Inspired by poker, the game Balatro won three prizes on December 12 in Los Angeles, including that of “best indie game“, during the prestigious Game Awards, the Oscars of video games. But its designer did not come to collect his trophies, instead sending a representative of his publisher Playstack.
Because behind this game released in February 2024, regularly compared to “a drug”, and which ist sold more than 3.5 million copies, it is complete anonymity.
Its designer carefully hides his identity: no photos, no videos. We just know that a Canadian is hiding behind the pseudonym LocalThunk. He responds only by email or telephone to media requests, and indicates that he wants to remain in the shadows, because “things are simpler that way“.
The success of Balatro took him by surprise. “When I started designing the game, I didn't even think about releasing it to the public!“, he told AFP by email. “There are so many amazing games launching all the time, I don't know how this happened to me“, he adds.
Sorti sur PC, Mac, Switch, Playstation et Xbox, Balatro is a deck-building game, allowing players to improve their hand of cards using various strategies, including cheating. In this poker-like game, players can use a variety of fun “jokers” to overload their hand.
And today there is a whole community of enthusiasts who have quickly raised Balatro to the rank of cult game. On the social network Reddit, the dedicated forum already brings together more than 158,000 members.
“The finish of this game is simply incredible. I can't stress enough the tactile nature and the sensations it provides. I can almost feel the chips and cards in my hands“, rants juhiscid, a Reddit user. On X, @thechowderhead adds: “Balatro is probably one of the best roguelikes [un type de jeu vidéo] never made“.
In a world dominated by large studios made up of hundreds of people, Balatro is in line with some recent works with modest budgets, noticed by critics and the public, such as Papers, Please (2013) or Stardew Valley (2016), both carried by solo authors.
LocalThunk spent three years developing its first public game solo. He says he was inspired by a card game from his youth, which he wanted to put online to continue playing during the pandemic.
Solo design allows him to “pursue your creative vision without making compromises“, since he “loves creating games for fun, and working alone is part of that“. While recognizing that the success of Balatro his “a allowed to pursue a career“in video game development, it emphasizes that success has created”additional stress“.
However, he is not done with the honors since Balatro has just been nominated for the Bafta Games Awards – the Bafta version for video games – where it competes in the “best game” 2025 category.
