Image: Nintendo LifeBalatro was one of our games of 2024 and the vast majority of us at Nintendo Life Towers have poured more hours into its poker roguelike gameplay loop than we care to admit. But what were the games that caught the attention of its developer, LocalThunk? With 2025 finally here, the dev took to Twitter to share some of his indie highlights from the last 12 months and crown his 'Golden Thunk' award winner for 2024.We'll start off with the biggie. The dev named Animal Well his personal game of the year, describing Billy Basso's mystery-filled metroidbrania as "an engrossing experience" and "a true masterpiece" honestly, we'd have to agree on those points.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube790kWatch on YouTube Basso himself replied to the LocalThunk nod, describing the award win as "the greatest honor of them all".But that's not all! 2024 was a bumper year for indies and the Balatro dev was also keen to highlight some of the other titles that had been vying for his attention. Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers was first up, another card-based deckbuilder which, the dev noted, "People mistakenly wrote this off as a Balatro clone but this was announced before my game ever was".The dev also flagged the "incredible" Arco, Nova Drift ("a perfect game for the Steam Deck"), physics-based roguelike Ballionaire and the Steam horror game Mouthwashing. Only Arco is available on Switch for the time being, but hey, our fingers are crossed some of these make the jump to 'Switch 2'.Balatro capped off 2024 with an impressive run at The Game Awards, where it picked up wins in three categories including Best Independent Game. Here's the full list of winnersWe fold"No matter what you put in a game, it will get found"What was your favourite indie of 2024? Do you agree with LocalThunk? Let us know in the comments.[source x.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesNintendo Highlights Multiple Switch Games Launching In 2025It's going to be an action-packed year126 Games You Should Pick Up In The Nintendo Switch eShop Holiday Sale (Europe)Every game we scored 9/10 or higher161 Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo's 'Hits For The Holidays' eShop Sale (North America)Reminder: It wraps up on SundayHamster Releases Its First Arcade Archives Switch Game Of 2025, Teases A Year Full Of "Surprises""We will be taking on many new challenges"