After accruing a total of 100.000 positive reviews on Steam, Balatro has become one of the most successful indie titles of all time. One might say that indie games don’t count for nomination, and they would be wrong. Despite the victory of Astrobot by being elected game of the year, Balatro is technically 2024’s true winner, with its addictive gameplay. We at Infinite Start will cover this epic win for the indie scene.
Can’t stop playing
It really is up to debate what makes a game good or not. With how many events as of late have been going with giving prizes to games, seems like priorities have shifted to corporate pandering. Those who win are often unexpected titles, yet, they tend to come from tripe A studios. By unexpected, we speak about quality, often the games that win are disasters that start broken on launch. It is understated how much prestige was lost from these events that used to properly showcase what was good.
Leaving matters aside, Balatro is technically 2024’s true winner. If you have ever talked about it to anyone who played the game, they would agree with such statement. The gameplay loop is genuinely addicting, even watching it is enough to get hooked to it. LocalThunk has done an excellent job at crafting one of the most hooking gameplay loops of all time. While it might be a game from the over-exploited Roguelike genre, it is still an amazing one.
This shows that, no matter what cinematographic levels of budget you pump into something, you actually have to put effort into it being good. Budget does not define quality of a game, but good ideas driven by passion does. This is the main reason why indie games are thriving in a landscape that is filled with emotionless and mass produced slop. Balatro will remain king for many years to come.
