Balatro is the best game of 2024 – its anonymous creator may never ...

Balatro is 2024’s most unlikely breakout success and a phenomenon you don’t see very often – a genuinely fresh twist on a timeless concept. One that’s so simple you won’t believe it wasn’t done sooner. On the surface, the game doesn’t look like much at all: it’s poker, just poker, with pixelated graphics and an odd, almost hallucinogenic vibe. But then you play a few rounds and the game layers in multipliers, augments and new rules. It cascades into the best dopamine rush of the year – one that, even if you aren’t into card games, feels like sight-reading the code for The Matrix.

It’s a discovery shared by millions of players who’ve bought the game since its release this February. Available on Apple Arcade, PC, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, it was made by one anonymous Canadian developer who goes by the pseudonym LocalThunk. His game’s success is only continuing – in November it was nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards. Its fellow nominees – the blockbusters Astro Bot, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree – all required orders of magnitude more money and manpower to make. By contrast, the solo-made Balatro made some $700,000 during nomination week from sales on iOS and Android alone, and more than $4m in total since its mobile release in September.

Just before the show, I spoke to LocalThunk – his camera firmly switched off – about the good and bad of Balatro’s unbelievable trajectory, and how he might celebrate a winning hand on the big night.

So, you want to stay anonymous. But how would you describe yourself?

Nice try. [laughs]

Where does the pseudonym come from?

A few years ago my partner was learning this statistical language called R, and she was asking me about variable names. She said, ‘Hey, how do you name your variables?’ I have a computer science degree and I started oversharing. She interrupted me and was like, ‘I like to call my variables Thunk.’ And I thought that was just the funniest thing. The language I wrote the game in is called Löve, and the way you declare a variable in Löve is with the word ‘Local’. So, LocalThunk. It’s in my code in some places as well.

How many people on the planet could spot the guy on the street who made Balatro?

Probably just family and friends, and Playstack [the game’s publisher].

A winning high score in Balatro.

I listened to you on a podcast where you talked about not playing a lot of games. Is that true?

I do play games, but I don’t play them as much as I think other people do. I like designing games, making my own mistakes, and exploring a designed space. They’re two hobbies that look like they’re really close to each other but are actually really far apart. One you can treat as a meditative experience, or just a way to unwind or relax. A social thing, or a competitive thing. The other, game design, is really deeply creative in a way that playing games just isn’t.

How did you find your radar on whether the game was good?

This is going to sound insane, but I’ve made a lot of games and I haven't shown people. The intent for those, and when I started making Balatro, was not to make a good game. It’s just fun to make games. I gave this to one of my friends and he came back to me a couple of months later and was like, ‘I played that game for like 20 or 30 or 40 hours.’

I was like, ‘What?! That game?!’ It was just called Card Game at the time. It did have Jokers, but I think there were only maybe 40 or 50. They were really unbalanced, but the scaffolding was there.

When in that process did you decide that you wanted to stay anonymous?

It wasn’t really a decision. I just had a pseudonym and as the game started getting more and more popular, I started getting more and more thankful that it wasn’t tied to my identity. I have too much attention in my life as is, I don’t want to increase that.

You have a job that’s attention-focused, or you’re too introverted for the attention you have?

There’s just a lot of attention from other people, even on my pseudonym, that I don’t want it to get any bigger. I like to keep my life as simple as possible.

A selection of Balatro's 150 Jokers.

I thought a lot about Eric Barone, the solo maker of Stardew Valley, while reading your story. Have you guys spoken? When we profiled him in 2018 he said he was sort of going mad…

The way our conversation went was more like, ‘Oh my god, I love your game!’ But I also do feel like I’m going a bit crazy with this stuff. This last year has been by far the most stressful year of my life. These days I try and think about, what will get me back to where I was when I was making this – when it was relaxing as a hobby. I want to return there.

The cat’s out the bag now…

If I were to make another game after Balatro, which I’m not really thinking about right now, it would be really cathartic to make it and not show anyone. Put it in a folder on my desktop and leave it there. Just for me.

Is there any part of you that regrets Balatro’s success?

Honestly, yeah. Don’t get me wrong – this has changed my life in a lot of amazing ways. I’m so grateful. But I do miss that time before. It was just a hobby that recharged my batteries. Sometimes I think, ‘Maybe I would’ve been happier if I had never released this game to the public.’

Financially could you retire today? Make games for fun?

Yes. I could make the next game and it could just sit in my folder. I’m really lucky. Most of the industry is not in that boat, especially today.

So what’s pulling you back to a second game?

I’ve learned a lot in the last year. I know what to expect. I had no idea when Balatro launched. I didn’t understand how crazy this situation was until much later. I now know how much stress comes with launching a game. But I’m being pulled in two directions.

There are currently 15 Decks in Balatro, each with its own unique modifiers to change how you play.

You’ve tweeted about 2025 updates. How do you want to add or change the game?

Basically just more content. I have a lot of fun ideas for directions I want to take Balatro, definitely more than just one content update’s worth. I don’t know how many of those I’m actually going to be able to implement. It will change the game and the way that you play it, for sure. But I don’t want to reveal too much.

Keeping your cards close to your chest…

Definitely one thing that I will include is more Jokers. Since the game was released I haven’t added any, and I have a lot of fun ideas. I keep a notebook.

I was going to ask if you think about new Jokers in the shower…

I thought of two this morning actually!

Did you have a favourite that you couldn’t include in the original game?

One was called The Toker. It was a 4 in 20 chance to give you 420 chips. So cheesy.

In February, when the game came out, I doubt you envisioned being a Game of the Year nominee. How are you planning to celebrate if you win?

I still don’t believe it. It’s crazy. I’m not sure – I’d go out for dinner with my partner. Which is kinda the way we celebrated when the game first launched. I’m not one for a bunch of fanfare.

Yeah, I was going to ask for your most audacious purchase since your life changed, but you seem like a low-key kinda guy…

I drive the same car I was driving before.

What is it?

A Ford Fusion. It’s a few years old now. I dunno – it works.

Balatro is available for free via Apple Arcade's one-month trial. At apple.com