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 they avoided playing most rogue-likes during Balatro's creation—with one notable exception.

Their development timeline shows a conscious decision in December 2021 to stop playing rogue-likes. Thunk explains this wasn't to improve the game, but rather to embrace the experimental nature of their hobby. They wanted to make mistakes, reinvent the wheel, and avoid simply borrowing established designs. This approach, while potentially leading to a less polished game, was integral to their creative process.

However, a year and a half later, this self-imposed rule was broken. 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. They admit to being immediately captivated, acknowledging that earlier exposure could have led to unintentional design mimicry.

Thunk's post-mortem is filled with intriguing details. The game's initial working folder was named "CardGame," a name that persisted throughout development. The working title, "Joker Poker," also reveals an early conceptual phase.

Several scrapped features are also discussed, including:

• A system where card upgrades were the sole method of character progression, similar to Super Auto Pets' leveling system.
• A separate currency for rerolls, distinct from the primary in-game currency.
• A "golden seal" mechanic that returned played cards to the player's hand after skipping blind draws.

The number of Jokers (150) in the final game was, unexpectedly, the result of a miscommunication during discussions with publisher Playstack. Thunk initially proposed 120, but a later conversation led to 150 being adopted as a superior number.

Finally, the origin of the developer 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 offers a much more comprehensive look at Balatro's development. IGN, praising the game with a 9/10 score, describes 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." The full blog post can be found [ttpp]here[ttpp].