Provided enough time, all things will inevitably become a roguelike. It is the way of things, a truth of the universal mathematics revealed in countless Steam listings. Everything inevitably becomes Balatro. Slot machines are a Balatro. Mahjong is a Balatro. Chess is a Balatro.
And now, thanks to a prototype game from solo developer BadIdeasDigital, the bouncing DVD logo screensaver of our youth is a Balatro, too.
By the grace of the international DVD Consortium, the early 2000s were blessed with by the bouncing DVD logo, a screensaver that could be found in countless American living rooms where entranced viewers were compelled by the hypnotic promise of watching the logo bounce perfectly into one of the screen's corners—perhaps so perfectly that it might at last end its interminable ricochet and thus grant us a singular peace.
Sadly, that's not how it works, and you won't find that peace in DVD Bounce World. But you will find a Balatro-like combo-based roguelike, where the DVD logo's bounces—here, a finite amount—contribute to an escalating score threshold that you have to meet within a certain number of turns.
Before we proceed, I should note that BadIdeasDigital has left a disclaimer saying "the models in this game state DUD. Any resemblance to existing icons or imagery is a coincidence and not directly intended." I'm only continuing to refer to them as DVDs as a reflection of my own delusions. This is all above board.
In your race to stay ahead of your score quota, you'll earn golden DVDs at the end of each turn, which you can spend on tiles that you can place around the edge of your screen. When hit by the logo, some apply multipliers to that bounce's score. Others are consumables that might give a one-off chunk of points or increase the DVD logo's speed when hit.
Then there are more involved tiles, like the Mailbox that adds a +1 point bonus whenever it—or any other mailbox—is hit. And there's more: After every successful round, you can choose between three offerings that add a passive effect. I'm fond of The Thing, which gives a 25% chance that your DVD logo will spawn a smaller, baby DVD logo to continue bouncing in its place once its own bounces expire.
In good Balatro-like fashion, your choices of tiles and offerings can feed into each other, offering powerful synergies to catapult your score counter higher. In my other window, I've got an array of mailboxes, and each turn I have a chance of spawning a UFO that moves perfectly horizontally to trigger the tiles it bounces between. With some properly positioned mailboxes, I've got an escalating feedback loop of points.
DVD Bounce World is just a prototype, but it's a promising one—and not just because it gives me an excuse to watch that logo ping pong around like we did in the Before Times. If this particular Balatrofication hits for you, BadIdeasDigital asks that we "please let me know if you like it / if I should continue development."
My vote is yes.
You can play DVD Bounce World on Itch.io now.
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