The roguelike that was Balatro's "largest influence" has had its own "minor sales spike" thanks to the hit indie's upcoming mobile release

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Luck be a Landlord is in luck

A screenshot from Luck be a Landlord, showing a slot machine.
(Image credit: TrampolineTales)

Indie roguelike hit Balatro is set to jeopardize world productivity later this month when it launches on mobile devices, but it turns out its upcoming launch has caused a sales spike for a completely separate game.

Luck be a Landlord, which was developed by indie dev Dan DiIorio (TrampolineTales), is a roguelike deckbuilder which sees players use an in-game slot machine "to earn rent money and defeat capitalism," adding new symbols to the machine as they go in the hopes of earning more and more coins. Its gameplay is by no means the same as Balatro's, which is inspired by the card game Big Two and lets you deploy all sorts of wacky cards with special abilities to earn a ridiculous amount of points, but the Google Play Store certainly thinks the two are similar enough for DiIorio's game to show up when you search for LocalThunk's.

"So many people have searched for Balatro on Google Play that it caused Luck be a Landlord to have a minor sales spike from people finding it in the suggested search results," DiIorio writes on Twitter, a couple of days after Balatro's mobile release date announcement. 

While the two games play in different ways, LocalThunk previously revealed that Balatro's "largest influence" was Luck be a Landlord, so it's certainly appropriate that DiIorio's own roguelike would show up by its side on the Play Store. The two also appear in the 'Not A Real Casino' Steam bundle together, alongside blackjack roguelike Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. 

Balatro is set to release on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store on September 26, so there's just over two weeks to wait before you can play it on your phone and say goodbye to all your free time – LocalThunk has already said "sorry" in advance. In the meantime, though, Luck be a Landlord might be the solid alternative you're looking for. 

For more games like Balatro and Luck be a Landlord, be sure to check out our roundup of the best roguelike games. 

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Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of 12DOVE's news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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