#821: My Two-Year Secret Project, COYOTE — The Strategies and Tactics for Building a Bestseller from Nothing with Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens

What It Covers

Tim Ferriss and Elan Lee detail the complete two-year development process of creating Coyote, a card game that became a national bestseller in 8,000 retail locations, covering game design principles, prototyping methods, playtesting systems, and retail distribution strategies.

Key Questions Answered

• •Retail Distribution Reality: 70% of game sales occur in physical retail stores versus 30% online, requiring games to sell themselves on shelves. Line reviews happen twice yearly where buyers see 20-50 games pitched per meeting, making the pitch and visual presentation critical for securing shelf space in major retailers like Target and Walmart.
• •Playtesting System: Exploding Kittens uses 400 volunteer families called Kiddie Test Pilots who receive prototypes, record gameplay sessions within 24 hours, and answer one question: do you want to play again. Games deploy in batches of five, with feedback incorporated before the next batch ships over six to eight months, avoiding flawed stranger-based market research.
• •Design Constraints Framework: Successful casual games follow the two-minute-to-learn, fifteen-minute-to-play rule. Remove any component that does not need to exist. Avoid rules with exceptions using if-then-except logic. Design instructions assuming the creator is absent, anticipating confusion points and correcting them preemptively in the written rules to achieve 95% comprehension rates.
• •Zero Effect Brainstorming: When prototyping, avoid searching for one specific solution because finding that exact thing has low probability. Instead, stay open to finding anything, then adapt what you discover into your solution. This mindset shift enables productive iteration through what-if experiments, testing each modification immediately without attachment to predetermined outcomes.
• •Underdog Mechanics: Games need mechanisms allowing players who fall behind to catch up, preventing skilled players from dominating. Coyote uses attack cards that last-place players deploy against first-place players, adding handicaps like completing all moves with one hand or tyrannosaur arms. This maintains engagement and prevents the runaway leader problem common in competitive games.