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Balatro grew from nearly a decade of private game-making, an early idea based on Big Two, and a creative process led by curiosity rather than a fixed plan. In a March 13, 2024 Reddit AMA, its developer and artist, LocalThunk, described how game systems and visual art came together—and why the project was built to satisfy their own taste.
What was LocalThunk’s background?
Before Balatro, LocalThunk had spent about ten years making games and simulations as a hobby. They told Game Informer that most of this work was for themself or a small circle of friends and family, rather than public release. The AMA described a similar stretch of spare-time development.
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LocalThunk recalled taking mechanical engineering courses while watching gaming videos and wanting to make a game. They began with simulations and small projects, then left engineering for computer science. They continued coding and making games after school, but Balatro was their first public release.
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How did the idea for Balatro begin?
The starting point was Big Two, a Cantonese card game LocalThunk had played with friends while growing up. In a PlayDay.One interview, they described initially imagining an online multiplayer version to play with friends during the pandemic. The idea shifted into a roguelike design, with poker-hand scoring becoming part of a game built around creating and improving a deck.
LocalThunk said watching videos of Luck Be a Landlord helped prompt experimentation with the roguelike direction. Their process was not to follow a settled blueprint: “Most of the design of the game came from trial and error, testing to see what direction I could pull the idea and seeing if that direction was interesting.”
PC Gamer’s account of the AMA reported that Balatro was the first deckbuilder LocalThunk had played. They watched Northernlion play Luck Be a Landlord and avoided other deckbuilders while exploring their own design. They first played Slay the Spire about 18 months into development, according to that report, to learn how it handled controller support. This describes their reported exposure during development, not a lack of awareness of other games.
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How did LocalThunk make Balatro’s art?
Pixel art was a new tool for LocalThunk, but not a first encounter with visual composition. They said their experience as an artist gave them skills to draw on: “I was really able to lean on most of the skills I developed as visual artist when making pixel art so I never felt like I was a true novice, just that I had a new tool to learn.” They singled out the Spectral cards, noting that wiggly lines were a recurring feature of their own art.
Rather than treating each card as an isolated illustration, LocalThunk described using constraints to make the visual world feel consistent. In the PlayDay.One interview, they cited rules for palette, art resolution, standardized UI, and card sets. One small but concrete rule: every Joker card except legendary Jokers includes the word “Joker” somewhere in its art. Many Jokers also draw on subjects that matter personally to the creator.
What was LocalThunk’s creative process?
In the AMA, LocalThunk described working on whichever part of the game had captured their attention: perhaps pixel art, a shader effect, or a system that needed to be incorporated and tested. Their account suggests a practice shaped by sustained experimentation, not a schedule that separated art and programming into fixed phases. Trying an idea, seeing how it played, and following the next point of interest let the game’s mechanics and presentation develop together.
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The AMA also framed game-making as a hobby worth pursuing for the process itself. LocalThunk compared it to painting: someone might aim for a masterpiece, or make expressive work because they enjoy doing it. “If you don’t enjoy making a game, then you will not be able to create something special because the process of making a game takes an absurd amount of time and effort,” they said. They also noted that they had made many games they had never shown publicly and expected to make more.
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Why did Balatro have no story or characters?
LocalThunk said they had never wanted Balatro to have a story or characters. Their stated aim was a mostly mechanical experience: “I was attempting to go for something purely mechanical, almost like solitaire but with vibes.” That preference helps explain why the game’s identity centers on its card interactions, scoring, and atmosphere rather than a narrative arc.
They said they made the game primarily for themself, while recognizing that player criticism can help a developer understand how people interact with a project. The difficult part, they said, is distinguishing an actionable problem from a request based on someone’s preference for what the game should be. In a March 2024 PlayDay.One interview, they described Balatro as a favorite pastime and said they enjoyed considering new ideas and interactions within its system; that interview is a snapshot of their view at that time, not a promise of future updates.
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What changed after Balatro became a hit?
Success brought work outside the private hobby routine LocalThunk had known. In a September 2024 interview with The Washington Post, LocalThunk said that mobile-port work, bug fixes, balance changes, public relations, and business tasks had made life busier. They had previously worked at an IT firm doing data analytics and light software development, and described business and public-relations duties as unfamiliar. Those comments describe the period before that September 2024 interview, not LocalThunk’s current workload or plans.
Sales and playtime figures from 2024 are historical milestones, not current totals. PC Gamer reported 500,000 copies sold in the first 10 days and more than 1,500 years of Steam playtime, quoting LocalThunk, in its March 2024 coverage of the AMA. Game Informer’s March 21, 2024 interview introduction reported one million copies about a month after release. The Washington Post reported two million copies since the February release in September 2024.
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The March 13, 2024 event was an archived Reddit AMA about Balatro. LocalThunk introduced themself as the game’s developer and artist and said they were joined by Playstack marketing representatives Liz and Wout. The post invited questions about the game generally and directed bug reports to Balatro’s Discord. It is no longer an open Q&A, and it does not establish LocalThunk’s legal name, current plans, or present platform availability.
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