"Exploding Kittens" Blows Up Kickstarter Records 105
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."
Russian patent !! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Russian patent !! (Score:5, Funny)
It is called Russian Roulette . ( i.e. exploding kitten brains ) It was a favourite pastime in USSR and had to be kick - started in a bar.
But it kinda lost its appeal when people moved from using revolvers to playing it with a semi-automatic pistol with a single bullet in the magazine.
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Re:Russian patent !! (Score:4, Funny)
This is why we can't have nice things!
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It is called Russian Roulette . . . It was a favourite pastime in USSR and had to be kick - started in a bar.
Fiction. [straightdope.com]
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Lighten up, Francis.
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In Soviet Russia, revolver shoot you!
Oh, wait a sec . . .
Incredible (Score:5, Insightful)
It's truly incredible what people will spend money on. This is neither the worst nor best example, but it definitely amazes me.
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It's truly incredible what people will spend money on. This is neither the worst nor best example, but it definitely amazes me.
Did you see the huge amount of work that was put into this game?
That's the incredible part, not the fact that people are spending money on it, or the fact that it has become an internet meme.
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This is a joke, right? This entire thing probably took less than a week to go from idea to prototype. The fact that it was successful as it was speaks volumes about how unworthy we are as a species.
Re:Incredible (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the fact that it was successful shows that *who* launches a Kickstarter project will always and forever be more important than what the project actually is.
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Hey, it's Inman from the Oatmeal (Score:2)
It probably took him a while to draw all the cards (though they're mostly cartoon-level drawings, which is a little easier), and they actually did spend a bit of time play-testing and tinkering with it to get a playable-more-than-once game. But dude, it's a card game about Exploding Kittens, and that's consistent with the humor he's well-known for, so he's not going to freak out his core audience, and they'll presumably attract half the people who've played Cards Against Humanity as well.
And yeah, it presu
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You'd think that with that much money coming in, they'd have been able to afford an artist...
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Actually, the fact that it was successful shows that *who* launches a Kickstarter project will always and forever be more important than what the project actually is.
That Elan Lee guy must have a hell of a cult following.
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No one cares about Elan Lee. Oatmeal sent people there from the site. His artwork is all over it. No one has even seen Elan Lee's name, they're only focused on the Oatmeal. The exact same idea from someone else without oatmeal's involvement would have probably not even gotten funded.
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:-) Speak for yourself. I didn't buy in..
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Doesn't make any of it "incredible."
I dunno, I find most anti-science hard to believe! ;-)
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Did you see the huge amount of work that was put into this game?
I did not, but unless you are Matthew Inman, Elan Lee, or Shane Small, neither did you. Note, you said game, and not Kickstarter campaign, meaning you are only talking about the game mechanics and not the circus that the Kickstarter campaign became. You saw what the creators wanted you to see, not everything that lead up to those decisions.
BTW, I backed it for a total of 4 decks (2 normal, 2 NSFW). I don't know if it took 10 weeks or 10 minutes to plan out all the cards, and frankly, I don't care. It
Even more Incredible (Score:3, Interesting)
Even more incredible is how the summary is written to make it sound a lot worse than it is.
looking at the kickstarter page, the game reminds me a bit of aye evil overlord, passing the buck around, trying to get other people to explode. Sounds like fun. It's nothing like "take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game.". You can make anything sound bad by taking a single sentence out of context. There are cards to prevent exploding, to pass exploding cards to other player
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On SoylentNews [soylentnews.org] there's more of a no-clickbait-or-advertising-bullshit culture. Are you a member?
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It's truly incredible what people will spend money on. This is neither the worst nor best example, but it definitely amazes me.
Well 'some' people go to Fifty Shades of Grey... then I think people have more fun playing this game... ;)
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Why? People love the dudes art, he has a reputation for being reliable with this sort of thing, and people feel they are going to get good value for money.
Personally I'm more a poker kind of guy. Traditional cards. But hey, if someone else has a deck I'm sure it'd be fun to have a go. Especially with the kids.
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don't want to live on this planet anymore
See, there ARE things we can all still agree on!
What's not to like (Score:4, Insightful)
I backed this up for the simple reason that I like card games and I love The Oatmeal's illustrations. I also like cats. It is that simple.
And I also think that creativity is at a premium nowadays, and each manifestation of it should be embraced and supported as much as possible.
Re:What's not to like (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's not to like (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think innovation is the right word here. It's all about the new breed of internet celebrity. This wouldn't have had nearly the same response if Matthew Inman's name wasn't attached.
Re: What's not to like (Score:2, Interesting)
I agree. I like Matt's work. But I don't find it particularly surprising that he raised a ton of money. He already has an audience that already wants to buy his products.
I actually dislike when known and established creators use Kickstarter. Why do they need it? It's not like Inman couldn't have gotten a loan if he'd wanted one. Instead everyone says how amazing it is he funded so much. How is it amazing? If Beyonce went on Kickstarter would it be any surprise if she raised $10 million? If course not. In th
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I don't care if big names use Kick Starter or not. An existing celebrity doesn't hurt anything by using KS, all it really does is bring more traffic to KS. It makes KS a little richer no doubt as they get to scrape their cream off the top. But it brings lots of people to KS some percentage of which will end up browsing and looking through other KS projects. The only thing I can think of that it hurts is some obscure projects chances at earning the title of biggest KS every, and honestly who cares about that
Re: What's not to like (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [youtube.com] (jump to 45 seconds in) and listen carefully to Rainbow Connection [huffingtonpost.com]... 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.
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Honestly your loss, as I have got some great stuff from Kickstarter and supported people I really like.
I have been a small part of making some things possible that would not otherwise have existed.
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Kickstarter isn't supposed to be for "Testing the waters".
It's supposed to be for people who don't have the ability to get the financial backing to try and get it to to make their project. It's not meant for people who are well off, or established companies just to run pre-orders.
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In the risks and pitfalls section he mentions that there shouldn't be a problem unless they sell too many copies. I'm thinking whatever plans they had to produce and ship these originally are now toast. I wouldn't be surprised if these d
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Does it really matter how he got popular? Would you be so wary if it was the undead ghost of Charls Schultz instead of Mathew Imman? The guys a great cartoonist. People respond to his work. Its been like that since people started drawing funny men with giant tophats on pennyfarthings shortly after the invention of the printing press.
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Wouldn't it be awesome if big game companies switched all the big game hunters to play their game instead of killing fellow mortals.
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Wouldn't it be awesome if big game companies switched all the big game hunters to play their game instead of killing fellow mortals.
You kill "fellow mortals" every time you eat a salad, you murderer.
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False equivalence. I try to minimize harm, and dream and scheme of/for a day when I don't have to eat.
But plants have different survival strategies than big game animals, hence the false equivalence. Most of the plants I eat produce fruit that birds eat, spreading the seeds to far-off lands. I'm happiest when I'm out somewhere where I can toss the seeds of the fruit I eat into some dirt where it might take hold; or maybe it lies dormant for eons...
Comparing eating a plant to eating meat ignores the body of
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Comparing eating a plant to eating meat ignores the body of thought that Jains have devoted to the issue of ahimsa, in the course of over 5000 years.
Yep. And I'm going to continue ignoring that body of thought, because I'm only interested in physics.
but eating plants, especially when the plant itself survives (i.e. don't eat root vegetables because the plant has to be killed), is less harmful than eating a cow or another animal that actively tries to get away when you kill it.
Less harmful to the cow, certainly.
Yes it's regrettable that bacteria die by the sunlight;
No, it certainly is not. It's a damned good thing.
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Funny, I just watched a lecture on quantum physics [mit.edu] that uses the Jain analogy of the blind men and the elephant in treating wave-particle duality. So physicists have learned from Jainism's theory of knowledge. Maybe you can too. May nonviolence grow on you.
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>His comics kind of all follow the same formula.
And despite what you've been told, that's exactly what people want. People want you to be creative once and create something new, then they want you to stop because familiarity is what people buy.
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>This really demonstrates that the key to a successful ~~kick starter~~ anything is popularity, not quality.
It doesn't matter how good you are, nobody will know about you, and you won't sell anything if you're a nobody.
Next, before this got too much funding it was an excellent idea to invest in. Cards Against Humanity is a multimillion dollar selling game. Smart-assed card games are a very popular genre.
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> each manifestation of [creativity] should be embraced and supported as much as possible
Hold it right there. Did you support https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]? Why not? It's much more creative than this game. https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]? https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]? https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]? And that's just an easy search for classical music.
I'm betting you didn't. Then why this dumb game? Because you'd like to play it. There's got to be something in it for you. That's the reason. D
Goatse roulette (Score:1)
Now debuting: if you draw the goatse card, you will have to post this post on slashdot.
Am I the only one who think these people are sick? (Score:1)
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We have that game already: http://youtu.be/RH1u2kzd0Zg [youtu.be]
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Kittens are much cuter than human babies ever will be.
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Yes. Well, there's probably some other people who aren't familiar with The Oatmeal who are equally offended.
Take a look at his website; it's obvious that the guy is a an animal lover, with a twisted sense of humor.
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What could be funnier that exploding babies?
What's pink and red and white and goes splat? Oh wait, shit, you didn't mean that as a riddle, did you?
wtf (Score:1, Insightful)
The oatmeal creator is a true genius to be able to extract that much money out of this many idiots with such a terrible game. I have a whole new high level of respect for him, and an all new low respect for the human race overall. I'm not against the idea of "exploding kittens" - I don't find it shocking or offensive, but there's barely a game worth playing here. Only a complete idiot would fund a game this bad.
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Protip, the summary is an atrocious summation of the game, like always.
The game is FAR more than "just pulling cards until you explode".
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No, I read the whole kickstarter page. It's a terrible game.
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The worst part about UNO is that they simply took a variant of the "crazy eights" game, which was well known at the time, and made specialized cards.
Compared to UNO, all games, including "exploding kittens", look like the pinnacle of creativity.
Re:wtf (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:wtf (Score:5, Insightful)
As a rationalist of some experience myself, I can readily point out that the practical act of funding this game is not irrational at all. They are not buying or funding the game itself. These people see the creators, the art, and their reputation as having the ability to create entertainment experiences that they have enjoyed immensely in the past, and thus have a good chance at doing it again here.
To respond to the parent's statement:
Only a complete idiot would fund a game this bad.
That is correct. It is also wrong. Only a complete idiot would fund such a simple, easily replicated game. These people are not funding that game, they are funding the experience they expect to get from the people making the game which have quite a pedigree in creating experiences.
In short, just because something prima facie irrational does not mean that there are not other factors that make it rational.
Also, rewarding past action. (Score:4, Insightful)
That is a great response, I wanted to add one more point to your observations.
Although I did not fund this Kickstarter, I would have if I had found it in time. The reason I would fund it is as you say " funding the experience I expect to get from the people making the game which have quite a pedigree in creating experiences.".
But more than that, even if I don't enjoy this particular experience I wold not care because I also consider whatever money I would put in as funding past enjoyment that was free on my part.
I funded an Order Of the Stick Kickstarter for this exact reason. I would either get something great or at the very least deliver a reward to someone who made something I loved.
New band name (Score:3)
Looks like a potentially good/funny game. But $9 million in funding? Why? Print, advertise, profit.
Name? (Score:1)
As an owner of two cats, I just find the name really off-putting.
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As an owner of two cats, I love the name. Besides the whole game is about preventing the explosion of a kitten on your watch.
Wikipedia page (Score:5, Informative)
So a still fictional game get's to have its own Wikipedia page [wikipedia.org] but the Nim programming language, in development and publicly available for years, only got to have a page a few days ago and is still under threat of deletion from rabid mods. WP truly has a fucked up sense of priority.
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It's pretty obvious nobody uses Nim then - perhaps the language should take the hint :)
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So a still fictional game get's to have its own Wikipedia page [wikipedia.org] but the Nim programming language, in development and publicly available for years, only got to have a page a few days ago and is still under threat of deletion from rabid mods. WP truly has a fucked up sense of priority.
That is because this game doesn't have similar similar competing project with dedicated editors deleting references to competing projects, which is the primary cause of all deletion of IT projects on Wikipedia.
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"WP truly has a fucked up sense of priority."
You do understand that WP = you?
If you didn't create a properly sourced article about the Nim programming language until a few days ago, then shame on YOU.
Get off your lazy arse and stop complaining about things you can do something about.
Bigger than Star Citizen (Score:2)
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Could anybody explain? (Score:2)
I don't understand the "defusing" of a kitten by a laser pointer...
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I don't understand the "defusing" of a kitten by a laser pointer...
You distract the kitten with the laser pointer before it explodes! Duh....
Losing Criteria is Backwards (Score:2)
An exploding kitten should win. And the winning illustrations have already been done. http://www.amazon.com/101-Uses-Dead-Simon-Bond/dp/0517545160 [amazon.com]
Reminds me of... (Score:2)
The premise reminds me of Unexploded Cow [cheapass.com] from Cheapass Games. There's a free print-it-yourself version and a $25 deluxe version.