Summary
According to “The Balatro Timeline,” a chronological history ofBalatropublished by the game’s creator LocalThunk, the well-known roguelike streamerNorthernlionis partially responsible for some of the creative inspiration behind the game.
Northernlion is an avid roguelike player, originally rising to prominence as an entertaining Binding of Isaac player. He continued to explore the roguelike genre, playing Balatro religiously when it was released last year. As it turns out, LocalThunk derived inspiration for Balatro while watching a Northernlion stream of the roguelike deck builderLuck be a Landlord.
The King of Roguelikes
“Earlier in December, I was watching videos of Luck Be a Landlord from Northernlion,” LocalThunk wrote. “The whole score attack concept really fuelled the direction I wanted to go with this game from this point onward.” Luck Be a Landlord from TrampolineTales is a combo-based deck builder that LocalThunk has called the “largest influence” on his game.
Later on, LocalThunk released a demo for Balatro which eventually reached the attention of Northernlion, who took to it immediately: “I was in chat watching, totally dumbfounded, that someone I watched on YouTube/Twitch for over a decade at that point was playing my game. I text all my friends about it, they are all shocked as well,” the timeline reads.
“Northernlion was playing the 50-round demo version - and after he quickly ran through all 50 rounds I got his attention and gave him a key to play the full beta version,” the post continues. “I think some people weren’t super fond of this because he got special treatment - but honestly I was more in fan mode than dev mode. Looking back I’m glad I gave him the key - that was a massive moment for my game, even though it was tricky to navigate.”
The streamer certainly paid back LocalThunk’s gesture - playing Balatro non-stop on stream, helping to popularise the game before its release. The rest, as they say, is history. The current timeline goes up until February 2024 and hasn’t yet reached Balatro’s famous game-of-the-year nomination at The Game Awards.
