The local creator of Balaatro has published an extensive history of the game development on his personal blog, in which he admits that he did not play in any dishonest games during the development of Balaatro … except one.
On the development time axisAn anonymous programmer says that from December 2021 he made a conscious effort so as not to play Roguelike games anymore, starting from that moment.
“I want to be crystal clear and say that not because I thought it would cause a better game, because creating games is my hobby, spending them and making money is not, so naively discovering the Roguelike project (and especially on -board design, because I have never played one before) was part of the game. It would probably result in that this would overcome the purpose of what I love to do games. “
However, a year and a half later, the local Thunk broke its rule exactly once. He downloaded Sluy Spire. “Damn,” he wrote. “Now This It’s a game. “
He continues to explain why he started playing first: “I did it because I had some problems in the implementation of the controller and wanted to see how they coped with the card controller, but eventually I was pulled in. Thank God I have avoided her so far, because I would simply copy their amazing project (intended or subconsciously). “
The publication of the local Thunk is full of fascinating insights. First of all, he explains that he called the production folder early in development for Balaatro “Cardgame”, and then simply … he never changed it. He also reveals that the working title of the game by most of its development was “Joker Poker”.
Local Thunk also provided a series of insight into scrapped functions, including:
- “A version in which the only way to update anything is to improve cards at the waist like a pseudo-shop, and these cards can be improved many times (think like super automatic animals, pets have different XP/levels in combination, the same idea)” “
- “Separate currency for reroll beyond %1quot;
- “” Golden Seal “, which should be added to the game cards when you skip all the blinds that returns this card to your hand after playing it”
We were also treated on an anecdote about how Balaatro landed on a 150 joke. Apparently it was a result of misunderstandings:
Finally, the local Thunk provided a deep story called … Local Thunk. TL; DR is a program joke:
“My partner then studied in r, and she asked me:” What do you call your variables? “I went a bit about the housing, using descriptive words, underlining, etc. I am waiting for me to end and says” I like to call my tunks. “
“The way in which variables are declared in Lua (sometimes) with a local key word, which is why a local thunk was born! I would not choose this name for a long time, but this is the moment when I looked back when I was finally ready to create an online programmer handle. “
There is a lot more to read about creating Balaatro on the Local Thunk blog, which can be found here. Needless to say, we love Balaatro in IGN, giving it 9/10 and calling it “the construction of a deck with infinite satisfaction of proportion is a kind of fun that threatens derailing the entire weekend plans, when you do not look at the eye of the ebbby tempting you for one more run.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior Ign reporter. You can find her post on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.skyla. Do you have a hint with history? Send it to ralentine@ign.com.
