Balatro
One developer, two and a half years, expected to sell ten copies. A poker-based roguelike that sold 5 million and won Game of the Year 2024.
- //Made by a single developer, LocalThunk, who expected to go back to his IT job after launch. He did not go back.
- //Won Best Independent Game AND Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards 2024, plus numerous Game of the Year awards.
- //Not actually about poker. It uses poker hand ranks as a scoring framework for a deckbuilding roguelike. You do not need to know poker to play.
- //Available on PC, Switch, PS4/5, Xbox, iOS, and Android. One of the most ported indie games in recent memory.
- //The name Balatro is Latin for 'jester' or 'fool'. It fits.
Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilder that uses poker hand rankings as its scoring system instead of anything resembling a real card game. You are not betting, you are not bluffing, and you do not need to know poker to play. Each run, you build a deck and collect Jokers, passive modifier cards that multiply and stack score in increasingly broken ways, and try to beat escalating point thresholds called Blinds before your deck runs out of discards and hands. There is no traditional narrative. The entire game is the loop of finding a synergy, watching a number get absurdly large, and immediately wanting to do it again.
One of the best games made by one person in the history of the medium. The design is so clean it feels inevitable in hindsight.