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i mean if i could secure 2m+ in funding, it'd keep me financially solvent for long enough to learn *how* to make the next balatro. (which is probably the exact opposite of what a bizdev guy wants to hear)

If I had that, I would make my dream 4x game, which would be a kind of modernized Alpha Centauri style game, plus an FPS story game about finding who in a 1910’s small town are members of the KKK and shooting them and only them.

Two different games to be clear.

Lemme follow you until that KKK game gets made

It's funny how us small indies get constantly told to forget about being the next big thing because it's statistically impossible to predict... and yet people who you'd think should be way more knowledgeable about that stuff are jumping head-first into it.

It's really weird to me that people keep doing stupid stuff like that and yet they have money for it... at this point I just stopped trying to understand

It's because the economy runs on "growth" not money. If they claim to be doing the "next balatro" their stock goes up, then they leverage that increased "value" to make money elsewhere. In the end only ever make something of actual value by accidentally hiring someone who cares.

And honestly, what they mean when they say they, "are looking for the next Balatro," is that they want to make an unoriginal clone to cash in on the current hype.

I don't think they mind originality on principle - it's just kind of like that joke about writing a book: no one wants to publish a Balatro, everyone wants *to have published* a Balatro.

That said if you read the timeline for Balatro it got a publisher pretty easily.

It’s a RogueLike UFO 50 but in a casino where the narrative slowly reveals itself to be about the Kennedy Assassination… Robert F Kennedy. dun Dun DUNNNNNNN! (money please)

But also Localthunk talks about how his publisher was the one who reached out to him first, and they contacted him pretty early on, so it *can* be done. If you're aware enough and fast enough, 'signing the next big thing' *seems* to be a feasible goal.