Local Thunk Didn't Play Any Roguelike Games During Balatro's Development...Except Slay the Spire

Balatro developer, Local Thunk, recently shared a fascinating development history on their personal blog. Surprisingly, they reveal that they avoided playing most rogue-likes during Balatro's creation—with one notable exception.

Their development timeline indicates a conscious decision in December 2021 to abstain from playing rogue-likes. Thunk explains this wasn't to improve the 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 established designs. While this might have resulted in a less polished game, it aligned with their personal enjoyment of the development process.

However, a year and a half later, this self-imposed rule cracked. After downloading Slay the Spire, Thunk exclaimed, "Holy shit, now that is a game." The reason? They were troubleshooting controller implementation and wanted to study Slay the Spire's approach to card game controls. The result? A complete immersion in the game, narrowly avoided due to the timing. Thunk admits that earlier exposure could have led to unintentional design mimicry.

Thunk's post-mortem offers further intriguing insights. The game's initial working folder was named "CardGame" and remained unchanged throughout development. The working title, "Joker Poker," also reveals an early conceptual phase.

Several scrapped features are detailed, including: a system where card upgrades were the sole means 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 blinds.

The number of Jokers (150) in the final game stems from a miscommunication with the publisher, Playstack. Initially intending 120, a later discussion led to a change to 150, a number Thunk ultimately preferred.

Finally, the origin of the name "Local Thunk" is revealed as a programming 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, impressed by the final product, awarded Balatro a 9/10, praising 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."