“I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an eight and I made the damn thing”

Balatro developer LocalThunk has shared how the roguelike card game went from a “weird prototype” to a multi-million dollar, multi-award winning title. 

The indie developer offered an inside look at the making of the game in a newly published timeline of the title’s three-year journey to market.

LocalThunk said Balatro’s development began on December 13th, 2021, with a “weird prototype” that included “no jokers” and blinds to choose from. 

The developer considered about 20 names for the game, including Joker Poker, which was “too silly”. Friends gave feedback on the list of names, but no one chose Balatro—yet it stood out, so he went with it.

Picking a publisher 

In May 2023, the first public beta of Balatro went live on Steam and had 48 wishlists by the month’s end. 

LocalThunk said that small indie-focused YouTubers began covering Balatro in June 2023, gradually increasing its visibility. Meanwhile, managing the game’s feedback-focused Discord server became more demanding.

“I got a DM on Twitter from a scout at Playstack, my eventual publisher,” he said “I was super excited but this also complicated things.” 

He added: “I was in limbo between ‘nothing will come of this game’ and ‘I want to move on with my life’ and ‘what if I could do this as a job?’ By June 10th, Balatro had 183 wishlists on Steam.” 

LocalThunk then hired a lawyer, set up a business, and signed with Playstack “after speaking to studios that have worked with them in the past”. While the need for a publisher varies, he said that the publisher’s support was crucial for him. 

“I won’t go too far into whether or not people should or shouldn’t have a publisher, but for me at this time it was crucial that I have some publishing help,” he said.

LocalThunk added that Playstack provided Balatro with a “sensible release plan” which they followed until launch, and significantly expanded the game’s reach with multi-language support and day-one console ports.

The road to release 

Near the end of September 2023, LocalThunk launched a new demo on Steam and announced a release date of February 20th, 2024. By the end of January, Balatro had 114,977 Steam wishlists.

On February 19th 2024, Balatro’s review embargo was lifted and LocalThunk was stunned when PC Gamer gave it a 91. More reviews followed, and by the end of the day, Balatro held a score above 90 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic.

“Playstack and I are on a call when they break the news to me, and I can tell they are pretty shocked. I am shocked. That rating doesn’t make any sense,” he said. 

He added: “I wasn’t even thinking that this was a possibility, but it sure did build a tonne of hype for launch day. I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an 8 and I made the damn thing.” 

Balatro launched 15 minutes early on February 20th. LocalThunk said he was filled with anxiety, expecting to spend the next month patching issues, but was surprised when everything went smoothly. 

“To my shock – nothing goes wrong,” he said. “People love the game, they’re having a great time. I think there may have been some small bugs but definitely nothing massive, nothing like what I was anticipating.”

He continued: “The launch is 10-20 times larger than we were anticipating.” 

Lucrative launch

A few hours after launch, Balatro had already sold 50,000 copies on Steam, generating over $600,000—more money than the developer had ever made. By the end of the day, sales had reached 119,000 units on Steam alone.

“This was meant for just a few of my friends and yet somehow all these strangers chose to buy it,” he said. “The revenue on that page after just a couple hours was over $600,000, far more money than I’ve made in my entire life.”

Balatro has since sold over five million copies across all platforms. After launching on mobile in September, it generated nearly $4.4m in revenue, earning $1m in its first week. Following its Steam success, the title was later released on mobile.

The game won Apple Arcade Game of the Year, Mobile Game of the Year at The Game Awards, and took home two awards at our very own Pocket Gamer Awards for Best Digital Board Game and Best Mobile Port.

You can read the full Balatro Timeline post here.

PlayStack communications director Wout van Halderen will be a speaker at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco on March 17th to 18th, discussing all things Balatro.