Exploding Kittens

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]It was Exploding Kittens is described as a “strategic card game about cats and destruction” which follows the gameplay which is to collect kittens while at the same time demoting the other players’ amount of kittens.

Exploding Kittens
"A card game for people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats"
Designer(s)Elan Lee and Shane Small
Illustrator(s)The Oatmeal
Publisher(s)The Oatmeal
Publication dateJuly 2015
Genre(s)Card game
Language(s)English
Players2-5
Setup time< 1 minutes
Playing time15 minutes
Random chanceMedium
Ages7+
Websiteexplodingkittens.com

Game rules

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.

The list of cards is as follows:

  • Exploding Kitten: Eliminates the player that draws it, putting them permanently out of the game. The last player remaining wins the game.
  • Defuse: Allows a player that draws an Exploding Kitten card to put the card back in the deck in whatever location they choose. This location may be kept secret from other players.
  • Nope: Negates the card that was just played except Exploding Kitten and Defuse. This card can be played by any player at any time. A Nope card can be negated by another Nope card.
  • Attack: Ends the player's turn without drawing a card and forces the next player in the turn order to take two turns in a row. Note that if a player affected by an Attack card plays another Attack card on their first turn, both of their turns are ended without drawing, and the following player must take four turns in a row (the number of turns continues to accumulate as more Attack cards are played).
  • Skip: Ends the player's turn without drawing a card. Note that if a skip card is played by a player affected by an attack card, it will only end one of the two turns.
  • Favor: Forces another player to give the player who played this card a card from their own hand. The player affected by this card chooses which card to give.
  • Shuffle: Shuffles the deck until told to stop by another player. The player of this card may not view any cards in the deck while shuffling.
  • See the Future: Allows the player to see the top 3 cards in the deck. The player of this card may not say what cards they saw.
  • Combo Cat cards: Useless alone, but with two a player can steal a random card from an opponent. If there are three, a player can ask other players for a specific card. If there are five different cat cards, a player can take a card from the pile.

The first expansion pack, Imploding Kittens, increases the number of players from 5 to 6 and requires a copy of Exploding Kittens to play. There are 20 new cards which includes:[8]

  • Imploding Kitten: When this card is drawn, the player puts it back into the draw pile face up. When a player has no choice but to draw this card face up, the player will implode and lose the game. This card cannot be defused nor can it be noped.
  • Reverse: Reverses the order of play and end the player's turn without drawing.
  • Draw from the Bottom: Ends the player's turn by drawing the bottom card from the draw pile.
  • Feral Cat: Useless alone, this can be used as any cat card in a combination.
  • Alter the Future: Allows the player to see and switch the order of the top 3 cards in the deck.
  • Targeted Attack: Ends the player's turn without drawing a card and allows the player to attack any player who is forced to take two turns in a row.

The second expansion pack, Streaking Kittens, requires a copy of Exploding Kittens to play. There are 15 new cards which includes:

  • Streaking Kitten: If this card is in a player’s hand, the player can secretly hold 1 Exploding Kitten without exploding. However, if this card or the Exploding Kitten leaves the player’s hand, the player explodes.
  • Exploding Kitten: This card accommodates the Streaking Kitten.
  • Super Skip: End all the player’s turns without drawing any cards.
  • See the Future (5x): Allows the player to see the top 5 cards in the deck. The player of this card may not say what cards they saw.
  • Alter the Future (5x): Allows the player to see and switch the order of the top 5 cards in the deck.
  • Swap Top and Bottom: Swap the top and bottom cards of the deck without looking.
  • Garbage Collection: Every player who has cards (including the player who played this card) must choose 1 card from their hand to secretly insert into the Draw Pile. Then, shuffle the entire Draw Pile.
  • Catomic Bomb: Remove all the Exploding Kittens from the Draw Pile so that everyone can see them. Then, shuffle the Draw Pile, and return the Exploding Kittens face down on top. End the player’s turn without drawing a card.
  • Mark: Pick a target player. Randomly pick 1 of a player’s cards and 'mark' it by returning the card to their hand facing out to the other players. The card is still part of their hand (and they can look at it), but it must stay marked until it is played or stolen. If a marked card is stolen, it doesn’t stay marked.
  • Curse of the Cat Butt: Pick a target player who must immediately make their cards blind by putting them face down on the table and shuffling them. The blind player is not allowed to look at any of their cards until they successfully draw a card from the deck without exploding. On their turn, if the blind player decides to play any cards, those cards must be picked randomly and played face up on the Discard Pile. If the card is playable, play as normal.

The third expansion pack, Barking Kittens, requires a copy of Exploding Kittens to play. There are 20 new cards which includes:

  • Barking Kittens: Ask for the other Barking Kitten. If any player has it, they are the player’s target and must give the player half their cards (rounding up). Combine them with the player’s hand, then choose and return the same number of cards back to them, then discard both Barking Kittens. If no one has the other Barking Kitten, leave the card face up in front of the player. When someone plays the other Barking Kitten, the player becomes their target. If a player get both Barking Kittens, play them together and pick any player as target.
  • Alter the Future Now: Allow the player to see and switch the order of the top 3 cards in the deck at any time.
  • Bury: End the player’s turn by drawing a card. After looking at it, put it back into the deck anywhere in secret. This card cannot be played if the player has an I’ll Take That in front of the player.
  • Personal Attack (3x): This Attack is played on the player. Take three turns in a row.
  • Super Skip: Same as the Super Skip in the second expansion.
  • Potluck: Starting with the player and going around the table in the direction of play, each player must put a card of their choice face down on top of the Draw Pile.
  • Tower of Power: The player wears the crown and put the stack cards inside. If anyone steals cards from the player, they blindly take a random card from the Tower of Power Crown instead of the player's hand.
  • I’ll Take That: Play this card face up in front of another player. The next time they draw a card, they must secretly view and hand it to the player. If the target hand the player an Exploding Kitten, the player must Defuse it or explode.
  • Share the Future (3x): Allow the player to see and switch the order of the top 3 cards in the deck, but they need to show these cards to the next player before returning them to the deck.

Kickstarter details

Exploding Kittens has become the third biggest Kickstarter campaign of all time, raising $8.7 million on the crowdfunding website.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11][12]

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.[13] The second stretch goal gave an upgraded storage box which holds two full decks of cards to all backers of the campaign,[14] and the third and final stretch goal includes a Kickstarter-exclusive surprise in the box.[15]

Status
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.

In October 2016, the first expansion Imploding Kittens was released. 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 30, 2017, the Exploding Kittens Party Pack was released in addition to the Cards Against Humanity Hidden Compartment Pack at Target.[16] 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.[17]

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.[18]

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]

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.

Mobile version

Microsoft's Zo chatbot offers a single-player version of Exploding Kittens. [20]

In January 2016, a multiplayer version of the game was released on the iOS platform with new content not found in the original game.[21] In April 2016, the mobile version was also released onto the Android platform, and allowed for cross-platform play between all mobile versions.[22][23]

The expansion pack and mobile-exclusive card types are as follows:

  • Slap: The player ends their turn and makes another player take any other turns they have left plus 1 more. In the second expansion pack, the can also slap his or herself. This card is basically the Attack card from the physical deck.
  • Reverse: Reverses turn order and the player skips drawing a card. Also in Imploding Kittens.
  • Draw from the Bottom: The player draws from the bottom of the deck and immediately ends their turn. Also in Imploding Kittens.
  • Annoy (Expansion Pack): Makes two random cards in the target player's hand unplayable until they draw a card.
  • Blind (Expansion Pack): Transforms all the target player's cards into cat butts until they draw a card.
  • Fake Shuffle (Expansion Pack 2): Pretends to shuffle the deck, visually showing it to all of the other players in the game. Even though other players see the card as a shuffle, the player sees it as a fake shuffle. However, the next card he or she draws is random.
  • Catomic Bomb (Expansion Pack 2): Relocates all of the Exploding Kitten cards to the top of the deck.
  • Alter the Future (Expansion Pack 2): The player can see and alter the future, meaning he or she can change the order of cards and potentially avoid exploding.

The 'Attack' and 'Nope' cards from the original card game were not released in the mobile versions on iOS and Android.

References
  1. Kooser, Amanda. "But why blow up cats? Inman gives inside scoop on Exploding Kittens". CNET. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  2. "Most Funded Kickstarter projects". Kickstarter. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhsgYhUDA_M
  4. "Exploding Kittens by Elan Lee". Kickstarter. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  5. Imam, Jareen. "'Exploding Kittens' most backed Kickstarter ever". CNN. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  6. Vincent, James. "Exploding Kittens becomes the most backed Kickstarter project of all time". The Verge. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  7. Bischof, Jackie. "A Card Game About Exploding Kittens Broke a Kickstarter Record". Newsweek. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  8. "Imploding Kittens Game Rules". Ultra Board Games. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  9. Dredge, Stuart (February 23, 2015). "Exploding Kittens card game raises $8.8m on Kickstarter". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  10. "Kicktraq:Exploding Kittens". Kicktraq. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  11. "Exploding Kittens". Kickstarter. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  12. "Kickstarter folk pay $8 MEELLION for joys of EXPLODING KITTENS". The Register. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  13. "Unstoppable". kickstarter.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  14. "We said "STRETCH" and you said "HOW FAR?"". kickstarter.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  15. "YOU DID IT! LET'S PARTY!". kickstarter.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  16. Formichelli, Linda (July 28, 2017). "Target Unleashes Over 50 New Exclusive Games For The 2017 Holiday Season". Forbes. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  17. "Secret shelf". Imgur. July 28, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  18. Harrison, Will (March 17, 2018). "Five things we loved at SXSW Gaming 2018". Austin American Statesman. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  19. https://twitter.com/gameofkittens/status/1018945476832313344
  20. https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/13/microsofts-zo-bot-wants-to-play-exploding-kittens-with-you/
  21. "The Oatmeal's wacky Exploding Kittens debuts on mobile with iOS game". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  22. "'Exploding Kittens' is now on Android". Engadget. April 20, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  23. "'Exploding Kittens' Now Available On Android: New Cats, Hilarity And More". Tech Times. April 21, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
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