The packaging - including the custom boxes, which hold two decks and feature a hinged lid and a magnetic clasp - has to be manufactured. 'The production cost is all in manufacturing' 'It's the baseline of what people expect from a game of this quality,' Temkin said. They have to be coated in a specific way to become water-resistant and durable. The cards have to be sourced, using specific kinds of stock for playing cards. It's relatively inexpensive to design a card game, as one only needs paper and drawing materials, but creating and shipping the final product is significantly more expensive than the act of sending out download codes for a digital product. 'The production cost is all in manufacturing,' Temkin explained. Lee told us the production order will be slightly less than one million decks of cards. While around 220,000 individuals backed the game, many purchased multiple decks. 'Absolutely not.' You have to make and ship them I asked him point blank: Aren't you going to walk away from this a millionaire? 'No,' he said, laughing. 'What that means is we have to give them the thing that we promised.'

'I think what most people tend to forget is Kickstarter is a contract that you’re signing with every single backer,' Elan Lee told Polygon. He then began to break down the numbers, and it became clear very quickly that the riches everyone assumes exist around this project are still mostly hypothetical. 'But what they have right now is a lot of expenses to meet to fulfill this Kickstarter and put this thing in production.' 'I think given enough continued interest in the game and time, it's possible it will make really good money,' Temkin told Polygon. Temkin is no stranger to creating and shipping large amounts of a card game, and Cards Against Humanity's own manufacturing and fulfillment partners, Ad Magic, will be producing Exploding Kittens.Ĭards Against Humanity itself was Kickstarted back in 2011, bringing in $15,570 from a $4,000 goal. I spoke with Cards Against Humanity's Max Temkin to discuss the economics of a Kickstarter project this large. The assumption is that everyone involved just made a ton of money. Which is absurd, right? How does a simple card game raise over $8 million, and what the heck will that money be used for? The criticisms of the product, and its immense success, began well before the campaign was over, and at first glance the economics of the project appear to be a dream come true. It's a card game for two to five players that has become the most successful gaming Kickstarter of all time, raising $8,782,571 from 219,382 backers.

Exploding Kittens is the work of game designers Elan Lee and Shane Small, along with artist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal.

Exploding kittens figures