Balatro Dev Reveals Early Development Footage and Screenshots

The indie Poker Roguelike game Balatro, which remarkably sold a million copies within a month of its release, has certainly made a splash. Its overwhelmingly positive reviews serve as solid proof of how it's loved by players. 

Balatro's journey to success started with an initial prototype named Joker Poker. The game's creator, LocalThunk, unveiled a series of early footage and screenshots from the year 2021 build of Joker Poker on Twitter, showing the evolutionary stages of what would become Balatro. While some elements from the prototype can still be identified in Balatro, numerous features underwent significant modifications prior to launch.

The earliest video, dating back to December 2021, was captured just weeks after the project started. A video from August 2022, eight months into the game's development, provides a glimpse into what more closely resembles the final Balatro product. This version showcases an enhanced UI and features like card pack selection from an in-game shop and a blind option.

In a following post, LocalThunk shared a physical sketch of the game's logo during the design phase, which is the only one they made:

LocalThunk admitted that, from a balance perspective, the game was quite flawed in the early stages, saying "this whole version is scuffed." But now we know, it doesn't affect how the game turned to be successful after launch. 

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