Exploding Kittens Claws Past Ouya To Become Highest Funded Kickstarter Project Ever
Records are meant to be broken, but who would have though a card game called "Exploding Kittens" would be the one to dethrone Ouya as the most funded project Kickstarter has ever seen? Well, it happened, with Exploding Kittens erupting to $8,782,571, beating Ouya's record by more than $213,000. It also attracted more than three times as many backers at 219,382.
In case you're wondering, that's more than double the number of the backers for the second most backed Kickstarter project of all time -- Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere!, which attracted pledges from 105,875 people. As can happen when you pit cats against, well, anything and anyone, it was a bloodbath in terms of record shattering events.
"We’ve never seen anything like you guys, and neither has the planet. You have proven beyond any doubt that you are unstoppable," the Exploding Kittens team said in a statement. "There’s nothing we can put in front of you that you can’t do. There is nothing too great, nothing too hard, nothing too outrageous that you incredible group of incredible people can’t accomplish as a community."
A big reason why the project was so successful is because one of its creators is Matt Inman from the crazy-popular "The Oatmeal" comics. Mixing Inman with kittens on the Internet is a surefire recipe for success, as the project's outcome proves.
So, what's to become of all those funds? The Exploding Kittens team only set out to raise $10,000 for the project, and as HotHardware's own Rob Williams is told every week when he asks for a raise, "Meow money, meow problems!" In this case, the project's team said that after hitting its funding goal on the first day, "the campaign stopped being about money, and started being about a community. We decided that everything we did from that point on would be to celebrate you guys, and help you celebrate each other."
As the community unlocked a series of silly achievements, the Exploding Kittens team unlocked various stretch goals, such as upgrading all the boxes to a deluxe version with a hinged lid and magnetic seal that's capable of holding two decks.
The card game itself is simple. You and your kitty loving friends take turns drawing cards on a table. If you draw an exploding kitten card, you explode and it's game over (for you), unless you have play a Defuse card. These cards can have things like laser points, catnip sandwiches, and so forth. There are also other kinds of special cards that add an element of strategy to the game.
Whatever, it's a flipping card game and it's probably going to hold onto its multiple Kickstarter records for a long time to come.
In case you're wondering, that's more than double the number of the backers for the second most backed Kickstarter project of all time -- Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere!, which attracted pledges from 105,875 people. As can happen when you pit cats against, well, anything and anyone, it was a bloodbath in terms of record shattering events.
"We’ve never seen anything like you guys, and neither has the planet. You have proven beyond any doubt that you are unstoppable," the Exploding Kittens team said in a statement. "There’s nothing we can put in front of you that you can’t do. There is nothing too great, nothing too hard, nothing too outrageous that you incredible group of incredible people can’t accomplish as a community."
A big reason why the project was so successful is because one of its creators is Matt Inman from the crazy-popular "The Oatmeal" comics. Mixing Inman with kittens on the Internet is a surefire recipe for success, as the project's outcome proves.
So, what's to become of all those funds? The Exploding Kittens team only set out to raise $10,000 for the project, and as HotHardware's own Rob Williams is told every week when he asks for a raise, "Meow money, meow problems!" In this case, the project's team said that after hitting its funding goal on the first day, "the campaign stopped being about money, and started being about a community. We decided that everything we did from that point on would be to celebrate you guys, and help you celebrate each other."
As the community unlocked a series of silly achievements, the Exploding Kittens team unlocked various stretch goals, such as upgrading all the boxes to a deluxe version with a hinged lid and magnetic seal that's capable of holding two decks.
The card game itself is simple. You and your kitty loving friends take turns drawing cards on a table. If you draw an exploding kitten card, you explode and it's game over (for you), unless you have play a Defuse card. These cards can have things like laser points, catnip sandwiches, and so forth. There are also other kinds of special cards that add an element of strategy to the game.
Whatever, it's a flipping card game and it's probably going to hold onto its multiple Kickstarter records for a long time to come.
