Every once in a while, video games have the ability to surprise us in ways we could’ve never expected or believed. You know, like how a certain D&D-style title from 2023 blew all of our minds and made us think of taking up tabletop for ourselves. Or, how in 2024, we got solo titles for not only Princess Peach, but Princess Zelda, and they were both amazing! Going more to the indie side of things, 2024 also gave us the game Balatro, which stunned the world because it was a simple yet unique twist on the game Poker, and it was all done by one person.
That person was “LocalThunk,” who has truly reaped the rewards of what he has done. The game not only changed the perception of what video games are like in certain ways, but the title sold over 5 million copies, was nominated by a bunch of people for “Game of the Year,” and even though it didn’t win that honor in some key places, it still won plenty of other awards. In every category imaginable, you can say that the game was a massive success.
That’s where the twist comes in, though. You see, LocalThunk put out a blog post with a timeline of events. Specifically, the events of the game’s development from his perspective before the game’s eventual launch. One of the key notes he made in that timeline was that he felt, at best, he’d get a six or a seven from various websites for Balatro. Yet, that’s not what happened:
“More ratings pour in, and by the time the day is done we are sitting above 90 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic. I wasn’t even thinking that this was a possibility, but it sure did build a ton of hype for launch day. I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an 8 and I made the damn thing.”
He may not have believed it, but it was true, and he also noted that by that point, the game had crossed 200,000+ wishlists over on Steam. For a game like his, that would’ve been a huge success on its own, but it would only grow from there. After all, on launch day, he got even better news:
“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. Streamers are playing it, media is writing about it. I have so many texts from friends and family. It is the most surreal day of my life.”
May this be a lesson to you all. Sometimes, you just need to make something and put it out there, as you never know what people will say or think until you do.
