Exploding Kittens game created by RIT alumnus debuts on Netflix

The bestselling card game that RIT alumnus Elan Lee ’98 (computer science) created nearly 10 years ago is exploding into a universe.

Exploding Kittens, the animated series based on the game, premiered on Netflix July 12. The nine-episode first season brings characters from the game to life and introduces new ones. It also coincides with updates to the Netflix Exploding Kittens mobile game and new show-adapted merchandise from Lee’s company.

‌

Netflix

Elan Lee ’98 (computer science) is executive producer of the Exploding Kittens show and CEO of the Exploding Kittens game publishing company.

“When we started Exploding Kittens, our goal felt very similar to Marvel’s model, which is ultimately telling good stories,” said Lee. “What’s unique about our game is that we have characters—every single card is a one-panel comic. So we get these amazing, fully fleshed out personalities and attitudes, but you’ve never seen any of them move before now.”

Lee, a former chief design officer at Xbox, created the Exploding Kittens tabletop game along with his friend Matthew Inman, a cartoonist who runs The Oatmeal. The game is a version of Russian roulette powered by cartoon kitties.

They launched the game in 2015 and raised almost $9 million on Kickstarter in 30 days. Since then, they’ve sold 40 million games globally and published dozens of other tabletop games, digital games, and merchandise.

The new animated Netflix comedy follows the ultimate fight between good and evil when God and Satan are sent to Earth to live with humans—but as talking cats living with a dysfunctional family of humans. The series stars Tom Ellis as Godcat and Sasheer Zamata as Devilcat. Inman is showrunner on the series, alongside Shane Kosakowski. Executive producers include Lee, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels’ Bandera Entertainment, and Chernin Entertainment.

‌

Netflix

 

Last month, Lee’s team rented out a theater to screen the first two episodes of the show for friends and family. Lee said the most common comment he got was, “Can we watch that again, because the guy sitting next to me was laughing so hard that I missed half of it?”

“What an incredible compliment,” said Lee. “That just makes me absolutely thrilled and optimistic that a larger audience will find the same joy and delight that we all have in the creation of this thing.”

Lee said his day-to-day job is working as CEO of the Exploding Kittens company, which now has 100 employees. They’ve been developing the show and its related products for the past five years. In 2022, Netflix and the company launched Exploding Kittens—The Game, a free-to-play mobile game available to subscribers. A new version of the card game called Exploding Kittens: Good vs. Evil features artwork and characters from the Netflix series.

“So it’s very much an interwoven world—the goal is to build a universe,” said Lee. “Start anywhere you want. You’re eventually going to come around to experience the entirety of it.”

Next up, Lee said they are always working on new games. One new tabletop game will involve sword fighting and a new VR game will allow players to experience the Exploding Kittens world in a way that nobody’s ever seen before. They are also already working on season two of the show.