Why did Balatro become a massive hit? The secret is in the "language" of roguelikes...

Welcome to Infernal Reviews. I'm a veteran game developer (programmer and designer) who takes a closer look at games and game design trends with a new video every Friday.

♪♫ MUSIC TRACKS ♫♪
djpretzel — "Four Score and Six-Eight" (arrangement of "Tetra Master" from Final Fantasy IX) https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03207
Darren Korb — "Slinger's Song" from Bastion
Yasunori Mitsuda — "Thames, Spirit of the Men of the Sea" from Xenogears

◘ Videos referenced:
   • PokerQuest: Swords and Spades - Relea...  
   • Aces & Adventures Trailer - Announcement  
   • Zoeti - Official Launch Trailer  
   • Bingle Bingle Official Trailer  
   • Hit the road Jack!  

◘ Other references:
All Jokers sprite sheet: https://www.spriters-resource.com/pc_...
Van Gogh Museum, Sunflowers: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/colle...
Quantum superposition (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum...

Gameplay footage by me.
Stock assets from Storyblocks.