It's had more backers than any other campaign in Kickstarter
history. Now, five months after the campaign finished, Exploding Kittens are to be distributed to eager fans all over the world.
The game's
creator Elan Lee has gained a valuable insight from the process:
"The
biggest lesson for me is that Kickstarter is a terrible place to raise
money," the Californian designer reveals.
This seems a strange
lesson after the card game -- mixing super-cute with ultra-violence --charmed
$8.8 million from a record 219,382 backers across the world.
But the nature
of the product, an old fashioned game with high manufacturing costs, and its
international appeal meant that Lee and his partners were paying up to $15 to
produce and ship each deck of cards, which sell for $20. Kickstarter fees took
almost $1 million from their revenue.
A new
challenge
The Exploding Kittens team have stayed
on course to meet their distribution goal of late July only after a manic
scale-up to meet demand.
"We've been
dealing with unforeseen levels of enthusiasm from fans," says Lee, who
previously worked for Microsoft and has founded several start-ups. "We had
to increase our initial order of 500 cards to 700,000, which comes with a whole
bunch of international logistics to consider."
"Instead of
filling packs in my garage, we have six fulfillment centers -- three in the US,
and one in Canada, the UK and Australia. We have massive print production in
China. We are sending 17 cargo containers to fulfill orders. We have 800 people
working on the project including truckers, lawyers, and accountants."
Adapting from a
small scale labor of love to a major international business -- instantly one of
the world's larger board game companies - has presented difficulties at every
stage.
"I wake up
knowing 50 things will go wrong today," says Lee. "This ranges from
mundane things like how we deal with different taxes for different regions, to
retail locations demanding a thicker box which doesn't fall over."
Fan customers: blessing and curse
The team -- which includes cartoonist
Matthew Inman and designer Shane Small -- also learned that humor does not
necessarily scale. After putting a maximum age restriction of 30 on a special
edition NSFW deck, they were forced to expand customer support to address an
avalanche of calls, mostly from people in their late 20s.
Kickstarter
funders are more like fans than typical consumers, which Lee acknowledges has
been a blessing and a curse.
"With this
product we have been upfront -- we have shared the art, how to play, and when
it will be delivered. It is a simple contract with the backers that worked to
our advantage."
But comments on
the Exploding Kittens page show that fans and investors can be more demanding
than regular consumers, with several complaints that the game had not arrived
even before it was due to be shipped.
"People
always want sooner, better and faster," Lee concedes.
Retailers can be
circumspect about stocking crowd-funded goods, but in this case stores are
demanding more games than the trio can provide. Producers of TV shows, comics
and mobile apps are also keen to take the kittens into new arenas.
"Clearly it
would be a mistake to walk away now," Lee admits. "But we're a small
team and protective of our property."
An expansion
pack is on the way, and after that the team will consider the next steps.
But for the man
who has become accustomed to 24-hour stress as a result of the Kittens'
unexpected success, some relief from their demands is the immediate priority.
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