Exploding Kittens

*Exploding Kittens*
"A card game for people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats"

Designer(s)	Elan Lee, The Oatmeal, Shane Small
Publisher(s)	The Oatmeal
Publication date	Q2/Q3 2015 (Announced)
Genre(s)	Card game
Website	explodingkittens.com

Exploding Kittens is a card game designed by Elan Lee, Shane Small and Matthew Inman from the comics site The Oatmeal. Originally proposed as a Kickstarter project seeking US $10,000 in crowdfunding, it exceeded the goal in eight minutes^[1] and on January 27, 2015, seven days after opening, it passed 106,000 backers setting the record for most number of backers in Kickstarter history. At completion on February 19, 2015, it had $8,782,571 USD in pledges by 219,382 backers. The campaign ended as the third most funded campaign on the crowdfunding site.^[2] The game is scheduled to be delivered to backers in July 2015.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Gameplay

According to the site, the game is "essentially Russian Roulette; you draw cards until you draw an exploding kitten, at which point you explode and lose."

The game takes the principle a step further, adding cards that allow players to "defuse" kittens (thus preventing them from losing), look at upcoming cards in the deck, skip turns, and otherwise alter the flow of gameplay with cards such as "laser pointers", "rubbing the belly of a pig-a-corn", strapping on a "cheetah butt", and "unleash the narnope" in order to defuse kitten bombs, see cards in the deck, skip turns, and cancel a player's last action.

Kickstarter details

"Card game Exploding Kittens has become the third biggest Kickstarter campaign of all-time, raising $8.8m (£5.7m) on the crowdfunding website.".^[7] In just it's first day Exploding Kittens earned nearly $1.3m and grew to nearly 35k backers. By day 3 the project was over 80k backers raising over $3m.^[8] The creators of the game were initially trying to raise just 10,000 USD, but ended up getting 219,382 backers on the crowdfunding website.^[9]^[10]

Achievements

On February 3, 2015, achievements were announced in lieu of stretch goals because the game designers did not want to delay production or distribution of the game to backers. As of February 16, 2015, 30 achievements had been unlocked and the second stretch goal (Unlock 20 Achievements) and third stretch goal (Unlock 30 Achievements) were completed. With the first stretch goal accomplished, the company expanded the NSFW deck to a full stand-alone game.^[11] The second stretch goal gave an upgraded storage box which holds two full decks of cards to all backers of the campaign,^[12] and the third and final strech goal includes a Kickstarter-exclusive surprise in the box.^[13]

Name	Completed	Date
100% Funded	Yes	February 4, 2015
1000% Funded	Yes	February 4, 2015
10,000% Funded	Yes	February 4, 2015
100,000% Funded	No	...
Create An Exploding Kittens Wikipedia Page	Yes	February 4, 2015
1,000 Backers	Yes	February 4, 2015
10,000 Backers	Yes	February 4, 2015
100,000 Backers	Yes	February 4, 2015
150,000 Backers	Yes	February 11, 2015
Most-Backed Card Game Ever	Yes	February 4, 2015
Most-Backed Game Ever	Yes	February 4, 2015
Most-Backed Campaign Ever	Yes	February 4, 2015
Post 25 Pics of a Real Tacocat	Yes	February 9, 2015
Post 25 Pics of Magical Enchiladas	Yes	February 10, 2015
100 Twitter Followers	Yes	February 4, 2015
1,000 Twitter Followers	Yes	February 4, 2015
10,000 Twitter Followers	Yes	February 4, 2015
50,000 Twitter Followers	Yes	February 7, 2015
100,000 Twitter Followers	No	...
Post 5 Photos of Weaponized Back Hair	Yes	February 9, 2015
100 Facebook Likes	Yes	February 4, 2015
1,000 Facebook Likes	Yes	February 4, 2015
10,000 Facebook Likes	Yes	February 4, 2015
100,000 Facebook Likes	Yes	February 17, 2015
Post 25 Selfies with Goats	Yes	February 9, 2015
Post 25 Pics of a Beardcat	Yes	February 6, 2015
Post 25 Pics of a Potatocat	Yes	February 6, 2015
Post a Photo of 10 People Wearing Cat Ears	Yes	February 6, 2015
Post a Photo of 50 People Wearing Cat Ears	Yes	February 10, 2015
Post a Photo of 100 People Wearing Cat Ears	Yes	February 16, 2015
Post Five Youtube Videos of Songs About Exploding Kittens	Yes	February 11, 2015
Post a Picture of Ten Batmans in One Hot Tub	Yes	February 9, 2015
Post a Picture of Five Spidermans in One Kayak	Yes	February 9, 2015

Status

On 11 April 2015, the Elite Team Kitten play tested the new game called Exploding Kittens during the International Tabletop Day.

As of early March, Exploding Kittens is currently undergoing playtesting in order to ensure card balance and enjoyable gameplay. Printing and shipping is expected to occur shortly after playtesting is completed.

References