I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately <i>begging</i> us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time.<p>My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like it's in the spirit of what localthunk is talking about here. It's a comfort game. A pasttime rather than an addiction. Balatro is a stress reliever for me and I can jump in, play, and jump out and it's fine.<p>I wonder what our digital world would look like if more tools and platforms adopted an approach that was not clinging desperately for everything all the time all at once.
I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else.<p>Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls.<p>A few years ago, however, I found <a href="https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire/" rel="nofollow">https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire...</a> . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards.<p>I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/Spider Solitaire games a day using it. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you want a simple game of Solitaire in the same spirit as the post.
><i>It’s now been over a year since launch and I am still playing Balatro almost daily. I play a couple runs before I go to bed</i><p>I think this is really important, especially for games. Play the game you make!<p>There's a fair number of games that I've played where the developer clearly has not sat down and played through the game <i>as a player would</i>. No skips, no custom developer-only starts or features, no rushing through sections "because I know what happens", etc. To be fair, though, these are often below $5 games on Steam, so I'm sure a chunk of them are cash grabs rather than an honest attempt at making a successful game.
Balatro is the only game where my score has maxed out the value of a double precision floating point number. And this isn't some crazy speedrunning strategy, it's very achievable for normal players. It's strangely compelling to make numbers go up and Balatro harnesses that better than any game I've played.
"To force players to get out of their comfort zone and explore the design of the game in a way they might not if this were a fully unguided gaming experience."<p>It's great how rogue like/lite games such as slay the spire and Hades have riffed on that concept. Guess what, you won't have the same power ups this time. You're going to have to learn to play the same game in a different way. So in Balatro you're playing draw poker in an attempt to build different hands based on your strategy.
It really does work that way. It’s a perfect game if you have ~25 minutes to kill. It’s fairly complex, but doesn’t really require player to keep much information between runs. I hate going back to a game after a few weeks only to discover that I no longer remember how to play it.
What a thoughtful post. I think there is a narrative that localthunk is a "shitty programmer" (which he might very well be), but that by extension, it also means that he just got lucky and bumblefucked his way into massive success - almost as though he didn't know any better.<p>A post like this dispels that narrative - he clearly put a ton of thought into the design of that game and was incredibly intentional about where he wanted it to go.
> My fantasy was that I was playing this weird game many years later on a lazy Sunday afternoon; I play a couple of runs, enjoy my time for about an hour, then set it down and continue the rest of my day. I wanted it to feel evergreen, comforting, and enjoyable in a very low-stakes way.<p>I will pay money for more games like this. I want more games like this.<p>I could write an essay on this beautiful breath of fresh air. Balatro, like many beautiful pieces of software, is defined by what it is and <i>isn't</i>. No ads, no screwy Skinner box mechanics. Just wholesome gameplay.
It's always interesting to drop into these posts, especially when they are at the top of the HN list,<p>and have zero context. Who is this person? What is localthunk? What is "Balatro"?<p>A reminder there are subpopulations online within which <things> are well known and active references.<p>And others, like mine, where <things> have not once come up.<p>I think like podcasts, mobile games are a thing that is just totally invisible to me and <my circle>.
Sorry in advance if it's too off-topic, but if you want to play the Windows 2000 Solitaire I have it kind of working in my web-based emulator here:<p><a href="https://evmar.github.io/retrowin32/run.html?exe=sol.exe&dir=archive%2fwin2k%2f&file=cards.dll" rel="nofollow">https://evmar.github.io/retrowin32/run.html?exe=sol.exe&dir=...</a>
> I think that’s one of the reasons why there isn’t a player character, health, or classic ‘enemies’ in the game as well.<p>This was the thing I found most interesting when I started playing the game, because it's so different from almost all games these days (especially roguelikes). I initially found it off-putting (part of me wanted more context for what was happening), but the more I played the more it made sense. And his comparison to Solitaire really drives that home.<p>But also, despite the lack of a character or enemies, the game has a huge amount of character, which I think was critical for its success.
When I was a kid, if I couldn't be on the computer for whatever reason I'd occupy myself with a pack of cards. I'd play solitaire (Klondike) over and over. I would vary the draw count and see how that affected the game. I'd sort the cards beforehand and see if that made it any easier or harder to win. I'd try to find the optimal order the cards would have to be in before dealing for the game to be won in the least number of steps. Ultimately I figured Solitaire was just a roundabout way of sorting a deck of cards and started messing with other sorting methods. I still, every time I see a pack of cards, feel that urge to just sort and sort and sort. It wasn't even "fun", I was just so desperate for mental stimulation.<p>Anyways, love Balatro!
Interesting to see this here. I've commented a few times on HN about recently getting into card games (e.g. various solitaire games, gin rummy, presidents, spades, trash...etc) and domino games. It's a lot of fun, social (even solitaire as we teach each other new versions), and mentally engaging. There's no screen and it all just feels less wasteful in some weird way.<p>Board game night would do the same thing, but there's something beautiful about how much variety you can get out of a single deck of cards or some double-six dominos. There's no setup or 50 page rulebook required either. Most card games I just watch a YouTube video and then just remember how to play for years.
I bought Belatro and Zachtronics solitaire a few weeks ago, more or less on impulse. The Zachtronics was disappointing primarily because the UI is too small on my iPhone, and I have old eyes. Belatro is great.<p>I'm something of a Solitaire addict. In addition to Belatro, the Microsoft Solitaire Collection is the only game on my iPhone, and I happily pay Microsoft $10 a year because the design is the most comfortable for me. Klondike soothes me like nothing else, but it's nice to be able to put a little variety in the game for me with FreeCell, Pyramid or TriPeaks (I'm not a Spider fan).
Great read, I always love reading about the thoughts and intentions behind game design.<p>> I play a couple runs before I go to bed<p>I do see the relaxing component of the game once you’ve got the hang of it and are playing on white stake. But I do feel like the game encourages you to take on more difficult/frustrating stakes and decks, so for someone working on gold stake for the black deck for example, it would absolutely not be something to play before bed (unless you’re in the mood to cry yourself to sleep)
In terms of the low stakes feel, I think calling it a “boss blind” is really the only thing that I could possibly point to critically.<p>It’s amazing how that one word can change the entire vibe. It evokes a much more serious feel to it for me. Not sure what I’d call it, but I wonder if a different word would suddenly alter the whole vibe just a bit more towards that stated goal in the first paragraph.
Reading this makes me sad actually, because I grew up on windows machines (starting with windows 3.1) and have so many memories of Solitaire that came shipped with windows. The deck variations, the little and big effects (like winning!) I played it so much as a grade schooler. Now that mac is so ubiquitous, most kids wont ever know the simple pleasure of playing solitaire.
honestly without context for what this blog is for, or a link to the things it references (klondike/solitaire?) it's hard to want to read the full thing