LocalThunk, the developer behind Balatro, decided to start off this new year by calling out all his 2024 highlights, with the biggest award of all going to Billy Basso for his wonderful pixel art metroidvania Animal Well.
"My very prestigious Golden Thunk award for Game of the Year 2024 goes to Animal Well," LocalThunk says in an X post. "Animal Well was an engrossing experience. Dripping with style secrets, and making me feel like an imposter in this industry as a dev, Billy Basso created a true masterpiece." Basso replied to this with an award of his own for LocalThunk: "Nicest Most Humble Dev of the Year." Everyone wins when you're nice.
After releasing mid-last year, Animal Well rapidly became the most acclaimed metroidvania since Hollow Knight. It was one of the best-reviewed games on Steam last year, sitting at an impressive and "overwhelmingly positive" 96% rating with over 17,000 reviews. I played a bit myself last year, and while I loved all the visuals, I wasn't entirely convinced it was on Hollow Knight's level or even the best metroidvania I played in 2024—that award has to go to Ultros. Sorry!
The runners-up for the Golden Thunk award included Mouthwashing, Ballionaire, Nova Drift, Arco, and Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, which some players accused of being a Balatro clone. "People mistakenly wrote this off as a Balatro clone, but this was announced before my game ever was," LocalThunk says. "A beautifully synergistic and strategic deckbuilder, I have sunk dozens of hours into."
My favourite on this list is probably Mouthwashing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this game, but it's been a while since I played such a concise horror game. Wrong Organ managed to flesh out a world and five characters in less than three hours, which is incredibly impressive and blew LocalThunk away.
"I didn't even know this was a horror game when I started playing it at 11pm one fateful night," LocalThunk says. "I was hooked instantly, and both the world it created and the poignant message woven into the game stick with me vividly months later."
Last year was a great one for indie games, but after all is said and done, we can't forget to include Balatro in these celebrations. The poker roguelike that came out of nowhere didn't just manage to hook most of the PC Gamer team, snagging our 2024 Game of the Year award, but has managed over 90,000 positive reviews on Steam. So 2024 was a pretty successful year for LocalThunk as well.
