Demo Talk: CloverPit — Doubling Down on Balatro's Jackpot Formula
April 12, 2025
When a new indie game like CloverPit advertises itself as a Balatro alternative, it's best to sit down and listen. That's a winning formula, absolutely worth trying to replicate. And in playing the game, you can tell exactly in what ways CloverPit has been directly inspired by Balatro.
After spending some time with the CloverPit demo, I think it's safe to say that Panik Arcade is cooking up something special. All the inspiration talk aside, CloverPit, at its core, is one really fun game. Ultimately, that's what matters most, and CloverPit can absolutely stand on its own two feet.
Roguelike? Balatro-like? Gamble-like?
CloverPit is the latest and greatest gamble-like. That's about the only way to properly describe this game. CloverPit's gameplay loop is centered primarily around using a slot machine. Fundamentally speaking, what makes this game fun is the informed gambling, much like Balatro. Everything else surrounding the slot machine is what makes this game a roguelike.
Instead of Jokers, CloverPit relies on lucky charms to enhance the experience. They essentially serve the same purpose, however. Lucky charms offer you some amount of control over your experience, implementing strategy to a game that would otherwise be purely random. The learning curve is a bit awkward, but that's nothing too surprising for a roguelike. After just a few runs, everything really starts to click. CloverPit isn't quite super addicting, but it is addicting.
CloverPit's Biggest Strengths And Weaknesses
The development team behind CloverPit clearly understand what it takes to build an engaging gameplay loop. The demo is a great demonstration of that.
Runs in CloverPit feel genuinely satisfying, whether you beat them or not. That feeling is partially derived from the fact that the game rewards proactive thinking. There is always room to strategize, even if you are still dependent on RNG. Luck might not ultimately favor you, but, hey, it's nice to just get good slot rolls sometimes, as well. Something else I'd like to quickly praise is the art style. It's simple, but it's also weird in a bold way. Being memorable is a good thing for an indie game like this, so that's all to its favor.
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CloverPit's biggest fault, at least in the demo, is that it feels a bit too much like a game that wishes it could have just been a Balatro mod. CloverPit sticks heavily to the Balatro blueprint, to the point that it feels very unoriginal in various different aspects. There are worse flaws to have. This doesn't impact the experience that much.
But even where CloverPit tries to be the most original, in its atmosphere, it's a bit of a mess. Some elements, I absolutely love. The design of the room, the use of the telephone, the actual slot machine itself — the gritty and vaguely scary vibe is interesting. The unholy imagery, however, feels out of place in the demo. I don't mean that in a moralistic sense. It just feels shoehorned in. It's also an incredibly tired aesthetic in indie games, so, without context, it adds nothing to CloverPit. The full game could easily address this problem, though.
