Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

The game is designed to be played with at least two players, with one player as the "Defuser", playing the game on a device (supporting both keyboard and mouse, touchscreen and gamepad controls, as well as support for virtual reality headsets), and the remaining players as the "Experts" reading the provided bomb defusal manual. As designed, the Defuser cannot look at the manual and must rely on the Experts to instruct them; similarly, the Experts cannot see the bomb, and must rely on the Defuser to describe the bomb to them. The Experts and the Defuser can communicate with each other either directly from across a table, or online using a separate voice service.

Each bomb in the game consists of multiple modules; the modules are independent of each other and can be disarmed in any order. Most modules require disarming, with the bomb successfully defused when all such modules are successfully disarmed. Disarming these modules requires the Defuser to relay visual indicators to the Experts, who then use the manual to determine what actions the Defuser should take. Other modules are "needy": they cannot be disarmed, and demand periodic attention to prevent them from causing a strike while the bomb is still armed.

Developers Allen Pestaluky, Ben Kane, and Brian Fetter originally created the game for Global Game Jam 2014. There, they had a few Oculus Rift development kits and wanted to take advantage of the novelty of virtual reality. Their original game, a rollercoaster ride simulator, had attracted a number of people to try it out, but the three observed that while the wearer of the headset was enjoying themselves, those waiting for their turn did not share that enjoyment. This gave them the idea of a game that could be shared alike by both a headset wearer and those watching the wearer.

Though they had several scenarios in mind, the idea of bomb defusing was the most interesting as well as something they could complete during the Game Jam. At the end of the Game Jam, they presented their game to the other participating developers, recording their own first playthrough of the game which they later posted to YouTube; the response both at the Game Jam and from YouTube viewers, calling the game "hilarious", led the three to realize they were on to a marketable title and developed the game for a full release. In developing the various rules for disarming modules, these were initially created procedurally like the bombs themselves, so that they could be shifted around between various demonstrations at trade shows; though the final game has statically defined rules for defusing, there is a framework in place that can be used to mix up the rules in future versions.

The PC version of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes received "mixed or average" reviews while the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 versions received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator platform Metacritic.

Destructoid awarded it a score of 9 out of 10, saying "If you are tired of always playing Cards Against Humanity, Monopoly, and that Gargoyles board game on Laserdisc, then Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes will certainly give you the fix you're looking for, pending you have friends ready to be committed to the task at hand."