Balatro developer, Local Thunk, recently shared a fascinating development history on their personal blog. Surprisingly, they revealed minimal roguelike game play during Balatro's creation—with one notable exception.

Their development timeline indicates a conscious decision, starting December 2021, to avoid playing additional roguelikes. Thunk explains this wasn't about creating a better game, but rather about prioritizing the inherent fun of the development process itself. Experimentation and independent design were key, even if it meant reinventing the wheel and potentially sacrificing a more polished final product. The joy was in the journey, not necessarily the optimized outcome.

The reason for this indulgence? Controller implementation issues in Balatro led Thunk to study Slay the Spire's approach to card game controls. However, the game's brilliance proved captivating, prompting a confession of near-copying had they played it earlier.

Thunk's post-mortem offers numerous other insights. The initial project folder was named "CardGame" and remained unchanged throughout development. The game's working title was "Joker Poker" for a significant period.

Several scrapped features are detailed, including: a pseudo-shop system for card upgrades (similar to Super Auto Pets), a separate currency for rerolls, and a "golden seal" mechanic for replaying cards.

The final number of Jokers (150) resulted from a miscommunication with publisher Playstack. Initially aiming for 120, a later discussion led to a decision to increase the count to 150, deemed a superior number.

Finally, the origin of the name "Local Thunk" is revealed—a programming joke stemming from a conversation with Thunk's partner learning R programming. The combination of Lua's "local" keyword and the whimsical "thunk" variable name cemented the moniker.

Thunk's blog offers a much more comprehensive account of Balatro's development. IGN lauded the final game, awarding it a 9/10 and praising its endlessly satisfying deck-building mechanics.