Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens

"A card game for people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats"
Designers	Elan Lee and Shane Small
Illustrators	The Oatmeal
Publishers	The Oatmeal
Publication	July 2015
Genres	Card game
Languages	English
Players	2-5
Setup time	< 1 minutes
Playing time	15 minutes
Random chance	Medium
Ages	7+
Website	explodingkittens.com

Exploding Kittens is a card game designed by Elan Lee, Matthew Inman from the comics site The Oatmeal, and Shane Small. 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 103,000 backers setting the record for the most backers in Kickstarter history. At completion on February 19, 2015, it had US$8,782,571 in pledges by 219,382 backers. The campaign ended as the fourth most funded campaign on the crowdfunding site.^[2] The first play test of Exploding Kittens was recorded on YouTube by Smosh Games, who had the first deck.^[3] The backers started receiving delivery in late July 2015; all backers received the game by September 2015.^[4][5][6][7] Exploding Kittens is described as a “strategic card game about cats and destruction”.

Gameplay[]

All cards are put into a deck, save for the Defuse and Exploding Kitten cards. The deck is shuffled and each player draws 7 cards and takes a Defuse card. The Exploding Kitten cards are then shuffled back into the deck so that the number of Exploding Kitten cards in the deck is one less than the number of players. The remaining Defuse cards are then also put back in the deck. A turn order is decided upon.

Each player may then play as many cards from their hand as they like on their turn (including none) before drawing a card. Players are not to tell any other player what cards are in their hand. Played cards are put into a discard pile.

Development[]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Exploding Kittens has become the third biggest Kickstarter campaign of all time, raising $8.7 million on the crowdfunding website.^[8] In just its first day Exploding Kittens earned $1,333,586 and grew to nearly 35k backers. By day 4 the project was over 91k backers raising over $3,500,000.^[9] The creators of the game were initially trying to raise just US$10,000, but ended up getting 219,382 backers on the crowdfunding website.^[10][11]

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.^[12] The second stretch goal gave an upgraded storage box which holds two full decks of cards to all backers of the campaign,^[13] and the third and final stretch goal includes a Kickstarter-exclusive surprise in the box.^[14]

Release[]

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

Exploding Kittens began shipping to Kickstarter backers in late July 2015.

On July 30, 2017, the Exploding Kittens Party Pack was released in addition to the Cards Against Humanity Hidden Compartment Pack at Target.^[15] The party pack is an update to the original game that allows for up to 10 players. It removes the Attack card/mechanic and replaces it with the Slap mechanic from the mobile game. The mechanics introduced in the Imploding Kittens expansion are also included. The Hidden Compartment Pack contains 5 cards of the new mechanic, Blind as a Bat, and 15 new white CAH cards. The card package is hidden in a secret shelf in the Exploding Kittens display at the store.^[16]

At the 2018 South by SouthWest festival Exploding Kittens maintained a booth that displayed merchandise and had interactive components such as a large kitten vending machine.^[17]

Expansions[]

Additionally, the creators released a number of expansion packs, most of which require a copy of Exploding Kittens to play.

The first, Imploding Kittens, was released on October 2016. It increases the number of players from 5 to 6, and adds 20 new cards.^[18] It introduced the cards/mechanics of Alter the Future, Draw from the Bottom, and Reverse from the mobile game, and the new Imploding Kitten card/mechanic.

On July 16, 2018 (Prime Day), it was announced that a second expansion, Streaking Kittens, would be released on October 9, 2018. Containing 15 new cards/mechanics, it introduced Mark, Swap Top and Bottom, Catomic Bomb, Curse of the Cat Butt, Garbage Collector, Super Skip, and the Streaking Kitten.^[19][20]

The third expansion, Barking Kittens, was released on June 5, 2020. It contains 20 cards, introduced Bury, Alter the Future Now, I’ll Take That, Share the Future, Tower of Power, Personal Attack (3x), Potluck and Barking Kittens.^[21]

The fourth expansion pack is an "NSFW Deck". It is notable because it tends to be explicit in some places, such as a Defuse card titled "Defuse with nature documentaries", which shows a cat watching two tigers mate. There are 15 new cards.^{[citation needed]}

Mobile version[]

Microsoft's Zo chatbot offered a single-player version of Exploding Kittens. ^[22]

In January 2016, a multiplayer version of the game was released on the iOS platform with new content not found in the original game.^[23] In April 2016, the mobile version was also released onto the Android platform, and allowed for cross-platform play between all mobile versions.^[24][25] It was also available on Nintendo Switch.

The 'Attack' and 'Nope' cards from the original card game were not released in the mobile versions on iOS and Android.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Exploding Kittens at Kickstarter