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GMTK Mini - Balatro's 'Cursed' Design Problem (Patreon)

Published:
2024-04-02 18:06:18
Edited:
2024-04-02 18:23:22
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey Patrons!

I'm having a nice relaxing break from game dev, and so I wanted to make a quick video to unpick one of the curious bits of design in Balatro. It's about information, player psychology, and listening to your audience. Hope you dig it!

Mark

Files

Balatro's 'Cursed' Design Problem

🔴 Get bonus content by supporting Game Maker’s Toolkit - https://gamemakerstoolkit.com/support/ 🔴 Balatro is the current game design darling. But even the designer is aware of a ‘fundamental design flaw’. What is it, can it be fixed, and what does it teach us about making games for people? === Sources and Resources === - Sources [1] [AMA] I am localthunk, developer and artist for Balatro. Ask me anything! | Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1bdtmlg/ama_i_am_localthunk_developer_and_artist_for/ [2] GD Column 17: Water Finds a Crack | Designer Notes http://www.designer-notes.com/game-developer-column-17-water-finds-a-crack/ [3] 136: Going in Blind with Balatro | Eggplant https://eggplant.show/136-going-in-blind-with-balatro [4] Postmortem: McMillen and Himsl's The Binding of Isaac | Game Developer https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/postmortem-mcmillen-and-himsl-s-i-the-binding-of-isaac-i- [5] Isaac vs Mewgenics | Steam https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/686060/view/3677805209186094200 [6] External Item Descriptions | Steam Workshop https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=836319872 === Credits === Music provided by Epidemic Sound - https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/vtdu5y (Referral Link) === Subtitles === Contribute translated subtitles - TBA

Comments

Nick Vance

I've been playing but also frustrated by Balatro. I'm a Slay the Spire Ascension 20 player, so I want all the information which Balatro makes you calculate. After reading the AMA where the creator said he's not going to add a score preview, I decided the hassle of running my own calculations was not fun and I quit Balatro. I hope the decision of including a score preview is revisited someday so I could enjoy Balatro again.

Ryder

Man... I do not like seeing clowns so prominently on my feed and email.

Marcus Trapp

It's an interesting issue, great video as always, Mark. Even though McMillian eventually reversed his course on item descriptions, I'm with the creator's original intent in both cases. I've sunk a fair amount of time into both games, but I'm pretty breezy about my video game playing, generally not using any mods or wikis. I have gotten the benefit of the obfusticated mysteries intended. I guess those people who are always min/maxing will always find some way to derive hidden information, be it calculators, wikis, brute force, or data mining. That doesn't sound fun to me, but that is a choice they're making.

Turner Monroe

This makes a lot of sense and is presented well, the one thing I will say is that sometimes the best game design is one that changes and adapts to players in the real world. Take Binding of Isaac, people tend to say that he made the right or wrong decision by not including item descriptions, but perhaps the best design was to not include item descriptions until they had been well documented by the community, and then include it as an option for players that wanted it in a patch or DLC. I do think for Balatro it makes sense as a late game upgrade, or a new game plus reward, or something like that. That way once you play the game enough, the score indicator will either improve your performance or eliminate the tedium of looking up the numbers, which seems like a fun reward both groups.

Mary Rose Cook

Super interesting video - thanks! You touched on how the game developer doesn't want to change the game design because they made the game to suit their own tastes. That makes sense and is of course fine. But did you have any thoughts on more fundamental design changes that could solve the problem (as opposed to adding a preference)?

Fran

One solution could be to add a deck that shows the score and has -1 discard and -1 hand