The Designer of 2024's Hit, Balatro, Isn't Sweating Kids Playing His Poker Game

The poker-inspired Balatro has become more popular than its designer ever could have imagined, which means more people than ever, including kids, are trying it.

The first time I played Balatro, my then-seven-year-old daughter glanced at my Steam Deck with a puzzled look. The colors were dazzling. The way the cards danced across the screen was enticing. We’ve played a handful of card games in the house—Go Fish and the like, nothing too intense—but Balatro, a delightful mashup of poker with roguelike mechanics, came across like a virtual fireworks show by comparison. 

(Roguelike is a form of game where instead of starting a game and beating it, you play the game over and over in shorter bursts, with the game slightly changing every time.)

Balatro vaulted onto the scene early this year, and has slowly been taking over people’s lives as it’s moved to platforms that don’t require you to be glued to a PC. First, Balatro hit consoles, including Switch. But a Switch isn’t everywhere. Then, last month, Balatro dropped on mobile phones, including Apple’s Apple Arcade service. Oops.

Many video games involve the player making various forms of risk calculation, which is also at the heart of gambling. It’s also common to hear people say they are “addicted” to a game they’re enjoying, and like anything else, it’s certainly possible to play a game an abusive amount of time, even if it’s not the game’s “fault.” Gambling, of course, is much more insidious, and with the proliferation of legal gambling apps on people’s phones, you cannot watch a single sports event without seeing gambling.

Balatro involves players making moment-to-moment risk calculations in service of scoring big, but the “bets”—i.e. trying to build a deck of cards that will let them continue playing the game—players are making ultimately translates into points, not money. And yet, Balatro also leverages casino aesthetics to a great degree—just read the way this one player, a longtime addict, wasn’t sure if they could play the game. (They could.) It’s what drew my daughter’s eye towards my Steam Deck this year. 

On Apple Arcade, the game is listed as being for audiences 12+ and having:

• Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes

• Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes

• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

The game’s developer, who goes by the name LocalThunk online, actually wrote into his will that Balatro, which presumably has made LocalThunk lots of money at this point, can never be sold or licensed to a gambling or casino company. Despite this, the game was, however, briefly removed from various online storefronts over a ratings dispute, before later returning with a disclaimer that it has “gambling themes.”

I recently had a chance to ask LocalThunk a few questions about Balatro’s explosive popularity, his experience with card games growing up, and what he thought about my daughter looking over my shoulder and asking questions about his game.

Enjoy the chat!

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A few times while playing Balatro, my kids have peered over and tried to figure out what’s going on. I didn’t have any issue with my oldest, who’s now eight, asking questions and playing a round with me. My youngest, four, mostly liked the colors. But I’ve seen some chatter online where some parents go “hey, uh, does it feel weird to play Balatro with your kid?” I don’t think so, but given some of the ways people have responded to the casino-like atmosphere in the game, I get it. Does any of that resonate with you?

LocalThunk: It certainly does resonate with me. I often think ‘If I had a kid, would I let them play the game?’, and I honestly think as soon as they would be old enough to understand the game I wouldn’t have a problem with them engaging with Balatro. I played all types of card games as a child without real gambling and I grew up to greatly dislike gambling in general. 

I think people are too judgmental about the surface level themes without thinking about what the game actually teaches you. If a kid is able to grasp the mechanics of the game, I think it’s a great game to learn about probability, math, and problem solving skills, and it does nothing to teach you about betting or wagering. If anything, a better understanding of probabilities should push people away from gambling.

Some of the earliest games that children play with adults involve cards. Not necessarily poker, mind you, but Go Fish and the like. It’s some of their first experiences with risk management, winning and losing, etc. Did you have any formative experiences like that when you were younger? If not, do you remember your first exposure to card games?

LocalThunk: Absolutely I did—cards were everywhere in my childhood. I played Kings Corner with my great grandmother many times as a young child, War with my brother, and shedding games like Janitor, Big 2, and Cheat regularly well into University. I do think I learned a lot about intuition of statistics and probabilities from my exposure to card games as a youth.

Have you been surprised by how resonant the game has been with players? I remember talking to the designer of Vampire Survivors as the game took off, and his response was something like “well, I didn’t really anticipate this being something that families got into together,” but I suspect something similar is happening with Balatro.

LocalThunk: I feel the exact same way. I wasn’t anticipating any of this, nor was I even hoping for it. I just had no way of knowing people might respond to this game in such a strong way. I love seeing how much people are able to enjoy it!

In this era, you can watch people play on stream. Given that access, have you noticed anything different about how different ages of players react and play the game? Has it influenced the design at all?

LocalThunk: As a game dev, part of the challenge with that is that you don’t know the age of people you interact with on the internet. So in general no I wouldn’t say that I see a difference in how various age groups interact with the game, but it’s too opaque for me to tell.

Similarly, some of the multiplayer elements of Vampire Survivors were added specifically because its designer noticed that people started playing with one another. Multiplayer Balatro probably doesn’t make a ton of sense, but has the idea of Vampire Survivors people observed or played in groups had an impact on how you’ve evolved its design post-launch?

LocalThunk: This is something I definitely noticed. The example I think of immediately is that I included ‘seeds’ in the game as kind of an afterthought - and once it went public they became a very integral part of the Balatro experience. It was the tool players were using to share the game with each other and compete. 

Because of that, I want to add a daily challenge mode to capture that feeling. It isn’t something I would have thought about without seeing the way real players interacted with the game and with each other.

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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Also:

• I played Balatro enough to beat it once, and then never played it again. In my mind, I “beat” the game, and if I never fail again, that can remain my canon story.

• I do like to place small bets on sporting events, leading to my wife wondering why I’m screaming at the TV, only for me to reveal it’s over a $1 bet to pay out $1.

• The few times I’ve been to Las Vegas, I’ve only gambled a handful of times, and usually only because somebody else wanted to. My middle ground was agreeing to play roulette, because you can at least bet red or black, making chances 50/50.