Balatro developer Local Thunk has shared an in-depth look at the game's development journey on his personal blog, revealing that he intentionally avoided playing roguelike games during its creation—except for one notable exception. In December 2021, Local Thunk decided to steer clear of other roguelike games, not because he believed it would enhance Balatro, but because game development was his passion, not a means for financial gain. He enjoyed the challenge of exploring roguelike and deckbuilder designs from scratch, embracing the possibility of making mistakes and reinventing the wheel rather than copying established designs.
However, in mid-2023, Local Thunk made an exception and played Slay the Spire, which he described as an awe-inspiring game. His initial reason for playing was to study its controller implementation for card games, but he found himself deeply engaged with the game. He expressed relief at having waited until then to play it, as he might have been tempted to mimic its design otherwise.
Local Thunk's blog post provides fascinating insights into the development process of Balatro. Initially, the project was simply named "CardGame" and later referred to internally as "Joker Poker." He also shared details about several features that were considered but ultimately scrapped, such as a system where card upgrades were the only form of progression, a separate currency for rerolls, and a 'golden seal' feature for playing cards.
An interesting anecdote from the blog explains how Balatro ended up with 150 Jokers. This was the result of a miscommunication with the publisher, Playstack, where a mention of "120 Jokers" was misunderstood as "150 Jokers." Local Thunk decided that 150 was a better number and added the extra Jokers to the game.
Additionally, Local Thunk shared the origin of his developer handle, "Local Thunk." It stemmed from a humorous conversation with his partner about variable naming in programming, leading to the playful combination of the Lua keyword 'local' and 'thunk.'
For those interested in the full story behind Balatro's development, Local Thunk's blog is a treasure trove of insights. IGN has praised Balatro, awarding it a 9/10 and describing it as a "deck-builder of endlessly satisfying proportions" capable of captivating players for entire weekends.
