By Localthunk made a mark in the gaming industry in 2024 with the launch of Balatro, entering the ranks alongside Vampire Survivors creator, Luca Galente, in the category of ‘indie game developers whose titles have greatly impacted my life due to their addictive nature’. However, it appears that gaining acclaim and establishing a name within the gaming scene was not on the minds of the solo developer while crafting Balatro.
Marking the exciting one-year anniversary of Balatro’s release, Localthunk shared the Balatro timeline journal, detailing their journey with the game from its beginnings in December 2021 through its release in February 2024. This journal is filled with intriguing details, such as the developer feeling surprised by the game’s high review scores. This humility is a recurring theme in the diary, emphasizing that Localthunk’s ambitions for Balatro were simply to create a playable job portfolio piece.
After taking a two-month hiatus in development on Balatro, Localthunk experienced a surge of motivation and a rekindled passion for working on the game, leading the developer to express it was “the first time in my eight years of game development that I considered publicly releasing a game I had created.” He further stated, “Usually, they just go to a few friends, but honestly, the main intent of my games wasn’t for people to play them, but rather for them to simply exist.”
Despite the Steam launch on the horizon, Localthunk held no expectations for Balatro to achieve 5 million sales. The main goal was to enhance his job prospects. “My partner was nearing completion of her PhD and it was becoming clear that we might be relocating permanently for her job search. If that happened, I would need to leave my current job and find new employment. I thought, why not try to secure a position as a game developer somewhere? I believed having a Steam game in my portfolio would be a significant advantage.”
The developer later remarked, “I really didn’t have any commercial ambitions at that time. All I knew about Steam was that there were roughly a million games available, and very few could realistically sustain a living, so I didn’t think it was feasible to think about it.” This was back in May 2022; however, as we now know, Balatro had enough fortunate breaks to navigate through Steam’s seemingly endless tide of attractive shovelware and become the sensation it is today.
Balatro’s development wasn’t completely smooth sailing, as the developer disclosed that the stress of indie development impacted his well-being.