(BONUS) Exploding Kittens CEO’s “walking with AI” ritual to unlock ideas.

Nov 19, 2025

Elan Lee, the creative genius behind Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito, redefines how we think about AI in game design. He shares his unique approach of using AI as a quiet sparring partner, where it helps refine ideas and solve design challenges without overwhelming him with answers. Discover how he utilizes AI to improve playtest instructions, balance in-game economies, and guide his insightful morning walks. Elan emphasizes the importance of letting AI ask questions that spark innovation rather than merely spitting out ideas.

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INSIGHT

Teach AI To Be Quiet

The secret to using AI well may be teaching it to be quiet and not interrupt your thinking.
Framing AI as a questioning partner helps you think more clearly than having it supply answers.

ANECDOTE

Tried And Rejected AI For Creative Outputs

Elan tried using AI to generate game concepts and art and found the outputs unhelpful or unusable.
That failure led him to repurpose AI for augmentation tasks rather than creative generation.

ADVICE

Stress-Test Instructions With AI

Before sending instructions to testers, ask AI to read them and flag clarity issues and edge cases.
Use AI feedback to reduce distracting confusion and get higher-quality gameplay results.

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The secret to using AI well might actually be teaching it to shut up.

In this bonus episode, I’m joined by Elan Lee - the brilliant mind behind Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito. While you might expect someone like Elan to use AI to design wild new worlds or characters, that’s not what he does at all.

Instead, he’s found a way to make AI his creative sparring partner - one that never interrupts, never judges, and somehow helps him think more clearly.

In this chat, Elan shares how he uses AI to stress-test ideas, solve tricky design problems, and even guide his morning creative walks. His approach flips the script on AI - using it not to generate answers, but to ask better questions.

Elan and I discuss:

How Elan uses AI to uncover blind spots in game instructions

Why he treats AI as a creative sparring partner, not a substitute for imagination

The surprising way he uses AI to fix in-game economies and balance point systems

His daily three-hour “thinking walks” with ChatGPT - and the prompt that changed how he works

The one mindset shift that turns AI into a powerful tool for creativity and reflection

KEY QUOTES

“When you are working with AI, you don’t let it answer questions for you - you let it ask you questions.”

“The best ideas come from combining old ideas in new ways. AI just helps me see those connections.”

Explore Elan’s games at explodingkittens.com and connect with him on Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn.

If you haven’t yet listened to my full conversation with Elan - where we dive into creativity, failure, and how he built a global game company that thrives on iteration - you can find that episode here.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

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Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:

Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

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