The Oatmeal’s Exploding Kittens Card Game Is Raising A Bomb On Kickstarter

Crowdfunding has been a massive boon to old school gaming. Who needs fancy 3D renders and immersive face computers when you have board games and shuffled slices of pulped tree, eh? Good times.

Even better times are on the cards (obviously) as wondrous Internet comics institution The Oatmeal is in the midst of harnessing the power of its sprawling online fan-base to crowdfund its very own card game, called Exploding Kittens.

Behold the majesty!

At the time of writing the Exploding Kittens Kickstarter campaign has grabbed $1.6 million+ in pledges, from around 41,500 backers, nuking its modest $10,000 initial funding target. And there’s still 29 days of funding to go. So hopefully it will out-do that stupid beer cooler.

The game is described as a “highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette”. Which is probably all the explanation you need to shell out $20. One deck is good for two to four players. Two decks will support up to eight. And each round of the game apparently lasts between 10 and 20 minutes — depending on how quickly players are killed off by failing to defuse an exploding kitten card.

Will Exploding Kittens be the new Cards Against Humanity? Probably it will be more like an expansion pack. Expect to be playing both games with your parents next Thanksgiving holiday. (Kittens does also have the bonus of kid-friendly credentials (the basic deck is apparently suitable for aged 7+), although there’s also a NSFW deck of bonus cards for childless kidults.)

The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman has illustrated the cards. The game concept was originally cooked up by Elan Lee (Xbox, ARGs) and Shane Small (Xbox, Marvel), with Inman joining in to help weaponize their pork and take everyone’s money.

The team says it’s working with “its pals” at Cards Against Humanity to ensure smooth delivery of what will be a very sizable heap of dead tree to backers. Its aiming to ship decks starting in July.