Demo Talk: Insider Trading Is Bullish on the Balatro Formula

In lieu of slowly pointing out the obvious similarities, let’s just cut to the chase. A lot of new games want to be the next Balatro, and Insider Trading is no exception. The game makes that loud and clear.

It’s certainly not a bad marketing move to invoke Balatro’s name. Of course, that immediately places high expectations on a project, but Insider Trading can actually back up its ambitious advertising points. The game is no replacement for Balatro, but it fills a similar enough niche. The concept is pretty brilliant, and the quality of the game is somehow even more impressive. Insider Trading isn’t without its flaws, though. While there’s a lot to praise, the game’s biggest issues are impossible to ignore in the demo.

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A Very Specific Kind of Stock Exchange

Insider Trading turns day trading into a roguelike deckbuilder. Even just conceptually, that sounds hard to design, but Naiive has settled on a pretty solid foundation for the gameplay. The queue of cards does a pretty good job of emulating real-life stock movement, and the basic concepts in Insider Trading are pretty easy to understand. Fundamentally, the game is very sound and satisfying to play.

Much like the average deckbuilder, Insider Trading has players build up their deck. Where Insider Trading defers a little is in how it forces players to pick up new cards. By itself, this isn’t much of a problem, but it unveils an issue that the game’s design philosophy has no real answer for. Accurately determining the value of any given effect in the game is pretty hard to do.

Experimenting in Insider Trading is a bit of a brutal process. First of all, percentages are a weird thing to deal with. That already makes some turns difficult to fully follow. Adding in perks and unique card effects to the equation increases the complexity by a significant margin. To be clear, complexity isn’t innately a bad thing. It just makes it harder to appreciate this game beyond a more rudimentary level. It’s cool to play, but getting the most out of Insider Trading takes a good amount of investment.

What I have said might sound overly critical, but that’s only because there isn’t much else to find fault with. Insider Trading is quite nice to look at and listen to. It has some great references built into the game. Its overall design is incredibly captivating. Insider Trading is totally worth playing, especially the demo. Ironically, the game just isn’t a great Balatro-style roguelike. It captures Balatro’s distinct appeal everywhere but in its gameplay. Even if you find fault with Insider Trading’s replayability, it’s still a mostly positive experience. By no means is this a bad game.