Yesterday, Canadian indie game developer Ben Kane, 29, released a PC version of his bomb-defusing multiplayer Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

The premise is simple: One player can only see the bomb on their screen. The other player(s) can only view the bomb-defusing manual. They can’t see each other’s screens, so they have to describe out loud what’s in front of them to figure out how to defuse the bomb before the time runs out.

Reddit user LtHummus (whom Kane gifted an advance copy of Keep Talking at gaming convention Pax Prime) shared a video capturing an intense, masterfully executed round of the game in “hardcore” mode that would make Jack Bauer sweat.

It’s clear from the video that even fake bomb disposal can be enormously stressful. One of the game’s taglines promises it will “test the limits of your communication skills… and friendships?”

After LtHummus’ video blew up exploded in popularity was upvoted to the top of the Videos community, Keep Talking co-creator Ben Kane showed up in the comments section to acknowledge the lieutenant’s skills.

Kane and fellow game developers Brian Fetter and Allen Pestaluky first had the idea for Keep Talking at 2014’s Global Game Jam, an annual meet-up that encourages collaboration and brainstorming of new games.

While watching a demo of a virtual reality rollercoaster game, the team noticed something odd.

“There was a crowd of people all watching one person who was wearing this headset and bobbing his head,” Kane recalls. “We thought the scene was ridiculous and wanted to come up with a game where that crowd could be playing the same game as the player in virtual reality, and have something critical to contribute.”

After running through ideas for what that “critical” information could be, the developer’s settled on a concept.

“It only took a few minutes to hit on the idea of a bomb defuser calling back to base for help,” Kane says.

Previous versions of Keep Talking relied on a virtual reality headset. (keeptalkinggame.com)

The three developers used family and friends to test out the game.

“It’s made for some odd but very entertaining Christmas gatherings,” Kane says with a laugh.

However, their incorporation of virtual reality wasn’t an immediate success.

“In our original prototype,” Kane shares, “I thought it would be a good idea to throw the player’s camera around the room when the bomb exploded. Turns out that’s one of the best ways to make someone throw up.”

Fortunately, the game’s most recent PC version is much easier on the stomach. And branching away from virtual reality could make the game accessible to a much wider audience.

“Virtual reality might not be a household thing yet,” Kane concedes, “but ‘You need to help me defuse a bomb!’ is straight-forward to grasp and seems to instantly unlock everyone’s hidden desire to save the day.”

As for LtHummus, he may have beaten “the hardest bomb” currently playable on the game, but his teammate, Reddit user SpiritSails, hints that another intense video involving two simultaneous bombs may be in the works—though their first attempt didn’t go quite so well:

In the meantime, redditors are using the success of Keep Talking to out-pun each other:

When asked if he ever gets tired of the jokes, Kane responds with perfect deadpan delivery: “We have a tremendous capacity for bomb puns. I could see four of them in a single comment and it wouldn’t tick me off.”

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is available now on Steam.