Balatro developer, Local Thunk, recently shared a fascinating development history on their personal blog. Surprisingly, they revealed minimal roguelike game exposure during Balatro's creation—with one significant exception.
Their development timeline notes a conscious decision in December 2021 to avoid playing further roguelikes. Thunk explains this wasn't about creating a superior game, but rather about prioritizing the inherent fun of the development process itself. Experimentation, even reinventing the wheel, took precedence over borrowing established designs. This approach, while potentially sacrificing polish, aligned with their personal enjoyment of game creation.
However, a year and a half later, this self-imposed restriction cracked. The game? Slay the Spire. Thunk's reaction? A simple, awe-struck, "Holy shit... now that is a game."
The reason for this single indulgence? Controller implementation troubles in Balatro. Thunk sought inspiration from Slay the Spire's card game controls but quickly became engrossed. They thankfully avoided playing it earlier, acknowledging the risk of unintentional design mimicry.
Thunk's post-mortem offers further intriguing details. The initial project folder was unimaginatively titled "CardGame" and remained unchanged. The game's working title, for a significant period, was "Joker Poker."
Several scrapped features are also detailed, including:
- A system where card upgrades were the sole method of character progression, with multiple upgrade tiers per card (similar to Super Auto Pets).
- A separate currency for rerolls, independent of the percentage-based system.
- A "golden seal" mechanic that returned played cards to the hand after skipping all blind draws.
The number of Jokers (150) stemmed from a miscommunication with publisher Playstack. Initially planned for 120, a later discussion resulted in a perceived (or misheard) increase to 150, a number Thunk ultimately preferred.
Finally, the origin of the name "Local Thunk" is revealed as a programming-related inside joke stemming from a conversation with their partner learning R programming.
Thunk's blog post provides a much more comprehensive account of 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…"
