Roguelike deckbuilder Balatro has collected a startling amount of accolades since it took the world by storm last year, winning Best Indie Game at the 2024 Golden Joystick Awards, scooping up three awards at the Game Awards, and just this week taking home Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards. On top of numerous other prestigious awards, you might assume Balatro has had its day, but you’d be wrong, as developer LocalThunk has yet another accomplishment to celebrate, and that’s Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke naming Balatro his favorite game of 2024.
Vincke, of course, has his own share of awards on his shelf, with Baldur’s Gate 3 being one of the most decisive Games of the Year in recent memory and the first ever to take home the top prize at all five major game awards ceremonies: the Game Awards, Golden Joystick Awards, DICE awards, GDC Awards, and the British Academy Games Awards. That is to say, Vincke choosing Balatro as his Game of the Year carries a lot more weight than most other individual developers.
Reacting to Balatro’s win at the 2025 GDC Awards on Twitter, Vincke did exactly that, writing “Congratulations LocalThunk!!! You were my GOTY and I’m happy to see other devs agree. Well deserved!!!”
In hindsight, developer LocalThunk obviously had nothing to worry about with regards to finding an audience for Balatro, but the game’s publisher recently admitted the game was “a pain in the ass to market” until its demo blew up and the game subsequently took over the world.
