The Kittens Who Made Kickstarter History

Exploding Kittens, a card game designed by Elan Lee and Shane Small and illustrated by Matthew Inman–The Oatmeal–has blown up on Kickstarter and more. There are 56 cards in this little deck of kittens along with some instructions in a box.

Since its campaign launched on January 19, Exploding Kittens has attracted more than 120,000 backers, a record for the fundraising platform, who have contributed more than $5 million for a card game. 

Exploding Kittens passed its initial funding goal of $10,000 in the first twenty minutes. It was 1,000% funded in the first hour. The best-selling version of the game is the NSFW as it includes different sets of cards for those with more adult taste and humor.

I caught up with Shane Small, one of the co-creators of the ground-breaking game Exploding Kittens. 

Team Exploding Kittens has received an incredible amount of love from fans as well as financial support, Shane Small could not even imagine the rollercoaster ride Exploding Kittens has been, stating:

“In my wildest dreams, it would hit $300,000. I didn’t think it would even hit that. For it to skyrocket like it did to hit $3 million in 3 days, it was well beyond my expectations.”

And while the game is where players try to avoid drawing a card in which a kitten accidentally sets off an explosion by walking across a keyboard and launching a nuclear bomb, or chewing a grenade. 

The kittens can be diffused with catnip sandwiches, a laser pointer or belly rubs, or diverted with “action cards” that involve the powers of back-hair, goats, and magical enchiladas.

Originally, Exploding Kittens was going to be a digital game before Shane and Elan had realized that the concept would work better as a card game. He explained how, if Exploding Kittens were a digital card game, it would be a multiplayer card game in which you could play with multiple people, of course, some aspects would have to be revamped. As Shane puts it, “We just want to make a great game. We believe it is a great card game.”

“We just want to make a great game. We believe it is a great card game.”

There is a possibility in the future that there will be one, but as of right now, Shane is just focusing on the card game, getting it released as soon as possible while working on translating the game into different languages. Shane has expressed, “It is my top priority right now.” Team Exploding Kittens wants the card game to be accessible beyond just English speakers.

Along with these different editions of the game, there could be different illustrations for the different regions… Sushi-Kitten, anyone?

And while there is a lot of things in store for Exploding Kittens, Shane tells me there could be a cartoon, web series, different games of all sorts and even plush toys! The interest is out there and when they are ready to explore it, we will definitely know.

As to what we can expect out of the card game that made Kickstarter history? Kittens, explosions, hairy backs and sometimes, goats.

If you are interested in learning more about their game, you can do so on their Kickstarter page here.