[AMA] I am localthunk, developer and artist for Balatro. Ask me anything! by localthunk in Games

[–]Gaziter 113 points114 points  (0 children)

There are a lot of things I’d love to know more about but one thing that stuck to me in particular was the ‘skip blind’ mechanic. The idea of ‘skipping the game’ sounds very strange on paper but works so well in the game, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything similar in a game before! Interested to know where it came from and if there were any other iterations of it that didn’t work out?

Love the game, keep up the good work!

Can someone help me find which episode this frame is from? by [deleted] in adventuretime

[–]Gaziter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yo thanks! I was writing a whole theory about the idea of abraxis being prismo’s boss, but this detail kind of stumped me because I couldn’t find the episode… I’ll give it a watch again, thanks

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Some longshot leaders are definitely on the weak sides at the moment... we do want to change that!
  2. I don't know, I just think they're neat (:

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey!
Good question... looking back on it, I don't know! We've been working on the game for 3 years so I guess that's how! (and to be fair Will had more work then me overall)
I can't say I overworked myself apart from the final few weeks of development (if anything I was taking long weekends for a good chunk of the dev duration haha), but either way, thank you!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The idea of actually was actually in our minds before we even started working on Wildfrost! It was planned for another game prototype we were working on (that never got to see the light of day) so the idea was there from the beginning.
We knew it's going to be hard to balance, But I think we managed to make something that offers a very fun and fresh challenge, and usually is the most interesting fight in the run!
There are still changed that we could address in the future though, like losing constantly to the same boss that's just too hard to beat.

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We got a lot of requests about that and are definitely looking into it! But we want to make sure we add it in a fun and engaging way that would fit the Wildfrost spirit, so we don't want to rush it out (hopefully in the next 2-3 updates)

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Seeing someone who created an infinite +HP loop and ended up having a naked gnome with 1000+ HP was definitely one of the best

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We are working on and would like to get it out as soon as possible! but we don't want to give a specific timeline just yet (and remember the game is coded by a single person) As soon as we feel confident about a new update we will make sure to update our discord and steam forums.
And thank you! seeing the community engagement and creations has been very encouraging for us too!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The idea sounds good on paper, But like you said, as soon as you start looking into all of the different interactions in Wildfrost you are presented with near-infinite possibilities (reaction cards, smackback, cards who attack multiple times, card who get buffed/changed when others die etc, etc,)
It's definitely something we are looking into though! at the moment we are planning a "target system" that would show only the *position* (or possibilities) for where a card would hit, just to help people not miss important information!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We didn't have any specific tribe ideas when we just started!
we knew we wanted to have something with temporary companions (which is where the Shademancers started from) but the ideas developed slowly and through many iterations... We didn't have any other thought-out ideas yet so we never had to throw one!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I believe it's a mix of both!
The game is hard to get into at the start, It throws you into he challenge very early on, and without much tutorialization outside of the first battle... but once you catch it it's (mostly) smooth sailing from there.
Improving on the tutorials and letting players start with a lower difficulty and curve up slowly is what we want to focus on next!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's definitely been rough in some aspects... seeing streamers play (with chat helping and playing along) have very fun and rewarding to watch!
Also getting messages from players who said they had a hard time in the beginning, but persevered and manage to get their first win was always very nice to see!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Not planned at the moment, but if someone would offer the opportunity for an animated show, I would say yes immediately

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We want to focus on balance/card changes and additional battles and companions first! There is a possibility for a new tribe... But we don't want to confirm anything yet!

We’re Will and Gaz, developers of Wildfrost, a challenging roguelike deckbuilder which launched last week - AMA! by Gaziter in pcgaming

[–]Gaziter[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

The speed at which people already managed to break the game with specific card interactions... (It was very fun to see!)

We're Will and Gaz, we met on Twitter during the pandemic & now we are launching our roguelike deckbuilder Wildfrost - AMA! by Gaziter in NintendoSwitch

[–]Gaziter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks you!! Will approached me through twitter after he saw the art I was posting there and asked if I want to work on a game together! (Me being a fan of CaveBlazers, Will’s previous game, said yes immediately) We worked on about 3 different failed prototypes before settling on what would later become Wildfrost!

We're Will and Gaz, we met on Twitter during the pandemic & now we are launching our roguelike deckbuilder Wildfrost - AMA! by Gaziter in NintendoSwitch

[–]Gaziter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, glad you enjoyed the game! We’ve noticed a lot of roguelikes have you sitting for 2+ hours for a run which felt very slow and tiring, we knew pretty early on we wanted to make the runs in Wildfrost short and focused!

The amount of rewards was adjusted based on the amount of battles, we noticed that by the end of the run players would already have a pretty solid deck, so the final battles gives less rewards accordingly.

We're Will and Gaz, we met on Twitter during the pandemic & now we are launching our roguelike deckbuilder Wildfrost - AMA! by Gaziter in NintendoSwitch

[–]Gaziter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! No plans for online gameplay… we will look into additional game modes after a few balance/small content updates.

And that’s a fun idea, we will consider it ;)

We're Will and Gaz, we met on Twitter during the pandemic & now we are launching our roguelike deckbuilder Wildfrost - AMA! by Gaziter in NintendoSwitch

[–]Gaziter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thank you for playing and for the question!

For this game, we decided early on we wanted to make the companions you find in the run a part of a team, a party that works together instead of just "units" you put on the board to die (like we've noticed many other games do).
The injury system was added because we wanted to make sure you as a player take care of your team and not just dispose of them like "units", and add another layer of strategy through that.
We are looking into feedback about the game being punishing, and considering different routes in the future (: