The joker in the deckbuilder
Developer LocalThunk Publisher Format Playstack PC Origin Canada Release 2024
Roughly two hours into what we had assumed would be a ‘quick go’, we wonder whether Edge might have to temporarily rebrand as Balatro Monthly, such is the grip exerted by LocalThunk’s deckbuilder. Little wonder the naturally private developer behind it would rather we refer to them by their nom de plume: they are aware that this is going to bring plenty of attention their way. The buzz is gathering pace; the Discord community is growing. Ordinarily we’d resist parroting the party line, but it’s hard to disagree when PlayStack’s Wout van Halderen notes, “It’s overwhelming enough to make a game that is gonna change your whole life, right?”
The reception might have been more overwhelming still had LocalThunk gone with their original title, one that more immediately sums up the type of game this is. Alas, Joker Poker was already taken. Yet its replacement, and how it was chosen, speaks volumes, too. “I had a list of like 20 different names and had some close friends go through them,” they tell us. “None of them picked Balatro.” But something about the name spoke to them. “It means ‘joker’ or ‘jester’ in Latin,” they explain. “So thematically it kind of fits. It’s also a word that no one really knows, so anyone can prescribe meaning to it. And it doesn’t come with a bunch of baggage, like adding ‘rogue’ to the name – or ‘survivors’ for a newer genre.”
The real trick is to stack your deck of cards so you’re laying down illegal hands
That feels apropos for a run-based game that’s something of a wild card in its field – but then LocalThunk admits when they started making it, they hadn’t played any Roguelike deckbuilders. They acknowledge Slay The Spire’s map as “a great design element”, but until recently they weren’t aware it even existed. Instead, Balatro was based on Big Two, a Cantonese card game with similarities
BALATRO The joker in the deckbuilder to poker; having played it with friends from a young age, they decided to create an online version so they could “enjoy it with the same group of people during the pandemic”.
As they tinkered with the design, they decided to add a scoring mechanic. Inspired by run-based games such as Luck Be A Landlord and The Binding Of Isaac, they decided jokers were a natural way to supply that Roguelike element of unpredictability. As for that allimportant numbers-go-up progression, they reckoned poker’s small and big ‘blinds’ (forced bets, essentially) were the perfect fit. Then, to fulfil the archetypal videogame rule of three, they introduced a boss blind. These impose certain restrictions, such as denying discards or dealing one in seven cards face down. Beat those three and the ante is upped.
Between rounds, a shop offers ways t
