Balatro creator says it's "useless" for him to give advice to other devs because "I only have one data point" and it was a 5 million-sale success story

ben starr dressed in harlequin makeup chomping down on a banana
(Image credit: LocalThunk)

LocalThunk, developer of the phenomenally successful 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Balatro, has weighed in on a conversation about indie ga𒀰mes, his unique plac🌳e within the industry, and why "I really hate when people in my position don't see the absurd bias we have."

Mat Piscatella, an industry analyst at Circana on Bluesky that "it's impossible to selectively 'find' and fund the one next massive viral hit 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:indie game." When a game like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Balatro sells over 5 million copies, publishers obviously want to find the next one, but who would have predicted a poker roguelite would be nominated at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Game Awards?

. "Fund a bunch of n💖ew games and hope to stumble upon the next big thing that the dumb money will chase after it's been released." I agree. ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚI'm no CEO, but I think it makes more sense to fund lots of small games and hope one of them hits the big leagues rather than pumping all that money into one game that's just trying to capitalize on a trend.

Indie dev Rami Ismail : "All advice♔ is bad, but not meaningless," and c𓆏laims people can look to others for inspiration, but "treating advice as dogma" isn't the way to succeed.

LocalThunk himself : "I really hate when people in my position don't see the absurd bias we have – it's useless for me to give out advice because a🧸ll I have is one data point. I spoke aboutꦏ this in my . I'll share what I do/did, not preach that everyone should do it too."

The video game industry moves rapidly, and what workedꦿ for one developer or team one year isn't guaranteed to work for somebody else the next year.

The reverse is true too. Some games are ahead of their time. Think about 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Brink, the🙈 multiplayer parkour FPS that launched during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, when online capabilities weren't as good as they are now. It bombed, but I bet it would ki✃ll it today.

While you're here, check out all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:must-play indie games from 2024 and marvel at how different and wonderful they all are.

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degr♕ees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news sꦰection at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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