Playstack, the publisher behind Balatro, is undoubtedly celebrating the impressive achievement of surpassing five million sales for this unique poker roguelike game. Patrick Johnson, the head of discovery at Playstack, has some insightful advice for other publishers wanting to uplift indie developers.
Inverse recently gathered insights from various winners of the Game Developers Conference and Independent Game Festival Awards, asking what actions publishers could take to foster a more supportive environment for indie games. Johnson’s response was clear: provide increased funding to indie developers and manage expectations regarding astronomical returns on investment.
“More easily accessible funding, that isn’t based on making a ridiculous amount of money back,” he stated. “Reasonable budget, but more access for the people who need those reasonable budgets.”
It’s apparent that Playstack is on the lookout for its next successful title similar to Balatro. However, there was never a certainty that a poker roguelike concoction would achieve the remarkable success that Balatro has. Wout van Halderen, the communications director at Playstack, previously remarked on the marketing challenges the game presented, noting the firm’s unwavering belief in the project because “we couldn’t stop playing it internally.”
In an ideal world, more publishers would take the success of Balatro and other innovative indie titles as a sign of the merit in investing in creative projects rather than solely focusing on established best-sellers. However, given the current turbulent climate in the gaming industry, largely influenced by corporate greed, I remain cautiously optimistic.
During the development of his successful roguelike, the creator of Balatro aimed to bring to life a fictitious card game he had played “thousands” of times with his friends.