Former Xbox Executive Deals With New Focus

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There is life after tech. Over the course of a single week last month, an L.A. entrepreneur and his two partners raised more than $4 million on Kickstarter to create a game that’s played not on a video-game console or smartphone, but with old-fashioned playing cards.

Not a bad haul considering they had set a goal of raising $10,000 in a month. And the 107,000 backers the game got set a Kickstarter record.

The game’s got a name that you’re unlikely to forget: Exploding Kittens.

But don’t worry, no actual cats will be harmed should you choose to support the campaign and earn yourself a copy.

Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game. The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck.

The creators, brought together by Elan Lee, former chief design officer at Microsoft Corp.’s late Xbox Entertainment Studios in Santa Monica, are hoping to build upon the success of Cards Against Humanity, an edgy card game that gained notoriety online.

So far, it’s working.

The enormous success of the campaign, which now boasts more than 110,000 backers, is attributable in large part to one of Lee’s partners, Matt Inman, the creator of popular online comic strip “The Oatmeal.” Inman has been publicizing it regularly to his more than 3 million Facebook followers.

The other member of the trio is Shane Small, a creative director at the Culver City office of digital media company Interlude Ltd.

Lee came up with the original concept late last year when Microsoft shuttered the division and he left the company.

Originally known as Bomb Squad, Inman was the one who suggested they change the name to Exploding Kittens. He met Lee in Hawaii while they were both on vacation and Lee showed him his initial concept deck that featured hand-drawn designs illustrated with a Sharpie.

Inman loved the idea so much that he agreed to postpone a book deadline if Lee let him join the team and illustrate the cards.

Inman’s pitch to make the game about cats was simple “because the Internet,” Lee laughed, referring to the voluminous cat-related content that can be found online.

The creators are partnering with Ad Magic Inc., a Netcong, N.J., game printer that makes the Cards Against Humanity decks.

Lee said he expects to ship the games in July.

But there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Lee said that he’s fielding about 3,300 emails an hour from Exploding Kittens backers who are making all manner of card and game-play suggestions.

“This is probably the hardest I’ve worked in my entire life,” he said.

Fullscreen Developments

New details are emerging about a legal battle between Culver City online entertainment company Fullscreen Inc. and two former employees who defected to rival Big Frame in October.

Both networks produce a wide variety of lifestyle content distributed through YouTube and offer management services to online stars. It is a business model that is becoming increasingly important as YouTube stars secure lucrative commercial sponsorship deals, and film and TV opportunities.

Fullscreen has alleged in separate complaints that Larry Shapiro, its former senior vice president and talent management chief, and another manager, Andrew Graham, violated their employment contracts by secretly securing deals for Big Frame while still employed by Fullscreen.

Fullscreen also claims the pair used the company’s trade secrets to do so and covered up their actions by deleting a trove of emails. Both Shapiro and Graham have formally denied the charges against them.

All parties in the case have declined to comment. The Business Journal first reported the accusations last month.

Attorney Daryl M. Crone of Westwood law firm Crone Hawxhurst is representing both defendants and filed documents Jan. 20 in Los Angeles Superior Court clarifying that the amount of money in question in the Graham case exceeds $50,000, though the specific deals Fullscreen is challenging in both cases remain unknown.

Crone also wrote to the court that Graham is willing to enter mediation to try and settle the dispute, but Fullscreen is resisting until “some preliminary discovery” occurs. According to Crone, the company feels some evidence must be gathered in order for talks to be productive.

Jeffrey Kobulnick, a partner at Ezra Brutzkus Gubner in Woodland Hills who reviewed the Shapiro case for the Business Journal, said in an interview last month that much of the case will rest on whether Fullscreen can recover the emails the company alleges Shapiro deleted and what they contain.

The parties are due to appear in court for the first time Feb. 6.


Staff reporter Omar Shamout can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 263.

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