Balatro has been a massive success for its developer LocalThunk and sales of the card-based game show no signs of slowing down. The developer wrote a timeline on his blog detailing his thoughts about the high review scores which poured in after the game’s release. He said that he was expecting average ratings for Balatro to be around 6/10 and 7/10. He then went on to say that even though he made the game, he wouldn’t have scored it higher than an 8/10.
“February 19th rolls around. The 19th is the review embargo day, and [publisher] Playstack did a truly exceptional job getting this game in the hands of traditional media to write their reviews before launch.”
“I didn’t know what to expect. This was a pretty weird game after all. Average ratings of 6 or 7?”
“I am shocked. That rating doesn’t make any sense,” LocalThunk remembers thinking. “I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an 8, and I made the damn thing.”
