Balatro Dev Reveals Personal Favorite Game of 2024

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 4, 2025 3 Views 5 Min Read
Balatro Dev Reveals Personal Favorite Game of 2024

Summary

  • Balatro developer lauds Animal Well as his favorite game of 2024.
  • The developer named some of his other favorite games of 2024 as well.
  • Balatro achieved massive success, selling 3.5 million copies, and receiving high acclaim from players and critics.

The developer behind Balatro, LocalThunk, has named Animal Well as his favorite game of 2024. Released to a highly positive reception, both Balatro and Animal Well are indie mega hits from last year.

Built on a small budget and by a solo developer, Balatro has enjoyed surprisingly huge fanfare since launching in February 2024. The deck-building game won laurels not only from critics but also from players, enabling it to sell over 3.5 million copies in the process. At the same time, it’s no secret that 2024 was also a year filled with other popular indie titles, such as Neva, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and UFO 50. And, among these games, Animal Well notably even rivaled the level of critical acclaim received by Balatro. In view of that, the developer behind the card game has now given a special compliment to his Animal Well counterpart.

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In a Twitter post, LocalThunk named Animal Well his “Game of the Year 2024,” while heavily praising the latter’s solo developer at Shared Memory, Billy Basso. In the Balatro creator’s typical humorous style, he dubbed the shoutout the “Golden Thunk” award and underlined that Animal Well earned this recognition owing to the “engrossing experience” it offers players. Moreover, he said that the Metroidvania title is full of “style” and “secrets,” labeling it Basso’s “true masterpiece.” Acknowledging LocalThunk’s post, Basso indirectly called him “(The) Nicest Most Humble Dev of the Year.” In the comments, several fans complimented both games, with one of them expressing their happiness about the evident “positivity” and “solidarity” among indie developers. Apart from Animal Well, LocalThunk also put the spotlight on a few other indie titles that were among his personal favorites of 2024.

Balatro Developer Picks His Favorite Games of 2024

In the reply thread under the original post, LocalThunk revealed his other favorites after Animal Well, one of the best-rated games of 2024. He listed Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, Arco, Nova Drift, Ballionaire, and Mouthwashing as the “runners up [sic]” and mentioned what he liked about each of these games. Interestingly, Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers in particular shares a few similarities with Balatro in that both are pixel art-based deck-building games built by solo developers.

While Balatro has experienced immense success so far, its developer has chosen not to sit on his laurels and has shipped free updates for the game over the past several months, enhancing the player experience. As yet, three different “Friends of Jimbo” updates have brought crossover content from various popular IPs, like Cyberpunk 2077, Among Us, and Dave the Diver, to the card game. Most recently, LocalThunk hinted at the possibility of collaborating with one of the most popular games of 2024 for another Balatro crossover.

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