Balatro's 'Cursed' Design Problem

Balatro!

It’s the hot new indie darling.

It shifted a million copies in a month, it’s
been streamed by pretty much everyone on Twitch,

and it’s one of the top rated games of 2024
so far.

I’ve also played it… quite a bit.

But, this game has - and this is according
to its own designer - a “fundamental design flaw”.

A “cursed problem” that the designer has
been unable to solve.

Let me explain.

First - if you somehow haven’t played Balatro,
it’s a card game about trying to find poker

hands in order to score points.

Better hands score bigger points.

But on top of that, you can do all sorts of
wily tricks to boost your score.

Special cards rack up more points.

Crazy joker cards change the rules of the
game.

And you can stack your deck - or toss away
cards - to make certain hands more happenable.

It’s a really fun game - a sublime, synergistic
slot-machine that feels fun to play, and is

even more fun to break.

It’s also really elegantly designed - with
its clean UI, straightforward concept, and,

well, just how much depth has been squeezed
out of a few key systems.

But there’s one… interesting design choice
in there.

And it’s this: the game doesn’t tell you
how many points you’re going to score, before

you play your hand.

You simply pick your cards, cross your fingers,
and hit go.

Now this would be really quite helpful information.

It could tell you to play one hand over another.

It could tell you if you’re about to scrape
past the ante, or miss it by a few points.

It could tell you if you’re about to win
the entire game - or lose the whole thing

and have to start from scratch.

And yet…

Balatro doesn’t give you a, let’s call
it - a score preview.

Of course, this was an entirely intentional
design choice.

LocalThunk - the game’s anonymous Canadian
designer - has explained that, for him, the

joy of Balatro lives in that precise moment
I just described.

When you cross your fingers and hit play.

When you’ve set up your point-scoring engine
and hope that it will bring home the bacon.

LocalThunk says “my personal belief is that
the game is more fun when you set up your

Rube Goldberg machine and watch it go before
knowing whether or not the hand will win the round.”

And Balatro totally plays into this!

There’s so much hype and pageantry after
playing your hand.

The numbers tick up, with escalating sound
effects.

Each card and joker steps forward in turn
to add their points to the total.

If you’re lucky, the score multiplier will
set on fire and start to burn hotter and hotter

with each multiplication.

And so if you already knew how many points
you were going to get.

If a bit of UI had pre-calculated the score
and told you that you were going to win the

ante with this hand…

well none of that would matter.

In fact, it would just get in the way.

This is not the only reason to forgo a score
preview, mind.

It would also add cruft to the UI - especially
when you need to account for cards that have

random properties.

How do you elegantly show a range of possible
scores?

It would slow the game down, incentivising
players to check every possible hand to find

the highest-scoring combination.

And it would change the entire feel - from
a chill game about vibing with cards, to a

stern spreadsheet-style strategy game.

And so this is a totally legit game design
decision, right?

Every game designer has to choose how much
information to give to the player.

Like, should you show a boss’s health bar,
or keep it hidden?

Should enemies come up with their strategies
in secret, or should their intent be explained

to the player?

As I’ve explored in various other videos,
how much information a player has will change

their behaviour, and change the way the game
feels.

And so Balatro hides its score preview to
make players act more quickly - and to create

a feeling of suspense and drama whenever you
play a hand.

LocalThunk had an experience in mind - and
picked mechanics that would nudge players

towards that feeling.

A smart design choice.

However!

Balatro is not like those other games I just
showed.

Because while the score preview is hidden
from the player… the information is still

technically available!

Because you can just… you can just calculate it yourself.

So, like…. a straight is worth 30 chips
and 4 mult.

These cards are going to add an extra 10,
20, 30, 39, 47 chips, and then the two face

cards will add another 30 each thanks to this
joker.

So that’s 137 chips times 4… 548.

Not quite enough to beat the ante.

But close.

And so if information in a game can be hidden,
or visible…

Balatro’s score preview falls into a weird
half category - hidden, but attainable if

you really want it.

And that’s the fundamental design flaw at
the heart of Balatro.

The designer wants the excitement of a slot
machine - but also the numerical predicability

of an Excel spreadsheet.

And so the only way to square that circle
is to hope that players won’t bother to

calculate the final score.

But if we go back to that timeless Soren Johnson
quote - “given the opportunity, players

will optimize the fun out of a game” - it
shouldn’t be surprising that a number of

Balatro players are playing the game with
the calculator app open on their phone, or

with a spreadsheet set up on a second monitor,
or with Steam’s in-game overlay showing

a bespoke website that calculates Balatro
hands.

And - actually - this is exactly why Balatro
has a deck view.

During playtesting, the game did not show
you which cards were left in your deck.

But - again - playtesters could technically
get that information by tracking which cards

had already been played.

And after polling users, LocalThunk found
that many were doing just that - even though

it really wasn’t much fun.

So he added a powerful deck peek feature.

But a score preview felt different.

It felt like it encroached upon the DNA of
the game.

It stepped on the stuff that made Balatro…

Balatro.

And so while the designer is empathetic to
people who wish to play more strategically.

And is bummed out that the optimum way to
play involves busywork, and doing calculations

outside of the game, he worries that adding
a score preview would spoil the fun for those

who wish to play more casually.

And that’s totally true!

Making a game better for one group can make
it worse for another.

As a designer you need to be certain who the
game is for - and then protect that player

base from certain design decisions.

Even if that design decision is provided merely
as an option.

Speaking on the Eggplant podcast, LocalThunk
says “if I add an option to have this score

preview, people are just going to click on
it, and they're not going to experience the

game that I wanted to create.”

And besides - should a designer even have
to endorse an option that directly goes against

their intentions for the game?

LocalThunk has been clear that he made the
game for himself - and isn’t interested

in changing the game for other people.

Even if there are a million of them.

But. Here’s the rub.

It’s one thing to make a bold design choice
and then stand by it, for the betterment of

the game.

To shun the haters and stick by your design.

But that doesn’t really work if there’s
a way for players to find a way around your

choice - no matter how tedious that loophole
might be.

And we know this!

Because this is not the first time this has
happened to a game.

In fact, it’s not even the first time it’s
happened to an extremely popular roguelike.

Enter: The Binding of Isaac.

So this basement-dwelling dungeon crawler
is packed with powerful items and upgrades…

but the game doesn’t tell you what they
do.

They just have a name, or a cryptic tagline,
or maybe just three question marks.

The game’s designer, Edmund McMillen, did
this on purpose to create a feeling of mystery,

similar to the sensation he got when playing
games as a kid - like

the original Legend of Zelda.

He described that game by saying “You weren't
sure what things did until you experimented

with them, and you had to brainstorm with
your friends and put all your findings together

in order to progress”.

And so to mimic that mysterious sensation
in Isaac - the items are deliberately left

unexplained.

You’ll need to pick things up, try them,
and puzzle out their properties.

Finding a new item should lead to curiosity,
experimentation, and surprise.

And that worked… for about five seconds.

And then people figured out what all the items
did and put that information up on wikis and

other websites.

Want to know what this weird little thing
will do?

Just find it on Platinum God and mouse over
it for a full description.

So, like Balatro - McMillen chose to hide
information to create a certain feeling.

But because that information is technically
attainable - this time with a Google search

rather than a spreadsheet - a number of players
ended up playing the game in a completely

different way than the designer intended.

Arguably, a worse way.

And so after multiple DLC packs which added
hundreds of new pick-ups, this has become,

basically, the defacto way to play The Binding
of Isaac.

McMillen says “People would always say,
"You can't play Isaac without a browser open

on your phone."

I hated that that's how everyone played for
so long... and still play”.”.

In fact, he’s described the lack of item
descriptions as the biggest flaw with Binding

of Isaac.

This design choice has basically haunted him
in the years since Isaac’s release.

And in a post in 2023, McMillen has said that
he’s considering finally adding item descriptions

into the game as an optional feature.

Perhaps deciding that it’s better to support
them officially, than players having a worse

time with your game because of the way you
designed it.

And I wonder if something similar might happen
with Balatro.

Now, I don’t think the two examples are
exactly the same.

I agree that Balatro is more fun to play without
score previews and I’ve never once thought

to pre-calculate a score in the 30-odd hours
I’ve played the game.

This issue only really affects a small portion
of the game’s most hardcore, strategy-minded audience.

But over time, as the game’s long tail stretches
out, I think this decision might come to haunt

the developer, just like Isaac’s item descriptions.

But, if you’re watching LocalThunk, I think
there are ways to provide this as an option

to these players… without spoiling the game
for everyone else.

For one, a score preview is only needed by
players who are incredibly invested in the

game, so the option could be granted as a
late-game unlock - and not as something you

can switch on from the word go.

Kinda like how, I dunno, how Chrono Cross has
a fast-forward button, but it only unlocks

after you’ve beaten the game.

The option could also be clearly communicated
to the player - like how Celeste prefaces

its powerful assist mode with a message that
explains who this option is for.

Or how Heat Signature politely asks you to
not turn off permadeath, please, it’s there

for a reason.

Or Balatro could open itself up to mods - so
users can hack their own score preview into

the game, without the developer needing to
officially support it.

This is actually what happened to Isaac - the
‘External Item Descriptions’ mod is the

most popular Isaac add-on in the game’s
Steam workshop, with almost 2 million subscribers.

That’s not great for console players, though.

So it could instead be provided it as a cheat
code - so players have to actively seek this

thing out, rather than stumble onto it as
an innocuous option in the menu.

As I’ve discussed in my videos about accessibility
- there are plenty of ways to open a game

up to a wider audience, without necessarily
spoiling it for the target group of players.

Whatever LocalThunk decides to do, this has
proven to be a fascinating game design case study.

About how you can change how a game feels,
by changing how much information you give

to the player.

About how players won’t always act in the
way you want them to, especially if you leave

open a loophole.

And about how the best intentions in game
design sometimes have to change, when you

see how players actually interact with your
game.

I’ll be curious to see what happens with
Balatro.

For now - check out this video on heads up
displays, where I talk more about how information

can change the way a player acts, and feels.

Thanks for watching.