localthunk
@LocalThunk
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I made Balatro ( @BalatroGame ) Business and Media Inquiries: balatro @playstack .com
🇨🇦
Joined August 2022
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One year ago I was preparing to publish my weird little game on Steam and look for an IT job again. I made the store page live in May and was expecting to sell maybe 10 copies
It’s been a crazy year. So grateful I get to do what I love as a career now
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So excited to announce that Balatro is getting a physical edition, coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox!
Each special edition will come with a pack of Joker/booster cards 🃏
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kilochad
if you're currently working on a video game, take a short break, pick a number in your code or data files, multiply it by 1000, and post the results
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That PEGI 18 rating is mocking me tho
So excited to announce that Balatro is getting a physical edition, coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox!
Each special edition will come with a pack of Joker/booster cards 🃏
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This is Balatro (then called 'Joker Poker') in August of 2022, 8 months into Development
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In the 3 months since Balatro launched, it has been collectively played for a total of 6200 years
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Yooooo let’s go!!!
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I regret not making more physical sketches during the design phase - this is the only one
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‘Ah yes, Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilder’ I say as I check the box on Steam for each tag, blindly ignorant of what either term means or the blood that has been spilled trying to define them
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One of the main joys of thinking about new Balatro content is that I can potentially bloat this game with even more banana lore
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This was the shortlist of names for Balatro. No I don't want to talk about Hyperborean Hold 'em
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I suppose it’s time to finally give the people what they want
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For the big upcoming balance patch I thought I’d share one really important tweak:
Odd Todd now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 chips
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Non-banana Balatro lore:
During development, a friend and I used to climb at a bouldering gym quite often and we would constantly refer to our hands as 'nacho tongs'
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The rumours are true: I am, in fact, 3 smaller developers in a trench coat and none of us know what the word “roguelike” means
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Thank you to everyone that made this possible ❤️
This morning Balatro hit a momentous milestone...
ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD!
We still have some fun things planned for the future, but for now...
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Re: the Balatro news today
I do not condone gambling (staking something personally valuable on an uncertain event) nor do I believe that Balatro contains gambling
I did add risk/reward mechanics and RNG to Balatro, but these are core mechanics to the genre at large
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Balatro 1.0.1 is finally live on Steam for everyone! Give it a whirl!
We are submitting Switch, Xbox and PlayStation builds this week and will try to get those patches out ASAP, but no ETA
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NONE of you have been playing Balatro during work hours right? 😉
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After 2 weeks, Balatro has been played for a collective 1,114 years🃏
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Loved the video on this - a problem that is frustrating as the creator of Balatro but is also very interesting as a game designer and exposes the potential knock-on effects of a seemingly simple or obvious design change
GMTK did a really great job summarizing the issue
New on GMTK - unpicking Balatro's 'cursed' design problem
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Balatro was nominated for 4 Develop:Star awards!
Nobody tell them about all the if statements 🤫 be cool
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It has been 1 day since Balatro launched. In that day, Balatro has racked up over 40 years of playtime 🃏
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This reads like an alternate dimension fanfic and I have no idea how to feel about it
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I have no words, this has been such a crazy day already. By this time tomorrow everyone will finally be able to play Balatro🃏
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day 1 of asking
@Windows
to include Balatro as a bundled game in their next release alongside solitaire
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After day 2 - Balatro now has 106 years of playtime.
This week has been surreal
It has been 1 day since Balatro launched. In that day, Balatro has racked up over 40 years of playtime 🃏
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Even if this isn't a literal asset rip - this sucks.
@kindanicegames
rocks and it takes a lot of effort to conceptually/visually flesh out a game. Iterating on an idea can also be great but IMO this crosses a line
hi everyone.
@terrybrash
copied my game “dire decks” and is releasing it on steam under a different name without my permission. i have tried to get him to take the game down but he is unwilling to do so. not sure what to do in this situation…
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When I was in the tough last 6 months of dev I’d pop in to MALFs stream quite often as he’d play the Balatro demo. I was always excited for him to finally get his hands on the full game and experience it to his heart’s content.
Can’t wait to give him more Balatro at some point 🥲
I did it. I won. I 100%'d
@BalatroGame
! Game of the year without hesitation and I'm looking forward to diving into mods, updates, DLC (praying) and whatever else
@LocalThunk
has in store!
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For those interested; my general design guidelines for Jokers 🃏
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The included cards will not be randomized, instead each copy comes with the same curated collection of cards from the game!
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I swear to you I leaped out of my chair in excitement watching this - this goes so dang hard
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Look I’m a pretty reasonable guy but would someone mind explaining to me where you draw a mustache on a picture of an elephant
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Indies that have made large content updates/expansions/DLCs for your game, what generally worked for you and what did not?
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Balatro broke into the top 10 all time concurrent player list for games tagged 'rogue-like' this weekend
Also, the newly released Backpack Battles by
@TweetFurcifer
will 100% deservedly earn a higher spot on that list soon, check it out!
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Almost 3 years ago I made a simple auto battler called 'AutoHike', nobody ever played it but the engine was later repurposed into Balatro!
Here is some gameplay from that prototype
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I've been DMed by quite a few indie devs for advice - thought I'd share some thoughts
Don't take advice from me, my experience is tainted by survivorship bias and good fortune. Better to listen to the devs that have already carved out a long career in this hard industry
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So today was pretty wild. Really grateful for all the people that helped get this thing to 1.0 and everyone in my 'special thanks' section in game, wouldn't have gotten here without them.
Now to get to work on bug fixes and improving Balatro!
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If you wish to support the musician for the Balatro OST (LouisF) - 100% of my cut for the Balatro Soundtrack on Steam goes to him!
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Pool + Roguelike, if that sounds interesting AT ALL you should add this game to your wishlist. Fabian is a real cool guy and I was a beta tester for this amazing game!
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Danny is the GOAT and this was a really fun interview - I totally forgot I revealed that I used to drive Zamboni in University
🚨MY NEW PODCAST IS NOW LIVE🔊
AUDIO DOCUMENTARIES about the people who make and play video games!
Our first episode welcomes
@LocalThunk
to talk about the development and design of Balatro.
DEAR DWYERY is available everywhere podcasts are.
[links in the reply below]
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We're a week out from the release of
@BalatroGame
The entire reason I made this game was to create an experience that I enjoy, and the past few days are the first time I really got the feeling I did that
No matter how launch goes I finally feel like I accomplished my goal 🍌
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This is by far my favourite article written for Balatro. It's not even really about Balatro - but I really think Mik understands what I was attempting to do with this game and it brings me so much joy that this game was able to serve them
When I started playing Balatro, I stumbled into a zen experience that allowed me to connect deeper with one of my favorite people who I miss dearly and joyfully finding order in the chaos of life. More
@PasteMagazine
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I joined the one and only
@DanGheesling
on his podcast to talk about the development of Balatro, check it out!
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And here it is at the end of December of 2021, a couple weeks after the project began
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Congrats to the winner
@itshafu
all 6 competitors in the first of what I now hope to be many Jimbo's Invitationals
We had tons of lead changes, drama, amazing scores, and great vibes all around. Nerve wracking, hoping the game would show well and not crash - but a ton of fun.
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Balatro is on sale! 10% off for the Playstack publisher sale!
AND our merch store is live too!
🚨 Our
@Steam
publisher sale is now LIVE 🚨
Treat yourself to massive discounts across Playstack’s diverse portfolio (including Balatro and Abiotic Factor) now 👇🏼
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For those that aren't aware, Lumpy did the awesome art for Vagabond :)
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My good pal Fabian just launched his game an hour ago - check out the billiards roguelike Rack and Slay! It’s a ton of fun and has my seal of approval 🦭
🚨 BIG NEWS! My billiard
#roguelike
Rack and Slay is OUT NOW on Steam! Go hunt some monster balls! 🎱
📦 111 items
⚙️ 3 main modes
📅 Daily runs
💥 Wacky challenges
🏅 Collectible badges
🏆 Achievements
❤️
#indieDev
labor of love
Link below! 👇
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Even though “Balatro” is a unique name there is someone using that name for their TTRPG business, so here’s a long overdue shoutout!
If you’re a D&D fan, check out
@Balatro_DnD
, battle map maker and creator of Ida’s Guide: A player handbook and adventure supplement for D&D!
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Also flying back to Canada with this thing in my carry on, that’ll be an interesting experience at airport security
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New interview dropped, this one was special.
The Flourish is a very high quality magazine about cardistry; they had awesome questions and even made a special webpage just for Balatro fans to read the interview for free!
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@omsface
@maxbittker
No AI generated code in the source afaik
And it's not perfect but I know where every single thing is and I'm the only one that needs to maintain it, so it makes sense to me
If it's dumb and it works then it's not dumb!
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Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers gets the thunk seal of approval, don’t miss on the free demo right now for the summer Steam Next Fest!! It’s a ton of fun
And now our brand spankin' card bustin' blackjack breakin' demo is going to be in
@Steam
Next Fest starting June 10th!
But you can beat everyone too it and play the demo RIGHT NOW! 🤪🃏
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Time to ask the tough question
🟥 Even Steven
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🟦 Odd Todd
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That's right, you can get both Backpack Battles (now with 100% more Jimbo) and
@BalatroGame
bundled together at a discount!
Get it here:
Backpack Battles is joining Steam's Deckbuilders Fest, and we are making a bundle with
#Balatro
by
@LocalThunk
! Complete the bundle with 10% discount!
Also, Jimbo is now in Backpack Battles! 🃏
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@LuigmasYT
We won’t be selling card packs with random contents, I have nothing against people that have that as a hobby but in my opinion it’s a little too close to gambling for me to be comfortable with regardless of how well it would sell
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However - on a more granular level - it's important to find what you enjoy about the work, because there is a lot of it.
I love tinkering with systems and making art, so the 2 year dev time never felt like a slog
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And I know this is temporary and will drop at some point but for now it looks surreal - 6th all time aggregate score for a PC game on
@Open_Critic
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The Ancient Joker
Only a few more days until Jimbo's Invitational tournament!
After that there is more exciting Balatro news yet to come in January, I'm so excited to show you all what I've been working on🃏
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@hassan_nya
It is completely random, for all intents and purposes
Not to dunk on you specifically but this is an interesting bias I've seen in action constantly since launching the game - called 'Negativity dominance'
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Not only does this make me incredibly jealous, but it's also super interesting to see the comparison
Also, this video is a perfect synopsis of the 🍌current 🍌 banana lore in Balatro and how that is reflected in the mechanics of the game
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Played a demo for StarVaders quite a while ago and I could already tell this will be a must-play on release. You can play the demo right now!
StarVaders is a roguelike deckbuilder where you pilot a mech to defend earth against alien invaders!
It's inspired by Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, & Space Invaders 👾
You can play the demo right now on Steam during
@FutureGamesShow
! Link below 👇
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Hey everyone, I am doing an AMA with Playstack for Balatro on Reddit, come check it out!
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Balatro release date + Consoles 🃏
Play the demo now!
🃏It’s time to go all in. 🃏
🗓 Balatro will be heading your way on February 20th!
🎮 Available on Steam, PS5/4, Switch and Xbox
The hottest roguelike deckbuilder of 2024 will be with you in less than a month’s time!
🔧
@LocalThunk
🗞
@PlaystackGames
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I want to give some love to
@BigSimpleYT
, 8 months ago he was the first person to make a YouTube video about Balatro
That was the turning point where I thought I might be able to make this thing work. I was so excited someone wanted to share it
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The Shortcut - allows Straights to be made with a 1 rank gap
For example: 4->5->7->8->9
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Today Balatro hit 100,000 wishlists!! 🎉🎉
It's hard to believe the little project I used to unwind after work has turned into my career - but I am so grateful to all those that have played, streamed, or otherwise participated in the community to get Balatro to where it is today
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Was a ton of fun to be on
@eggplantshow
to talk about Balatro! The wonderful hosts and eggplant community had so many awesome questions, it was really great diving deep on the design of the game.
Give it a listen! ->
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Due to popular demand, I can confirm there will be more Banana in the full version of Balatro 🍌
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Here it is: The official Balatro January demo community Joker tier list 🃏 + a detailed breakdown!
Thanks to all that contributed, we cracked over 20,000 individual votes! Can't wait to do it again after release
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This and the fact that almost all Jokers were designed to synergize with core "mechanics" instead of specific cards made Balatro into the emergent roguelike game I always hoped it could be
There's still room for improvement but I plan to keep supporting Balatro for a long time!
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So after 24 hours and over 10,000 individual votes, the results are in!
Here is the official tier list for all Balatro Demo Jokers according to the Balatro community + a detailed breakdown🃏
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In my special thanks section I wanted to mention
@Ludokultur
, a fellow indie dev with a wonderfully supportive attitude/community and a pretty awesome game of their own :)
Check out the free Rack and Slay demo! Pool meets Rogue-like 🎱
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And a decision that ended up really helping me: I have poor reading retention, so I set a limit on item descriptions
I try and keep everything to 20 words/4 lines of text. If a Joker needs way more words to describe what it does, I just scrap the idea
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My goal was to have 2-3 hours of content for the Balatro demo.
Safe to say I screwed that up but having this free demo compared to full games gets me so pumped for when people get their hands on 1.0 Balatro
Thanks for the article,
@pcgamer
!
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