It's been a while so here's an updated #introduction.
My name's Chris and I'm a #neurodivergent 50 yr old geek who loves talking about video games, science, and nature. I do my gaming exclusively on a #SteamDeck. Currently obsessed with #Balatro, #Hades2, and emulating my favorite #RetroGames.
I'm a Mental Health Advocate and Peer Support Specialist with a passion for helping people. I'm always looking to connect with new people so reach out to me anytime!
I think #Balatro might be the first game where all of the following are true:
• I am 100% sure I would love it right away.
• I can afford to buy it immediately.
• I already own the best system to play it on (Steam Deck).
• I refuse to allow myself to buy it.
• I do not know when I will let myself buy it.
I see all the jokes and memes about addictive it is, and the fact its trailer does a slow zoom-in on a number going up with fireworks, and I can already feel the rush and the crash of it all.
Lately I’ve been really hooked on #balatro.
I found out it uses the #löve2d engine, and I remembered something about Löve games being unintentionally cross platform.
You know, given how well #Balatro is doing, I'd wager that a #RogueLite version of #Scrabble where you attack enemies by spelling out incantations could be popular.
Mechanically, you could probably design a better game with quarto pieces or arbitrary symbols but I think being able to sell it as "Roguelike Scrabble" and creating that avenue for domain knowledge transfer are too big to pass up.
Mildly hot programming take.
People who bashed Balatro's "massive scroll of ifs" are ignoring the facts that:
Game dev is fundamentally different from modern GUI/web dev.
Developing a single-player game solo is very different even from developing a big game with a team and a lifecycle, not to mention a continually-delivered web project.
Somebody shared the source code for parts of #Balatro. It's a great game and the devs don't deserve to have it stolen so that's not cool.
On the other hand. Do you remember those memes about if/else blocks to assign a number to a string of that number? That's literally how their code works.
Just goes to show, you don't need to be an excellent programmer to program an excellent game.
I've just realised it's been about a week since I sold my Xbox Series X and I can't say I've missed it all that much.
My Steam Deck OLED has done a better job of keeping me entertained, having a bigger library, and the games being generally cheaper. Sure, the games aren't like 4K ULTRA MEGA HD or whatever, but it's fine - I can easily cope with playing Balatro for the rest of my life.