A card game for “people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats,” created by The Oatmeal’s Mathew Inman and game developers Elan Lee and Shane Small, has raised $8.7 million on Kickstarter. It is now the site’s highest-earning game of all time, and has broken the record for the most-backed Kickstarter ever, with more than twice the number of unique backers than LeVar Burton’s project, the previous record-holder. It is the third highest-grossing Kickstarter campaign of all time (the record still belongs to the Coolest Cooler, which netted $13.2 million).
Described by its creators as “kitty-powered Russian Roullette,” the absurdist card game shares the irreverent humor of Cards Against Humanity and pairs it with LOLCats and the internet. The goal of this highly strategic game is to not explode. Your mission is aided by thousand-year-old back hair, a portable cheetah-butt and a bear-a-dactyl, among other things.
But, were it not for a crucial twist of fate, the game would not have become an internet phenomenon. The Daily Beast, which has the whole story behind the card game, called its first iteration an”addictive but rather bland game dubbed Bomb Squad” created by Lee. But then Inman added his magic internet touch:
“Matt came up to me and said, ‘This is the most fun card game I’ve played all year—I want to join your team. But we have to change the name. Why don’t we call it something like Exploding Kittens, because the Internet?’ And that was it. That was literally how the thing was born,” said Lee.
If you are one of the backers who will be receiving a copy of the game, you should host an Exploding Kittens tournament. Inman, Lee and Small will come.
(Image: Exploding Kitty)
