Unpacking Balatro's Addicting Game Design

The Game That Whispered 'One More Hand' at 3AM

Balatro is a captivating indie game built by a Canadian designer who goes by the name of Localthunk. The game has sold more than a million copies in a month and won the 2024 Game Award for Best Debut Indie game, Best Independent game and Best Mobile game. I found out about Balatro quite late and I've been playing so much that I've been dreaming about poker hands. The design is simple and straightforward where it is a poker game that challenges you just enough to keep playing. Balatro pulls players in by mixing luck, risky choices, and simple design, making it feel like gambling without actually gambling.

Let's break down the game into it's core components and uncover all the allure. Balatro at it's core is a poker game, you draw cards from a deck and you play poker hands to get chips which is essentially your score. After beating each round also known as blinds, you get money to use in the shop. The score you need to beat increases exponentially with each round and at the end of each round you can go shopping to upgrade your deck. The rounds are sets of 3 and called an ante. At the end of each ante there is a boss round which has some special ability which makes scoring a bit more difficult. If you don't score enough chips you lose and start over with a fresh deck to build. The simple challenge then is to strategize the best poker hands to play based on the upgrades you get from the shop. There are a multitude of ways to upgrade your deck, via a Tarot card or consumable, Planet cards which increase the score calculations, Vouchers which are overall upgrades, and Joker cards. Joker cards are the name of the game here, which is where the name of the game comes from (I think Balatro is another name for Jester or Joker). Joker cards upgrade your deck significantly and you can build synergy with other Joker cards and the other upgrades you get from the shop. Since Joker cards are so powerful you're limited to five unless you get some other upgrade that allows more than this amount.

Screenshot of a poker hand being played:

What a round looks like and the score you need to beat each round:

Some of the different joker cards you can use:

Let's look at the game design part:

1. Core mechanic: Play poker hands and get a score each round.

   1. Provide player with random cards to play a poker hand.

   2. Calculate a score based on poker hand played.

      1. Increase score based on the less probable poker hand.

   3. Calculate money after each round is beat.

   4. Increase score needed after each round.

2. Core components:

   1. Provide shop at the end of each round for player to upgrade deck.

   2. Randomize shop cards each round.

   3. Provide ability to sell cards.

   4. Create boss rounds with special abilities to thwart the player.

   5. Create joker cards with special abilities to assist the player.

   6. Create Tarot cards to assist the player.

   7. Create Planet cards to assist the player.

3. Additional features:

   1. Provide unlockables for the player to unlock more cards to play.

   2. Provide challenges to increase difficult of play through.

   3. Provide different decks that help or hinder the player during play through.

   4. Provide tags for each round to add more variability and randomness.

I've oversimplified the mechanics to show you the accessibility of the game. It's not only the components and features, there is also a roguelike feel to the game, and a deck building aspect with each shopping round. From GMTK's video on Balatro, they mention that the game is like a "Rube Goldberg machine where you watch your score increase and just go before knowing you will win the round". That is the most alluring part of the game for me. The fact that we are building this Rube Goldberg machine with all the different Joker cards, Tarot, and Planet cards. Will the machine work? Will I beat all the boss blinds? I don't know but I will keep trying and keep failing.

Me building my Rube Goldberg machine:

The game’s components are both aesthetically pleasing and satisfying to interact with. The game has a pixel-art style which can sometimes be bland and boring, however each card has so much depth to it. The background is a swirling effect and has some sort of hypnotic affect (not really) but I am just mesmerized by the background. The joker cards and all the other upgrades you can get in the shop are also attractive in that I have to consider each card carefully. The feel of the game is pleasing as well. Selecting cards and committing to any action in the game is responsive. It feels enticing to play cards and watch the score just add up. Watching each joker card add to the score multiplier and seeing the score pass the required amount is so satisfying. I appreciate the responsiveness in the player actions since it connects to the player experience so strongly. I've also heard the game can also be compared to slot machines, where the responsive feel and emotions from the game are similar. The aesthetics and responsiveness compound the addictive quality of the game.

The game captures the risk and reward dynamic at an alarming pace. Every time you shop for cards you are given a choice based on the money you've accumulated, which cards will truly help me build a self sufficient scoring machine. Once you've decided on your strategy and the cards you'll buy, you hope and pray that you've made the right choice. There is a sense of luck or blind optimism when I play a poker hand. I discard cards to see if I can get a better hand, I sell cards, I save my money and spend all my money. There are many options in this intuitively simple game. There are times when my poker hand fails and luck wasn't on my side, but I keep trying and adding to this system this machine. I am building something that has high risk but also high reward. The game also sucks when you fail a round and don't score enough points, however the randomness of the game makes me want to see what high-scoring machine can I put together next.

Screenshot of me failing a round:

Balatro is a truly compelling game and deserves all the awards it won last year. I learned a ton in the month I've been sucked into playing it. The game utilizes simple gameplay with added depth. If you can capture simple mechanics but add depth around those mechanics then you have one ingredient for success. You can apply randomness in your games, like in the Roguelike genre to empower the player. You do get random cards and random upgrades, however choosing what to do with these cards makes you feel like you're building something like an RPG game. Responsiveness and game feel is crucial to how players feel when playing the game. I can't imagine Balatro without the vibrations or screen shake. I would feel less excited and less inclined to take risks. Player input response and screen effects add to the game feel and should be considered when considering the mechanics of your game. When zooming out and looking at the components of what makes Balatro, I am ready to play my next poker hand but also inspired to make something just as addicting.

Thanks for reading <3