Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

The creator for Balatro has remained completely anonymous, saying he hasn't enjoyed all the attention, positive or negative. It's just a really addictive card game. I was surprised that it got nominated for GOTY, but the field wasn't as strong this year. The writer's strike caught up to us and Nintendo is dormant. I still would have cut Erdtree for Helldivers though.

Player's Voice award, was thinking it had a third but guess not

Where it beat 3 waifu simulators

I just checking Balastro, i thought it was funny all finds in google pointed the game as "hypnotic".

Deck building and roguelike sounds like something that would surely would grab my attention, but poker... never enjoyed that.

Maybe the game got highly popula by mixing like 3 addictive mechanics altogether.

If it has microtransactions, then its a danger to humanity.

The logic behind TGA's decision is super easy to predict. I literally predicted Astro bot will be goty in October in another thread and I was totally right.


As to why Balatro is nominated:

1) they need one(just one though) innovative and popular low budget game in the list to show that goty is "inclusive" in terms of budget.

2) This year the highest rated indie game are animal well(metacritic 91, user score 8, 96% positive on steam with 15964 reviews)

And Balatro (metacritic 90, user score 8.2, 98% positive reviews out of 77763 reviews)

Between animal well and Balatro, Balatro has higher popularity with higher number of reviews and user score. That's why it's picked over animal well.

They wouldn't pick both Balatro and animal well in the goty list, because low budget games being included in the goty list is for show only. They'll still give the award to bigger budget games. So there is no point to list multiple low budget games.

It has worked like this in the past few years so this pattern is very predictable.

Am I the only one who felt the new Elden ring being closer to Monster hunter than soulslike? What's up with that character mobility lol.

I know why it was nominated. I don't get why so many people like it.

I can see people in 1990 being like omg solitaire is the best game on my pc! 2024's appeal is escaping me.

I'm sure it's some kind of fun, but the best indie game, seems a stretch.

(I know it's not solitare, it's how a 5 year old plays poker. With baseball cards and tarot cards and uno cards)

That does come up in the preview look at it https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/elden-ring-nightreign-preview-hands-on/

It's a spinoff not a sequel.

Is that spin off a standalone?

Yeah, completely separate thing. It's a 3 player roguelike thing, not a new single player game (well, not that Souls games are only single player, but you know what I mean).

Deck building roguelike, or roguelike in general is a very addictive genre as a whole. I spent dozens of hours into slay the spire back then, and this year I played dice and roll for like 40 hours, completed all heroes and even on the highest difficulty multiple times.

I think what made turn-based roguelike addictive is the same reason why gambling is addictive, except you don't lose money when you have bad luck. Everytime when I rolled something that I wanted thanks to rng, there's inherent dopamine rush triggered in my brain, that made me want to play another round.

And since Balatro has a mobile version it gets the benefit of letting people play wherever you want whenever you need some dopamine.

That being said, if you are a "I play game for story" person, you probably won't like roguelike. Roguelike as a genre exist for quick dopamine rush that keep you engaged by RNG elements(gambling), but story games exist for long lasting profound experience. They are very different kind of gaming experience.

Dang, its Afania

Afaik you can play solo, just like Monster Hunter.

Could be, the playtest there only mentions playing with others, but having more challenge or AI controlled characters wouldn't be that surprising.

I must be hallucinating, cause balatro is not a roguelike or anything even resembling that. It's literally poker with power ups.

It's as much of a roguelike as 16 is an rpg. (aka not at all)

I don't know when the meaning of words stopped mattering but balatro being a roguelike is batshit crazy.

New return home & discount campaign.

Having randomized power ups and run resets after each attempt is exactly what roguelike/roguelite is though. That's THE definition of this genre.

If you make a poker or Tetris or pac-man with random power ups that resets after a run then yes they are roguelike/roguelite.

Same can be said for rpg, if you have character progression, stats, equipments, story and quests then it's rpg.

Vampire survivor and slay the spire are both roguelike and yet they are nothing alike gameplay wise. The only similarity is random power-ups that resets after a run.

Yes both genre are about as wide as an ocean but that's how the terms are used.

I get that words have become meaningless but if there aren't even literal characters to attack, come the *** on. You score points playing with yourself and the supposed "boss" falls over dead out of boredom.

There isn't even an opponent to play against! You can literally play with an actual deck of cards by yourself.

Is there a single other game called "roguelike" with literally zero enemies to fight back? I feel like enemies fighting back is the number 1 definitive characteristic. Even more so than the randomness of the game.

Its a trap

The term has been watered down, yes, but if you took the 15 seconds to just look down a couple paragraphs in the Wikipedia article you quoted in your argument, you'll see a couple paragraphs labelled "Rogue-lites and procedural death labyrinths" and "Subgenres within roguelikes" that explain exactly what you are complaining about. Balatro fits neatly in the category of rogue-lite / hybrid rogue-like. Stop being pedantic.

I did read the whole thing, nothing about balatro pertains to any of it.

It's far from pedantry.

The difference between balatro and slay the spire, or vampire survivor, is enemies. "the blind" is a "boss" but it's not actually.

The roguelike is such that you die and start over, but balatro you just fail to win. Nothing fights you, nothing kills you. That seems like a big disqualifier.

It's a puzzle game. You win or you lose and your puzzle is different bonuses every game. (it's clearly as addictive as candy crush etc)

The enemy is the Blind. You need to beat the blinds to proceed. Play the game maybe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roguelikes#Hybrid_roguelikes

It's the last entry on the list.

Edit: Leaving the above in place. Acknowledge your edit to your post.

I agree that there are gray areas there, but strongly disagree that not having an enemy that hits back at you is a disqualifier. What is the difference between having a number going from 0 to 100 (e.g., your score), or taking a number from 100 down to 0 (e.g., a boss's hit points)? Either way if you fail to meet the requirement to win, you lose. You are fighting a number and controllable randomness. The enemy doesn't need to be specifically on the right hand side of the screen.

The blind is as much of a "boss" as the top line of tetris is it's boss. The bricks are different every time and your only goal is not lose to the boss.

Making Tetris a Rougelike.

IN FACT, because tetris attacks you with blocks its MORE of a roguelike than balatro.

FFXI is roguelike!

Is there even 1 other game in the entire list where you cannot take damage from an enemy. By walking into them, or them striking you, or falling in a hole, or other area hazard.

Clearly not going to play them all.

Roguelike; Things can defeat you / kill you
Balatro: You can only lose to yourself by bad rng (solitaire)

Is that the litmus test?

Something has to be. Words DO have meaning.

Hence the sub-genre "Rogue-lite" to distinguish from traditional roguelikes.

Your argument is valid. I just disagree with your definitions and consider it a pedantic (academically) disqualification.

I guess one could call it a card puzzle game with roguelike elements then?
I have no clue what the game is like, and the only "roguelike" I played was Hades


Solo play is possible, but it's probably designed around multiplayer (in contrast to the standard Souls experience)

With a randomizer mod and permadeath rule, yes you can turn it into a roguelike experience (just like Dark Souls, Resident Evil etc which have been popular recently)

Who let the grown-up on here!?