Balatro dev shares an excellent list of his favourite indie games of 2024

Balatro may have won awards this year, including winning place in our 50 best games of 2024 list and list Eurogamer Readers — but developer LocalThunk took the time to recommend other indie games that caught his eye in 2024.

As for X, LocalThunk listed its “highly prestigious Golden Thunk Awards”, awarding the top prize to an “immersive experience” Animal well.

“My very prestigious Golden Thunk Award for Game of the Year 2024 goes to Animal Well!” he wrote.

“Animal Well was an exciting experience. Filled with style, secrets, and making me as a developer feel like an impostor in the industry, Billy Basso has created a true masterpiece.”

Second place went to Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, described as a “beautifully synergistic and strategic deck builder,” as reported by LocalThunk, “people mistakenly wrote it off as a Balatro clone, but it was announced before my game came out” – Arco, Nova Drift, Ballionaire, and the exceptional Wrong Organ mouthwash.

“I didn’t even know it was a horror game when I started playing it at 11pm one fateful night,” developer said. “I was immediately hooked, and the world she created and the poignant message woven into the game stayed with me vividly months later.”

LocalThunk Star Balatro won several awards at The Game Awards last month.including Best Mobile Game, Best Debut Indie Game and Best Independent Game.

An anonymous lone developer recently said that part of him regrets the game’s success.how he misses when making games was just a hobby.

Asked in an interview if he regretted Balatro’s success, he replied: “Honestly, yes. Don’t get me wrong – it changed my life in so many amazing ways. I’m so grateful. But I miss that time. It was just a hobby that recharged my batteries. Sometimes I think, “Maybe I would have been happier if I had never released this game to the public.”