Company Profile - Exploding Kittens

What's in a game

In January 2015, Exploding Kittens – a card game designed by Elan Lee, Shane Small and Matthew Inman from The Oatmeal - made history by becoming both the most backed project in Kickstarter history, meeting its $10,000 goal in just 20 minutes. Six and a half years later, Exploding Kittens is a respected games publisher with a raft of unique titles to its name and big plans for the future. Rachael Simpson-Jones sat down with Joeri Hoste, general manager international, to find out more about the company’s approach to the Games category and what 2022 has in store.

Coming into 2021, Exploding Kittens’ major focus was on expanding its portfolio, which comprises the Exploding Kittens franchise, the Throw Throw franchise, Tacocat Spelled Backwards and games including A Little Wordy, Poetry for Neanderthals, You’ve Got Crabs, Bears for Babies and A Game of Cat & Mouth. Previously, the company was producing two, maybe three new games in a 12-month period; now, it’s staffing up on the development side with a view to ramping the release schedule up in a big way. The events that have unfolded over the past 18 months have given Exploding Kittens the momentum and financial strength to invest in product design and new talent, with +85% YOY growth in the UK in 2020 vs. 2019. And YTD until the end of July, despite initial concerns that last year’s performance couldn’t be replicated, the company finds itself enjoying a further +50% growth.

“Our performance over the past year and a half is partly due to the introduction of new titles and partly due to the success of our existing games,” explains Joeri. “For many years, Exploding Kittens was our No.1 game and franchise, but Throw Throw Burrito, another Kickstarter success story launched in 2019, has now taken the No.1 spot at retail. It’s a higher price point, so it drives higher overall value sales, but it also delivers the numbers on units too. Although these games have been great for us, we still see the opportunity to grow. Each season, we see our unit performance and selection come on leaps and bounds, and it’s been a great first half of the year.”

Connecting people through play lies at the heart of all game development. By diversifying its portfolio, Exploding Kittens is also discovering new ways to do just that, via innovation and twists on its gameplay. Unique 2-player word games A Little Wordy, a sneaky, tile-unscrambling word game for would-be word wizards, and Tacocat Spelled Backwards, a fun combination of strategy, luck and instinct, launched earlier this year when lockdowns were still in effect, and bored couples and housemates were seeking fresh entertainment. Both have proved exceptionally popular since arriving on the market.

Exploding Kittens has also moved into the licensing space with the release of Exploding Minions, based on Illumination’s smash-hit franchise, which is distributed by Universal Pictures. Far from slapping the licence over the top of its predecessor and calling it a day, the company has delved deep into the animated property to bring fans reimagined artwork by The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, as well as completely new card types that reflect the Minions universe. Joeri says Exploding Minions has performed fantastically since being introduced in June.

“The introduction of 2-player word games and our move into the licensing space represent two of the ways we’re enhancing our portfolio, while still bringing people together over a game,” Joeri says. “Licensing helps us to expand our target audience, and so far, it’s been a hugely positive move for us. We’re now exploring other opportunities in this space; we really feel that carefully selected properties will help us add even more innovative twists to our game franchises, which will bring in new players and offer something different to existing ones too.”

Digital gaming also forms a chunk of the Exploding Kittens portfolio, with an Exploding Kittens premium app and the free-to-play Kitty Letter app currently available on IOS and Android, and a Nintendo Switch version of Exploding Kittens out too.

As mentioned at the start of this piece, Exploding Kittens emerged on the Games scene via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which allows members of the general public to fund projects that inspire them. To this day, the Exploding Kittens Kickstarter remains the most backed project in the platform’s history, something Joeri considers a huge privilege and is incredibly proud of. Although this was nearly seven years ago, the company hasn’t forgotten its roots, or the fact that consumers paved the way for the success it enjoys today with their own money. Joeri says this element of Exploding Kittens’ heritage remains front of mind throughout games development, and that every effort is made to connect with its community throughout the process. The company has a responsibility to its community, which is evolving all the time. To not build on its portfolio or explore new avenues would be to let its fans down, so keeping a high level of engagement is crucial. The community is consulted on gameplay, value perception, packaging concepts and much more via email marketing, website feedback and social media.

“We are fortunate in that we have a very broad player community, from younger children to adults and everyone in between,” Joeri adds. “Having a strong relationship with your end-users is key and, as we grow and expand, the focus will be on maintaining this just the same way we always have.”

Players familiar with Exploding Kittens’ games will know that they offer decidedly unique gameplay. Every title is shot through with light-hearted, quirky humour, combined with a level of strategy that offers repeat playability and a truly engaging, competitive experience. Exploding Kittens also goes to great lengths to ensure its games provide something completely different to what else is available in the games market, whether that’s hurling weaponised avocados at your opponent, walloping them with an inflatable club, or wrapping your head around a palindrome-powered tug-of-war to win possession of a cat who is also a taco. Putting players in a position they’ve not been in before, Joeri tells me, leads to some very memorable experiences for people of all ages.

Currently Exploding Kittens works directly with Amazon while Esdevium Games, t/a Asmodee UK, serves the rest of the UK market. As of 2022, Exploding Kittens will be starting to build direct relationships with UK national retailers, while Asmodee UK will focus on indies and a number of other key accounts. Nationals have been instrumental to the company’s success thus far. In the US, where Exploding Kittens currently deals directly with nationals, the assortment of games on offer at major stores continues to grow season after season, and the goal is to replicate the figures seen across the pond in our domestic market. The focus will be on building brand awareness for its games and providing retailers with higher levels of support and new initiatives.

“Asmodee UK has been a tremendous partner for us,” enthuses Joeri. “We’re very grateful for all the support it has offered us over the past few years; in fact, Asmodee UK has supported us from the moment we landed in the UK following our Kickstarter success. Moving forward, Asmodee will remain a major partner for us, not just with Asmodee UK in the UK but also worldwide with other members of the Asmodee Group. However, building our own direct relationships with nationals is the next logical step in our growth; we’re reaching a certain size, growing from a company that has a couple of popular games to a publisher with 15+ different titles, licensing deals and expanding franchises. Off the back of two years’ strong growth under a UK distribution model, the time is right to make the next move. We’re having conversations with retailers in a way that allows us to anticipate their needs and the needs of their customers, and to build out the bricks & mortar retail support in the same way we have in the US.”

Joeri adds: “A lot of people on the outside still look at us as a publisher that’s had some success in a niche part of the Games market, but that’s just not the case anymore. In the US, a lot of our business comes via mass-market retail, while UK NPD figures from December had us in the Top 50 Toys and Games companies for the month, and we were the No.2 card game too.”

Marketing efforts this year will centre on PR, digital and social media in the form of a robust campaign. Exploding Kittens has invested a healthy amount in digital advertising for this year, providing strong support across all its titles, while 2022 will see things ramp up even further thanks to the extra margin unlocked by new and strengthened direct relationships with retail partners. Exploding Kittens will be building upon its franchises next year too, encouraged by the reception to Exploding Minions and Throw Throw Avocado, the latter of which was released in August. Additions to the Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw franchises will be joined by expansions for Poetry for Neanderthals, which the company wants to transform into its third tentpole franchise. The company is also moving into new categories - a range of jigsaw puzzles is on its way. These will most likely see limited distribution this year, but both the offering and the marketing support behind it will be dramatically increased for 2022. This year also marked the first external acquisition for the company, with the popular, fast-paced card game Happy Salmon, from North Star Games, joining the portfolio. Designed by Quentin Weir and game developer Ken Gruhl, who has since joined the Exploding Kittens team as senior game designer, the company is reimagining Happy Salmon with an Exploding Kittens twist and will be re-releasing the game this November.

At the same time, Exploding Kittens is bolstering its team. Joeri is currently hiring for the international team, with a marketing manager to support the company’s initiatives top of the agenda. The product development team is growing too. In a far cry from its earliest days, when Elan Lee and Matt Inman designed each title themselves, Exploding Kittens now boasts 15 talented designers. If one thing is clear, it’s that this company has its sights set on big things – and 2022 could just be its most explosive year yet.