"Exploding Kittens" Blows Up Kickstarter Records

The Register reports that the crowdfunded Exploding Kittens card game from Oatmeal (and Tesla museum fund-raiser) Matthew Inman, along with X-box veterans Elan Lee and Shane Small, has become the highest-grossing game project yet on Kickstarter. After an intensive fundraising campaign, the trio collected $8.78m from 219,382 backers to launch the game. This breaks the record for the largest ever Kickstarter game project, previously held by hackable Android gaming console Ouya. According to the blurb on Exploding Kittens' (now closed) Kickstarter page, players "take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game."

Comments

Re: What's not to like

[SuperKendall]

I actually dislike when known and established creators use Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is not a zero sum gain. Exploding Kittens getting $8 million does not mean that any of that $8m would have gone to any other Kickstarter campaign. I contribute to Kickstarter stuff off and on, my contributions are not limited by finances but by interest in the project.

Why do they need it?

They need it for the same reason as anyone else - to be sure there's a market before they spend money on production. That's the awesome thing about Kickstarter, is that it takes the risk out of going beyond a prototype stage. Even a well known and creative guy like Matt could easily produce a card game that went no-where at all and no-one would buy - a terrible waste not only of his time but the resources used to print the cards and produce packaging.

With Kickstarter you eliminate a ton of waste because you are producing what people want instead of what they might want... it's the ultimate definition of win/win.

I think people who don't understand Kickstarter should go back to the Muppet movie and watch Kermit's speech on dreams (jump to 45 seconds in) and listen carefully to Rainbow Connection... Kickstarter allows any of us to be muppets on the bus to an uncertain but interesting future. I for one don't care who is driving.