shit, now that is a game." Their reason? Troubleshooting controller implementation in their own card game. The experience proved invaluable, highlighting the brilliance of Slay the Spire's design while reinforcing their decision to avoid it earlier.
Thunk's post-mortem offers further intriguing insights. The game's initial working folder was simply named "CardGame," a name that persisted throughout much of development. The working title, "Joker Poker," also reveals an early direction.
Several scrapped features are also discussed, 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 hand after skipping blind draws.
The final number of Jokers (150) was also a result of a miscommunication with publisher Playstack. Initially aiming for 120, a later discussion led to the decision to increase the number to 150, a change Thunk felt was ultimately beneficial.
Finally, the origin of the name "Local Thunk" is revealed as a programming joke stemming from a conversation with their partner learning R. The combination of Lua's "local" keyword and their partner's whimsical variable naming convention, "thunk," resulted in the memorable developer handle.
Local Thunk's blog offers a much more comprehensive account of Balatro's development. IGN praised the game with a 9/10 rating, describing it as "A deck-builder of endlessly satisfying proportions… the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans."
