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MYSTERIOUS: 3 - You Need To See This

'You must have played this before!': Balatro's creator impressed bystanders with his Balatro skills at GDC, and nobody knew who he was

Like a king moving anonymously amongst his subjects.

PC Gamer

Balatro creator LocalThunk stays so anonymous, a GDC attendee couldn't believe how he "crushed" the roguelike's base difficulty: "'Wow you must have played this before!'"

"I guess you could say that"

GamesRadar

You've probably been pronouncing Balatro wrong all along, but 'it's kind of a gif/jif situation'

You say tomato, I say Balatro.

PC Gamer

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League of Legends' take on Balatro is one of its best mini-games yet – and it's also exactly what's wrong with this era of League of Legends

The Demon's Hand is great - but doomed

GamesRadar

Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke says indie poker roguelike Balatro was his 2024 GOTY, beating out Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Astro Bot, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Balatro racks up yet another accolade

GamesRadar

Biggest announcements from the Game Developers Conference 2025

From Helldivers devs potentially speaking at the UN to Netflix's first MMO to a new, industry-encompassing union

GamesRadar

Even Balatro's publisher doesn't know when LocalThunk will be done with 1.1: "Maybe I should whisper in his ear, like, 'So how's those 200 new jokers coming?'"

"I may hear it a couple days before everyone else"

GamesRadar

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'He's just gonna show up one day and say, here's 100 new jokers:' Balatro's publisher doesn't know how big the 1.1 update will be or when it's coming

"I don't think he'll let us know when [Balatro 1.1] is gonna drop," said Wout van Halderen, the communications director at Playstack.

PC Gamer

"Balatro was a pain in the ass to market," but it started getting better once players started cracking open the demo so they could play forever

Publisher Playstack "knew it was so good because we couldn't stop playing it internally"

GamesRadar

Balatro's LocalThunk isn't 'trying to pull a Banksy', he just 'wanted to be left alone to make his game'

According to his publisher, LocalThunk’s anonymity is less about artsy obfuscation and more about minding his own business.

PC Gamer

Balatro's first big update is still on track for 2025, but it'll be "done when it's done, because it's got to be good before it's fast"

The poker roguelike's first major gameplay update is still on track

GamesRadar

When starting development on his hit roguelike, Balatro creator set out to recreate a made-up card game he played "thousands" of times with his friends

It "had some pretty wacky rules and a lot of bluffing"

GamesRadar

LocalThunk forbids AI-generated art on the Balatro subreddit: 'I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds'

A recent kerfuffle over AI art forced the Balatro creator to get involved.

PC Gamer

Balatro creator hits back at AI art spread on the roguelike's subreddit: "I don't use it in my game, I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds"

Localthunk lands on the anti side of the AI art fence

GamesRadar

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After stepping away from Balatro for 3 months, the developer only resumed work "because I was bored but the internet was out so I couldn't play Rocket League"

Breaks are important

GamesRadar

Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"

Well, of course

GamesRadar

Balatro creator initially considered a Steam release in part to help "get a game developer job somewhere," and after 5 million sales I'd say he found one

"All I knew about Steam is that there were about a million games on there and that very few could realistically make a living"

GamesRadar

From "I stopped working on the project entirely" to "we are so back," Balatro creator says the roguelike's development was always about passion and taking breaks was essential

The momentum from this break led the developer to consider publicly releasing a game for the first time

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GamesRadar

Balatro creator intentionally avoided roguelikes but did eventually play and "steal from" Slay the Spire anyway: "Holy s***. Now that is a game"

"This is from Slay the Spire (see? Told you I’d steal from it)"

PC Gamer

The official Balatro Timeline documents the history of 2024's biggest game as its developer went from 'obsessed' with making it to 'shocked' at the reception

LocalThunk's detailed account of the creation of Balatro is remarkably entertaining.

GamesRadar

"I was in super crunch mode": Balatro creator opens up on the toll the stress of indie development took on his "physical and mental health"

"I really struggled with my physical and mental health"

GamesRadar

Balatro creator was "shocked" at his poker roguelike's high review scores: "I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an 8 and I made the damn thing"

No need to be modest

Windows Central

"The numbers on that page made no sense." Balatro developer recalls his amazement at selling 50,000 copies of his game—which went on to sell 5 million

Balatro developer LocalThunk has documented his timeline of creating the indie hit that went on to sell 5 million. Not bad for a game he didn't think anyone would play.

GamesRadar

Balatro's first few hours generated over $600,000, "far more money" than the roguelike's creator had ever made: "It is the most surreal day of my life"

Its launch was 10-20 times bigger than LocalThunk thought it would be

The Guardian - UK

When video game age ratings go wrong: Balatro’s battle with Pegi

Card game Balatro was a huge hit last year – but a year-long struggle with the European age ratings board has exposed how well-meaning rules can have unintended consequences

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