Balatroの開発者であるLocal Thunkは、最近、個人的なブログで魅力的な開発史を共有しました。驚くべきことに、彼らはバラトロの作成中に最小限のログラケなゲームの露出を明らかにしました。
彼らの開発タイムラインは、2021年12月にログエリケスのプレイをやめるという意識的な決定を指摘しています。 Thunkは、これがゲームを改善するのではなく、趣味としての実験的なゲームデザインの固有の楽しみを受け入れることであると説明しています。目標は、間違いを犯し、車輪を再発明し、確立されたデザインから直接借用することを避けることでした。このアプローチは洗練されていないゲームを生み出したかもしれませんが、創造的なプロセスの喜びを優先しました。
しかし、1年半後、サンクは自己課したルールを破り、スパイアーをダウンロードしました。彼らの反応? A simple, emphatic, "Holy shit. Now that is a game."
The reason for this indulgence? Thunk was troubleshooting controller implementation in Balatro and sought inspiration from Slay the Spire 's card game controls.結果? A complete immersion in the game, narrowly avoiding subconscious design mimicry.
Thunk's post-mortem offers other intriguing insights. The game's initial working folder was named "CardGame," a label that inexplicably persisted. The working title, for a significant portion of development, was "Joker Poker."
Several scrapped features are also detailed, including:
- A system where card upgrades were the sole method of character progression, similar to Super Auto Pets .
- A separate in-game currency for rerolls.
- A "golden seal" mechanic that returned played cards to the hand after skipping all blinds.
The number of Jokers in the final game, 150, stems from a humorous miscommunication with publisher Playstack. Thunk initially proposed 120, but a later discussion resulted in a revised count of 150, which Thunk ultimately preferred.
Finally, the origin of the developer name "Local Thunk" is revealed. It's a programming-related inside joke stemming from a conversation with their partner learning R programming. The combination of Lua's "local" keyword and their partner's variable naming preference, "thunk," led to the memorable handle.
Thunk's blog post offers a wealth of additional information about Balatro's development. IGN wholeheartedly agrees, awarding the game a 9/10 and praising it as "A deck-builder of endlessly satisfying proportions, it's the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans as you stay awake far too late staring into the eyes of a jester tempting you in for just one more run."