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Balatro may have started as a small hobby project, but several awards and millions of copies sold later, it’s easier to think of Balatro as the smash hit that now stars Geralt of Rivia and eats away the waking hours of anyone oblivious enough to fall under its spell. But developer LocalThunk never exactly craved the attention Balatro’s success has foisted on him, nor is his commitment to anonymity part of some performative bit.
In fact, publisher Playstack paints the game’s development as a pretty humble affair all the way from the start until now, though that isn’t particularly easy to maintain when your game has as many eyes on it as Balatro.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Playstack’s communications director Wout van Halderen said, “For LocalThunk himself, he’s already a person who doesn’t really like the spotlight, and now it’s a lot harder to deal with that kind of pressure. I think his choice to be anonymous from the beginning is helping him now in the long run.”
Van Halderen said that didn’t stop onlookers from assuming it was all part of Balatro’s mischievous sensibilities, but he affirmed that it was just an earnest attempt to keep the limelight at bay: “I do think his anonymity became the story at some point, ’cause people thought he was trying to pull a Banksy and be, like, this anonymous developer, but that’s not why he did it. He just wanted to be left alone to make his game and live his life.”
It remains something of a tightrope walk, as van Halderen pointed out that when you strike it big like Balatro did, “you have to chase some success,” entertaining merchandising opportunities and big crossovers to capitalize on the moment. There’s no denying that such acclaim comes with perks, after all. As van Halderen put it, “Partnerships with platforms always become a little bit easier, because there is a benefit there for everybody to work with us… the emails get answered a little quicker.”
Van Halderen said he was perfectly happy with LocalThunk’s choice to remain private, as he gets the normal sort of personal life that most people who create internationally beloved things don’t.
“He’s a Canadian man. So if he goes to a party and people ask about the game, they probably mean the hockey game, because they don’t connect him to his game at all,” Van Halderen said. “Which is, I think, a luxury in today’s social space.”
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Kurt Indovina
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