Poker roguelite Balatro is a hit, but the announced mobile release will show its true power
Breakout 2024 poker roguelite hit Balatro is coming to Apple and Android mobile devices, according to solo developer LocalThunk. That’s great news for all of us currently invested in creating the highest scoring poker hands, and bad news for our productivity related to anything else.
Publisher PlayStack announced the port during a Reddit Ask Me Anything this weekendalthough there were no further details on a possible release window. In a summary of the thread on the Balatro subredditit was confirmed that LocalThunk would be working on the mobile ports.
On Monday, the publisher also announced that the game has already been sold 1 million copies since its release on February 20 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. It was ported to macOS on March 1.
The AMA is filled with trivia and other news for fans who can’t get enough of weird poker. PlayStack, for example, has confirmed that this is the case view official merchandise, including decks that match what you can unlock in the game. LocalThunk also announced one daily challenge mode is in the works … or rather: that it is ‘in the cards’.
BalatroThe game’s success has a lot to do with its excellent game loop, where the player adds jokers and regular cards with different effects to a typical deck of 52 playing cards. The aim is to get through eight rounds (or antes) of poker by scoring above a certain number of points, although this becomes increasingly difficult as you progress. Your job is to come up with a strategy that will get you the most points. It’s also a great game to play if you enjoy watching numbers increase, or if you want to brush up on some math.
There’s also the ‘skip blind’ mechanism, which allows you to skip rounds for individual rewards. For example, maybe you can get a rarer joker in the store, or get extra money. In the AMA, Local Thunk said this was one of the hardest mechanics to get right:
When the game was first made public, there was a very simple version of this mechanic, where skipping both the small and big blinds got you a very meager reward (a gold seal card). No one skipped this reward overall, but the framework was in place. After the game went public, this issue came to light, and adding individual skip rewards with variety felt like a natural progression from that original idea! It was a huge improvement, and if it really added to the whole ‘risk versus reward’ ideology behind it Balatro.
However, LocalThunk doesn’t think this will be the case more mechanics added over time, although there may be “more options, more opportunities for emergence, more secrets.”
LocalThunk also confirmed our story on how to pronounce the game’s title: “It’s pronounced ‘Balatro.’”
The entire AMA is worth checking out if you want more insight Balatroa game that might just ruin your life if you don’t set ground rules for how much you can play it every day.