Why Balatro’s developer stays anonymous

Why Balatro’s developer stays anonymous

Balatro just won four Game Developers Choice Awards, including Game of the Year, but the person who made the game wasn’t on stage to accept them. Instead, Playstack communications director Wout van Haldren spoke on behalf of Balatro’s developer, who goes by the alias LocalThunk, each time the game won an award. “The team does that to give LocalThunk the freedom to work in the style that he likes, which we respect,” Playstack marketing di…

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Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder all about creating powerful synergies and winning big. The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos. Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncov…

Snooze at the last Game Awards, Balatro has largely caught up in San Francisco by winning the title of Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice Awards. The small independent card game has also won three other trophies, confirming its status as a surprise phenomenon.

Text originally published in the Press Over Newsletter: subscribe for free by clicking here to reach you every Friday of every week (except holidays). The GDC 2025 ends today and, according to many of its attendees, is reflecting the sharp crisis that the industry is experiencing. Fewer attendees, fewer sponsors and less investment, a formula [...] The entry Despelote won in GDC and Balatro is the Game of the Year was first published in Press Ov…