Balatro Dev Avoided Roguelike Clichés Except Slay the Spire

In a revealing development blog, Balatro creator Local Thunk shared surprising insights about the game's creation, including his deliberate avoidance of roguelike inspirations during production. The solo developer admits playing only one notable exception to his self-imposed design isolation.

Designing in a Creative Vacuum

Local Thunk's development timeline shows that since December 2021, he consciously avoided playing other roguelikes. "I want to clarify this wasn't about creating a superior game," he explains. "Game development is my passion - not commercialization. I wanted the freedom to explore roguelike mechanics organically, make mistakes, and rediscover mechanics rather than borrowing established formulas. This approach might have sacrificed some polish, but it preserved the creative joy I cherish in game-making."

The developer broke this rule exactly once eighteen months later when technical difficulties led him to play Slay the Spire. "Holy shit," he wrote. "now that is a game." He clarifies: "I only downloaded it to study controller implementation for card games, but got completely absorbed. Thankfully I waited this long - had I played earlier, I might have unconsciously copied its brilliant design."

Revealing Development Secrets

The postmortem exposes numerous development quirks:

• The project folder remained "CardGame" throughout development
• Early versions carried the working title "Joker Poker"
• The final roster of 150 Jokers resulted from a publisher miscommunication about initially planned 120 Jokers

Local Thunk also detailed scrapped mechanics:

• A Super Auto Pets-inspired system where deck upgrades functioned as the sole progression
• A secondary currency system for rerolls
• A "golden seal" mechanic rewarding players who skipped all blinds

The Origin of "Local Thunk"

The developer explains his pseudonym emerged from a programming joke when his partner began learning R: "After my lecture about proper variable naming conventions, she deadpanned 'I like to call mine thunk.' The humor of Lua's 'local' variable declaration made 'local thunk' irresistible when I needed a developer handle."

The full development diary offers more fascinating insights into Balatro's creation. IGN awarded the game 9/10, praising it as "A deck-building masterpiece that will consume your weekends as its siren call of 'one more run' keeps you playing into the early hours."