What is Exploding Kittens? A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions and Laser Beams and Sometimes Goats?

Exploding Kittens is a game that the creators describe as “a kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette.” The people who created this game are Elan Lee, Shane Small and Matthew Inman from The Oatmeal.

The Oatmeal is a website created by Inman that features hilarious comics and quizzes. The artist used his unique art style for Exploding Kittens.

“The illustrations gave more emphasis to how weird the actual game is. I thought it would be an interesting game to play and something new to try!” Emma Collins, junior, said.

The game raised $8,782,571 from 219,382 backers on Kickstarter, a site where people who are passionate about different creative projects can donate money to help fund them.

Exploding Kittens holds the record as the most funded game in Kickstarter history and has had more backers than any other project on Kickstarter.

“There is nothing too great, nothing too hard, nothing too outrageous that you incredible group of incredible people can’t accomplish as a community,” the creators said.

During a game, players take turns drawing from the deck or stealing other players’ cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten, after which he is blown up and is out of the game – unless he has a Defuse card, which can save the player from exploding.

The other cards in the deck, which feature hilarious artwork of kittens doing questionable things, are used simply to avoid the Exploding Kitten cards. The objective of the game is to make one’s opponents blow up first.

“You get to stack the odds against your opponent. You learn who your real friends are and who’s waiting to throw a grenade-chewing kitten at you,” one Amazon customer said.

Exploding Kittens has a regular game play and an advanced game play where players can combine cards for more difficulty. Also, people have the option of buying a family-friendly or a mature version of the game; however, not everyone is a fan of the game’s humor.

“The NSFW pack feels like a bunch of 12-year-old boys got together and started tapping into their limited imaginations,” another Amazon customer said.

Completely overpowering the negative comments, Exploding Kittens has received a 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon’s website, where over 3,000 people have reviewed it.

Exploding Kittens can be ordered or found in stores such as Target or Wal-Mart for $20. The creators of the game are donating 50 percent of their proceeds to cat shelters all over the United States.

“I thought it was funny, and enjoyable to play. I like it because of the funny cards you can pull and because of the strategy inherent to the game, yet anyone can pick [the Exploding Kitten] up,” Ben Arbuckle, senior, said.