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LocalThunk, developer of the phenomenally successful Balatro, has weighed in on a conversation about indie games, his unique place within the industry, and why "I really hate when people in my position don't see the absurd bias we have."
Mat Piscatella, an industry analyst at Circana posts on Bluesky that "it's impossible to selectively 'find' and fund the one next massive viral hit indie game." When a game like Balatro sells over 5 million copies, publishers obviously want to find the next one, but who would have predicted a poker roguelite would be nominated at The Game Awards?
"'Find the next Balatro' – c'mon now," Piscatella adds. "Fund a bunch of new games and hope to stumble upon the next big thing that the dumb money will chase after it's been released." I agree. I'm no CEO, but I think it makes more sense to fund lots of small games and hope one of them hits the big leagues rather than pumping all that money into one game that's just trying to capitalize on a trend.
LocalThunk himself replies: "I really hate when people in my position don't see the absurd bias we have – it's useless for me to give out advice because all I have is one data point. I spoke about this in my first blog post. I'll share what I do/did, not preach that everyone should do it too."
