Exploding Kittens

We've arguably, and it's never possible to know at the time, we've arguably exited the golden age of board games.

The golden age of board games was sort of like the rise of Kickstarter from, let's say, Exploding Kittens as an arbitrary point until the tariffs as another kind of arbitrary point.

One could argue that's the golden age of board games.

Maybe we're still in the golden age.

You know, like there...

I feel like we're still to the point where there's like a million different animal species out there, and there's not a game for every animal species, but we're getting to the point where there's some games around like pretty unique animals, you know? Like, I even think about like the mantis shrimp in, in Exploding Kittens with like mantis whatever, you know?

I was gonna say, I did record an episode on that if you wanna check it out.

It's in like the third or fourth season, but it's really fun with Jeremy and Ken.

no, no, all good, all good.

So have you played like Exploding Kittens?

Yes.

Like Uno, right? Uno is like the classic example.

Like don't have a lot of time in the weekends as well.

I just want to sleep.

So like when we have people over, we just play like Exploding Kittens.

I used to kind of play like the really intense games like Dota or like Starcraft or like League of Legends.

Oh, I forgot about that.

Exploding Kittens.

Here's Exploding Kittens, one of the most popular games.

Look at this, 42,000 ratings here, but it's in the mid section of these games.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the board game, and Disney animated...

I shouldn't say surprisingly, but I don't like all the Feuerland stuff.

I really enjoyed this one and it's not overly complicated and it's a different theme than normal.

What am I supposed to say about Exploding Kittens? They gave it a five.

I am so excited you're here.

Uh, yeah, so with me that day, on that dubious day, Elan Lee, who is the co-founder of the game company Exploding Kittens, and Elan and I were about to do, I guess you'd call it the opposite of shoplifting.

Uh, we were about to go into this big box store and sneak a new board game onto the shelves because Elan was giving us an inside look at the very real secret shelf testing process that Exploding Kittens, a very popular party game company, uses in the real world.

This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Waylynn Wong.

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Terms may apply.

Kenny and the Planet Money team have been working with the Exploding Kittens game company to make an economics-inspired board game and documenting that journey over on their show.

We like to talk about major changes of personnel in the industry.

And this one is that Board Game Wire is reporting that Exploding Kittens CEO Carly McGinnis is taking charge of Asmodee's global publishing operation as Jean-Sebastien de Barros exits.

So reported here, Asmodee has named Exploding Kitten CEO Carly McGinnis as head of its global publishing operation, putting an executive who helped transform a record-breaking Kickstarter game into an international brand in charge of a portfolio, including Catan, Ticket to Ride, Seven Wonders.

They're mentioning all of the Asmodee biggest hits there.

in the world.

Well, McGinnis has been with Exploding almost since the beginning.

So this really is a company that formed around a single Kickstarter for the Exploding Kittens card game, and it has become a force to be reckoned with.

Very quietly and slowly was acquired by Asmodee, so I believe now Exploding Kittens is a full division of Asmodee.

Big plug for that local designer, self-published, out there getting it into bigger shops, so you may see it at your local Barnes & Noble or your local Target, uh, coming up.

I'll plug the, the big one, Exploding Kittens, that, uh, also emerged from this region that is now becoming more and more of a common name.

But a lot, not a lot of folks realize, yes, that too was a local creation.

So with that, I am going to say thank you very much, Molly Johnson, for bringing us through the tabletop gaming scene of the Seattle area, which is under the radar, but less and less so every day.

game are you playing?

Exploding Kittens.

I actually

love that one.

He's probably cheating.

Yeah, probably.

Tell us about Exploding Kittens, Genie.

How does it work?