Localthunk chips in on the "Two pair/Four of a Kind" debate

Source: https://x.com/LocalThunk/status/1805300923868094837

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One of the most important design philosophies I had when making Balatro: It's important to have rigid legalese rules and technicalities.

Every interaction with the game reinforces the 'model' of how the game works for the player in their mind. The stronger that model, the easier it is for them to theory craft how different items might modify their run, how things might synergize, and what to look out for

If rules are opaquely broken, even in favour of the player, then the model in their mind becomes a little fuzzier and you second guess if something will even work or not. The most fun part of these types of games (to me) is imagining the complex machine you are building

Balatro is by no means perfect about this - but at the very least that is what I am striving for in it's design. Descriptions should be little legal contracts that are technically correct. If not, the descriptions will be in doubt because they can't be trusted

If they can't be trusted, then the player can't learn how the game works as easily and thus has a hurdle to overcome just to play the game as intended Anyway, according to the rigid arbitrary Balatro rules, Four of a Kind does not technically contain a Two Pair 📷

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