This is a headgum podcast.

Want to watch this episode?

Check it out on her YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash doughboys media.

I was expecting like four of my friends and my parents to buy the game, and that would have been awesome.

So no,

the entire past year has been a series of crazy events. This was solo developer Local Thunk reflecting on the unexpected success of his indie game, Bellatro. On February 20, 24,

the pseudonymous Local Thunk unceremoniously released Bellatro, a deck-building

rogue light that remixed the rules of poker in a soothed core aesthetic on the Steam store.

With vibes a looping chill wave score by composer Louis F, the ingeniously addictive design

would become one of the breakout hits of 2024, selling over 3 million copies by year's end

and winning independent

game of the year at the Game Awards.

In Bellatro, a core gameplay mechanic involves collecting and utilizing

Jokers, wild cards that alter the rules of a run and in so doing, guide the players' deck-building

strategy.

And while many might reasonably assume Bellatro is one of those made-up video game

words like Refontasio or Revengeance or Undiscovery, it's in fact a brilliantly fitting name

with historical origins, because Bellotro was the term for a jester, or Joker, if you will,

in ancient Rome. No doubt Julius Caesar and his grandnephewephew, Augustus Caesar, were amused by the jokes and japes

of balachros in their imperial courts, where they also gorged until they puked, and then fucked everyone.

In 1959, partners Mike and Marion Illich opened a Detroit-area pizza parlor that's the namesake

of both the last Roman dictator

...