4 ms·

Also, making a good game is not a scientific breakthrough. There were great deck builders before.

• spacemadness 2y ago
  Also there isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before either in Balatro, it’s just a nice combination of deck builder tricks applied to poker. And the presentation is also well done which has nothing to do with the mechanics.
  • brookst 2y ago
    I respectfully but totally disagree. Balatro took the basic game mechanics of a very familiar game and said “what if they were dynamic”. The world’s a big place and I’m willing to believe it’s been done before… but I can’t think of one. It’s the combination of familiar scoring mechanics with fun meta game modifiers that made Balatro so successful. What happens to poker if two of a kind is suddenly the most important hand? Or if not playing face cards leads to incrementally better scores every hand? Again, I can’t claim it’s never been done, but saying it’s just another deck builder is missing the point.
    • ric2b 2y ago
      Real time chess is a similar example of making a known game more dynamic and completely changing which positions are seen as strong or weak.
      • brookst 2y ago
        Good analogy. Balatro goes a lot further by making the rules dynamic during the game, but at least categorically similar.
    • spacemadness 2y ago
      You just re-explained deck builders. Scoring modifiers can be part of their mechanics.