Welcome to another edition of Quests.
This week takes us back to the Arts District, where a devilish indie video game is on every screen.
I’ll be honest: what I’m about to share with you is more of a curse than a quest. This is a true Pandora’s Box of gaming madness. You have been warned.
The game is called Balatro, the Latin word for a jester, a buffoon, a joker. The developer LocalThunk (his real identity is unknown) initially considered Joker Poker for the game’s name. That would’ve been a clever title, but Balatro is a great one: Latinate, mysterious, vaguely familiar and also timeless, like a card game your grandfather might’ve played. Perhaps your grandchildren will. It’s that good.
Released in February, Balatro is now ascendant. It will win many Game of the Year awards. It just reached 3.5 million units sold. And it’s now available on all platforms, including mobile for $10. That’s as cheap as addictions come.
I’ll do my best to explain the game, but the dark magic of Balatro is sort of like The Matrix: “No one can be told what [Balatro] is. You have to experience it for yourself.”
Still, anyone can learn the basics of the game in ten minutes or less. It’s not especially complicated; that’s part of its power.
It is, however, purposefully, fascinatingly addictive.
Charlie Brooker, the creator of the hit Netflix series Black Mirror, called it “possibly the most addictive thing ever created [...] It’s going to be released on phones [note: it’s now available on iOS and Android] , and at that point I think humankind’s activity is going to drop about 25 percent.”
Redditors are having psychedelic, card-themed dreams about the game. “This is pure gaming heroin,” says one user. I caught myself playing Balatro while brushing my teeth. That’s, uh, not normal for me.
In essence, Balatro distills much of the past twenty years of game design—the greatest hits of “sticky” gameplay mechanics—into one irresistible package. It’s an atomic bomb of loot boxes, randomized rewards, compulsion loops, scoring combinations, appealing aesthetics, and effective sound design. This isn’t Candy Crush we’re talking about; it’s legitimately artful and impeccably crafted.
We can all learn something—about games, reward systems, and the future of play—from its diabolical brilliance.
So let’s explore a world of straights, flushes, straight-flushes, and far beyond. It’s time to ante up.
What is Balatro?
To begin answering that question, the game’s description on Steam provides a helpful, if incomplete, explanation:
The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deck builder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.
Okay, some translation is in order here. Poker, fine: yes, you’ll play various poker hands (two-pair, three-of-a-kind, straights, flushes, and so on) to score points.
But roguelike? Deckbuilder?
Let’s quickly define our terms.
Since at least the early 2000s, “roguelike” has been a buzzword in gaming—the kind of confusing terminology that’s endlessly debated on message boards and in YouTube comments. But pretty much everyone agrees that roguelike games—named after the 1980 dungeon crawler Rogue—share a few core traits:
Procedural generation: Levels are randomly generated, so every game feels fresh.
Permadeath: When you die, it’s Game Over. No extra lives.
Replayability: Each attempt (or “run”) teaches you something new, pulling you back in for one more try.
Frustration, experimentation, and eventually game-winning success. That’s the formula. For more on roguelikes, “roguelites,” and a great list of games to try, check out this guide from the New York Times.
Balatro is also a deckbuilder. A deck-building game is all about crafting and customizing your deck as you play: creating an “engine” that consistently racks up points. The card game Dominion is the classic deck builder that established the genre.
An engine-in-the-making
In Balatro, you’re constantly building and tweaking your deck-engine, finding synergies, and figuring out how to squeeze every last point out of your poker cards. You’re shaping the game itself (e.g., destroying low-scoring 2 and 3s, creating additional high-scoring face cards) to your advantage.
When it clicks, it’s ridiculously satisfying.
It’s far from the first digital deck builder (see Slay the Spire for another example), but it is the best—partially because, like the facehugger in the Alien movies, it’s glommed itself onto something known and beloved: in this case, the game of poker.
Truthfully, I’m not a big poker player. For months, I ignored Balatro as that “weird poker game getting great reviews.” But apparently, the universal experience of playing Balatro is learning that it has little to do with poker proper, and that the game is really about…something else.
It’s like one of those mystery box shows— Lost, Twin Peaks, Dark, From—where the plot starts out familiar and then unravels into uncanny strangeness.
So yea, it’s a deck-building poker roguelike. But what is it?
No, really, what is Balatro?
Again, explaining what makes a good game good is like explaining a funny joke or a great song. It just is. That’s part of what makes it good.
But here it goes anyway:
You start with a standard deck of cards. Each round, you’re dealt 8 cards, and your job is to submit up to five as a poker hand to score points. You can only play a set number of hands per round, and hitting the required Round score advances you to the next one. You can discard a limited number of times per round to improve your hand. You’ll also encounter Bosses (like “The Eye” below); to defeat them, you’ll have to overcome their unique abilities.
The ingredients of Balatro: Jokers, flaming point meters, power-ups, multipliers, and lots of money
Once you clear a round, it’s off to the Shop. This is where the real strategy kicks in, and it’s where you’ll meet the stars of Balatro, the actors who make the show: the Jokers. These give you bonuses (adding to your multiplier, generating more cash, etc.) that can dramatically change the game. They are, at times, ridiculously powerful. You can hold up to five jokers at a time, and if you want to mix things up, you can sell and replace them in the Shop.
The Jokers, above and for sale; their card art is impressively varied and even hints at a underlying narrative
That’s the core loop: play hands, score points, hit the Shop to power up, and face the next stage (or “Ante”) with a higher target score. Beat the 8th Ante, and you’ve officially won your run.
Incredible, right? Are you addicted yet?
Alright, so the drug that is Balatro won’t fully hit until you’ve immersed yourself in its relaxing music, in the cadence of card-draw, and in the game’s many “a-ha” moments.
But now that you’ve got the basics and before you rush off to download it, let me unpack a few things that Balatro is doing to make itself so playable. We’ll start, fittingly, with packs.
The Addictive Game Design Toolkit
Loot boxes, packs, crates
Whatever you call them, these insidious virtual items have become a cornerstone of the gaming economy.
They are essentially slot machines. You pay for the chance to open a mystery box, hoping for something amazing but usually settling for “meh.” Occasionally, you hit the dopamine-releasing jackpot.
Loot boxes generate an estimated $15 billion in yearly revenue for the games industry. I suspect the actual number is much higher, but developers like EA are wary of being regulated on this front.
Balatro is filled with loot boxes, mostly in the form of packs. There’s the Celestial Pack to boost hand scores, the Buffoon Pack to snag new jokers, and the Spectral Pack to power up your cards.
Each pack feeds the loop: score points, make money, buy packs, repeat.
The genius of Balatro is how these loops stack. Every scoring hand, every joker pull, and every Shop visit builds on the last, creating a snowball effect of engagement. It is the Hooked model, perfected.
Thankfully, Balatro doesn’t monetize packs. Unlike the worst offenders in gaming, the money you spend is pure in-game currency, i.e., Monopoly money with no relationship whatsoever to real-world cash. That’s more fun and more sustainable.
Even still, you’ll find yourself fighting for every dollar.
Money and Points
The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen has written a fascinating book on gamification, Games: Agency as Art, where he explores why point systems—money included—are so pervasive in modern life.
At heart, points feel good. They are simple, clear, and instantly rewarding. They tap into a primal part of us that craves measurable progress, the thrill of seeing numbers go up. Food good, more food better.
In Balatro, the points meter doesn’t just tally your score. It erupts into flames when you get a high-scoring multiplier going. Those flames are like CRACK for our monkey brains. Play the game, and you’ll know what I mean.
Balatro turns scoring into an artform, pinning your very in-game survival to accruing enough points to make it to the next round.
And the strangest thing is that you’re somehow relaxed while fighting for your run’s life.
Atmosphere
This is harder to quantify, but the atmospheric elements, the vibes as my Gen-Z sister would say, of Balatro are unmatched for a deck-builder. Hearthstone, a very addictive and charming game in its own right, comes close, but there’s something uniquely transporting about Balatro.
The game’s synth-soundtrack, hypnotic backgrounds, brilliant card designs, perfectly navigable menus—every aesthetic choice contributes to its immersive worldbuilding. To start a game of Balatro is to enter another reality. There’s nothing else quite like it.
So, to sum up: mood and mechanics. Those are the twin keys to a truly addictive game. The game mechanics hook you—play, discard, score, buy, spin the wheel—while the mood immerses you.
Alright, it’s time to put the game down. Our heads are spinning as we stumble out of the Arts District.
But why play something addictive at all? Why start?
I think in today’s world we have to pick our poison. With so many distractions vying for our attention—social media feeds, binge-worthy TV shows, mind-numbing mobile games—it’s easy to fall into habits that waste time without offering much in return.
I’d argue Balatro is much more than mindless entertainment. Like a great game of Chess or a difficult crossword, it will challenge you, stimulate your thinking, and capture your imagination.
Good luck. I’ll see you on the other side.
Here’s Quest 8:
Play Balatro
Key Details
I mean, that’s really it. The game is $10. Buy it, and play it.
Share your victorious runs, your defeats in the comments below or @ the Quests Community.
Bonus points to the biggest hand played. Mine is ~1.2 million.
Complete this quest, log it @ the Quests Community, and you’ll earn The Arts District badge on your adventurer profile.
Please comment here on Substack with thoughts, counterthoughts, and suggestions.
It’s dangerous to go alone—find a quest partner, and party up.
Recommended Reading:
Off to the appstore…. 👋🏼
I have downloaded it as well… will report back!