Balatro's mostly solo developer LocalThunk is still working on the roguelike behemoth's big 1.1 release, a long-awaited major gameplay update to the game.
LocalThunk confirms as much in a new blog post mainly dedicated to his game dev origins, which he closes out with this: "Happy 2nd birthday, Balatro. P.S. Yes I'm still working on 1.1."
The free update that somehow promises even more new strategies and ideas (in a game already spilling over with strategies and ideas) was announced in 2024 shortly after Balatro took the gaming world by storm. LocalThunk then delayed the 1.1 update out of 2025 and into 2026 to avoid going back to the brutal crunch mode that defined most of the base game's development. "It's done when it's done," the dev said at the time.
Balatro 1.1 seems to be making steady progress now, though. LocalThunk's blog recalls his time as a new computer science student who didn't have the best grades but became "so obsessed" with making small programs that he pulled multiple all nighters on school days, and eventually did the same on an unnamed game project.
"I worked on that game for over two years," LocalThunk says. "It never had a name, it was never completed, and apart from showing it to a few friends and family nobody knew it even existed. But it was exactly what I wanted to make and the feeling of absolute freedom I had while working on it is the reason why I kept game development as a hobby years later. That project was the template. I found the files for that project and played it for a couple days recently; it was pretty fun."
"I think about that version of myself a lot now. I didn't know what was coming and even if I could warn myself I'm not sure what I could have said to prepare for the insanity. I'm not even sure if there's a lesson to learn."
"With all the success, baggage, attention, heartache, fear, stress, and joy that I've had since Balatro was created, at least that old version of myself is still there," the dev adds. "Last night I stayed up until the early hours of the morning drawing pixel art, writing code, and listening to music in my quiet house. Notebook of ideas open next to me, cup of decaf in hand. Thank you to everyone for allowing this terrible student to keep staying up too late."
With a game as replayable and moreish as Balatro, there's really no rush to add much of anything until LocalThunk feels it's ready and polished. Plus, any excuse to avoid crunch culture is a good one in my books.
Localthunk says Balatro doesn't have microtransactions "because when I play other games that have those things it makes me want to put my computer in the dishwasher"
