A simple deck of cards became an overnight phenomenon - so much so that it raised $8.7 million in pledges on Kickstarter to make it into a real game.

The project, called "Exploding Kittens" was, according to co-creator Elan Lee on The Daily Beast, "literally a deck of poker cards that I had taken a Sharpie to and scribbled all over."

The game became the third biggest Kickstarter campaign of all time at 87,000% higher than the original $10,000 funding goal, with the largest number of backers - 219,382 - who are all eager to be part of the "kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats" card game.

According to The Guardian, the game was created by Xbox executives Elan Lee and Shane Small, its concept art from Matthew Inman, the creator of the famous "The Oatmeal" comic books.

In the pitch for the campaign, Lee, Small, and Inman explained that the "Exploding Kittens is a highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game."

At the end of the campaign, the co-creators wrote an update, saying, "On the very first day of this campaign, we hit our funding goal. That was a big deal. But after that, the campaign stopped being about money, and started being about a community. We decided that everything we did from that point on would be to celebrate you guys, and help you celebrate each other. In the last 30 days, you've broken a lot of records, but we wanted to highlight our favourite one: you made this the most fun Kickstarter to run of all time."

According to Digital Trends, with $8,782,571 to its name, "Exploding Kittens" has become the most highly funded game ever on Kickstarter, and the third most funded of any kind. It is also the most backed project, with 219,382 supporters.

The website notes that out of the top eleven most-backed projects in Kickstarter, seven of them are project games, or are game related. Some of the projects include "Wasteland 2", the Ouya console, and "Double Time Adventure". "Exploding Kittens," however, is the only card game to make the cut.

The Guardian noted that the first run of the "Exploding Kittens" will be shipped in July for the 15,505 backers paying $20 for the basic deck, and the 202,934 paying more than $35 for the "NSFW Deck" which included not "kid friendly" bonus cards.

Check out the game: