Kickstarter Card and Deck Projects Report - replaced by New Deck Report on PCP

[Don Boyer]

Just checking in, at about 5:30am New York time:

With just 14 hours remaining, Lance Miller's Black and White Actuators are building up steam and raring to go at 157% of his $14K goal met.  It was little surprise that he made it across the finish line with a respectable margin for error.

At 13 days to go, Amanda Cleal's Crimson Gate looks unlikely to make it out of the gate, with only 13% of her $16K goal met.  I know her deck wasn't very popular around here, but still...it's not like she designs for Merz67, that purveyor of fine playing cards, Billy Bob products and fart machines...  (I kid you not; just go to merz67.com and see for yourself!)  One-stop shopping for all your hillbilly needs!

With a mere 16 days left, Sean Whelan's Galvanic deck is also on shaky though somewhat better ground - he's received 39% of the $15K he requested to get his deck charged up.  Anyone want to give his deck a jump start?  The consensus around here was that it was a design worth seeing daylight.

With just over a month remaining, Ruth Miller's fantasy of creating a Fairy Tale deck based on the art of Arthur Rackham may actually become a reality, having so far met 38% of her $8,800 goal.  Why so low a goal, you may ask?  She's not printing with the USPC, instead opting to use an Indian manufacturer, despite the tuck box mockup on her site clearly stating by the barcode (in very tiny print, I'll admit) that it's a product of USPC...  Naughty, naughty...  But if you're into the artwork and the really cool-looking pips, go for it and help it get over the hump(-ty dumpty)...

Coming in at around a month as well is the Deck of the Living Dead, another non-USPC deck by Chris Pallace of my home state of New York.  His $22K goal is only 24% met so far, but I believe this one will be shambling past the graveyard rather than becoming a resident - his design is very attractive and in addition to the European-style four indices per card, he adds a unique feature of a fourteenth card, the Grim Reaper card, to each suit, bringing the total number of cards to 60 per deck.  It's the more cartoony side of Goth, really...  (That's a GOOD thing - they take themselves way too seriously, those Goths...)

If you haven't checked out the other decks Pallace's Bent Castle Workshop (http://www.bentcastle.com/Bentcastle/Bent_News.html) is offering, I feel they are not to be missed. There's Pegleg Pete's Deck of Royal Rogues (http://www.bentcastle.com/Bentcastle/Pegleg_Petes.html), a pirate-themed deck in two colors, also with a fourteenth suit card (Serpent) but with only two indices instead of Living Dead's four, and the Pippoglyph deck (http://www.bentcastle.com/Bentcastle/Pippoglyph.html), a beautiful reinterpretation of the classic face design in red backs only.  No, they aren't USPC decks, but they're damned pretty...

 

[xela]

I'm moving this to Des&Dev - I think Kickstarter-related items, aside from "new deck" topics should be there. :]

I hope Sean's deck makes it. As for the rest, I don't care that much. The DOTLD looks like it took a lot of work and effort, so my best wishes goes to the designer. Just because it's not my cup of tea, doesn't mean it shouldn't be  many others'. It's fantastic artwork.

[phantom1412]

I think it's because of too many decks are released. So, people became very picky.
If they found at least one reason not to buy the deck, they just won't pledge.
Those reasons are Eg. non-uspcc decks or the deck has nothing stand out from the others.


So, from now on, if anyone wants to produce some decks, he/she has to make sure his deck has something different form others. And also, it must be in good quality decks.

[Jin Jian]

all the deck are good but i like the galvanic deck more..i think that the reason his deck fund is so less is because of the cheap uncut sheet

[phantom1412]

I think Gulvanic is the best among those likely-to-be-unsuccessful decks.
I didn't pledge on that, because I have to stop and think more about my expense.
So, I will say goodbye to the kickstarter decks that are not catching my eyes.

[Jin Jian]

same too .. i did not pledge of either of them but if the funding is really success and have those kind of upgrade i will get a few

[MrLukeCarroll]

If I was going to get any of those cards it would be the Galvanic, but I'm not 100% sure on if I should get them or wait for something else to come out.

[Jin Jian]

if i were you i will pledge for the deck .. but not really sure if the deck will be funded .. 15 days to raise 9k not easy

[KPopFever605]

The only deck I'm really looking forward to is the Galvanic deck, as the Actuators have already succeeded. I like its' sci-fi theme, but sadly, I doubt it will make it.

[Jin Jian]

The only deck I'm really looking forward to is the Galvanic deck, as the Actuators have already succeeded. I like its' sci-fi theme, but sadly, I doubt it will make it.

ya same i really like the ace of spades the back design all those stuff of the deck but raising 9k in 15 days is totally impossible .. hope miracle happen

[Don Boyer]

same too .. i did not pledge of either of them but if the funding is really success and have those kind of upgrade i will get a few

Why wait?  If you like it, get it as a Kickstarter deck.  If you wait, it might never see the light of day!  KS prices are usually lower than retail to start with.

The only deck I'm really looking forward to is the Galvanic deck, as the Actuators have already succeeded. I like its' sci-fi theme, but sadly, I doubt it will make it.

It won't if you don't back it!

I hear people saying, "Oh, I like this, but I'll wait 'til it hits retail."  Hello?  Without the backing, it WON'T hit retail stores.

It's like the recent study that finds your best chances of getting aid in the event of an assault in a public place are if just a small number of people witness the act as opposed to an entire crowd.  When the crowd mentality kicks in, most of the crowd assumes that someone else is either summoning help or going to help them, so in the end, practically (or in some cases, exactly) no one stops to help.  With fewer witnesses, this assumption doesn't hold as much water, so people will be more likely to offer aid.

A crowd of people are saying they like this deck, but only a small percentage of them are actually backing it.  With a prevailing mental attitude like that, no, it won't succeed.

[KPopFever605]

The only deck I'm really looking forward to is the Galvanic deck, as the Actuators have already succeeded. I like its' sci-fi theme, but sadly, I doubt it will make it.

ya same i really like the ace of spades the back design all those stuff of the deck but raising 9k in 15 days is totally impossible .. hope miracle happen

well, when your talking about miracles, it could happen. I believe that one of lance's decks didn't make it until' the last day. so as long as you have faith it could happen.

[xela]

The only deck I'm really looking forward to is the Galvanic deck, as the Actuators have already succeeded. I like its' sci-fi theme, but sadly, I doubt it will make it.

ya same i really like the ace of spades the back design all those stuff of the deck but raising 9k in 15 days is totally impossible .. hope miracle happen

well, when your talking about miracles, it could happen. I believe that one of lance's decks didn't make it until' the last day. so as long as you have faith it could happen.

I recall both the Actuators and the B&W Actuators easily meeting their goals.

If you're right, though, then Lance's initial goal on the actuators was very small. I know how hard it is to raise even $5000.

The reason the Galvanic might not succeed is because it takes a great deal of marketing to actually have the deck spread by word of mouth. I created this community and the Facebook page to aid me in that, and of course I had 2000 subscribers on YouTube. I spent all day posting on different forums and getting people to send out the link in their newsletters.

Every day I would contact pledges and talk with them about what they could afford and when they could pledge.

A 10 hour work day seven days a week got me to $32k. The quality of your product doesn't matter if it's not yet tangible and nobody knows it exists.

EDIT: This is not meant to be boastful, but rather some good advice for anyone that wants to succeed on KS.

[Don Boyer]

So, here's what I'm seeing, Tuesday December 6th, 1:21 in the morning...

Crimson Gate is VERY unlikely to succeed, practically no chance.  The deadline's in four days and she's only raised 13% of the requested $16K.  Someone call the casket maker and order up a fresh pine box...

Galvanic is now looking like it will fail, with only 41% of his $15K goal met and only 7 days to cross the finish line.  Hey, make that TWO pine boxes...

Deck of the Living Dead seems to have less steam, but there's still a good deal of time left; 22 days to get from 31% of his $22K goal all the way to 100% or more.  It could happen.  (Just don't hold your breath waiting for the celebratory "goal met" dinner party.)  The deck may still see the light of day since it's being made by an established card company rather than a single designer with a dream.  I get the feeling they wanted to try KS just to see if they could make a deck without having to front all the costs themselves.  The jury's still out on the answer to that.

The Fairy Tale Art Cards are also chugging slowly along, having met 41% of her $8.8K goal with 25 days to go.  She's more likely to get over the hump due to such a low goal, but her cards aren't likely to appeal to this crowd anyway, having thus far been met here with an indifferent shrug.

There's been two outright failures in the playing card category - the "Deck the 1% - Occupy Wall Street" playing cards only made it to just short of 10% of its $16K goal, and that wacky Triple-Topper "three-dimensional" deck managed to raise only $90.00 - a mere 1.5% of the $6K goal.  (So, that's thirty from mom, thirty from dad, and thirty from that crazy guy at work, right?)  It was pretty much doomed from the start, being such an alien concept in a market that likes design innovation more than a total rebuild of how playing cards are supposed to work.  I think it's safe to say that the Triple-Topper is the worst deck fail in the history of Kickstarter, and perhaps in the top ten or so of worst failure in any category.

The new entries:

"Outland" playing cards.  Anyone not in the SCA will scratch their heads at this one.  It has a miniscule goal that's already 8% met, but any deck printed on a thousand-dollar budget screams "I'm crap!!" with the volume turned to eleven.  And it's another alien concept, with its seven "barony" suits...

The Typestache deck is an odd but not unheard-of concept - a deck created solely to advertise a product, in this case an app for smartphones to place down-facing curly brackets on people's faces in photos.  I'm sure it's cute, but an app like that is about as important to the world as the numerous fart sound effect apps and fake lighter flame apps and lightsaber apps and beer mug apps...  The deck is bridge size, really cheaply made with only a $1.2K budget, and is already at 59% of its goal.  But this is the same deck that only give you cards for a reward if you're in a completed "bracket", a multiple of what's needed to get the next print run of cards made.  No one knows what the poor souls who get caught in the last, incomplete bracket will get, but it won't be cards...  Is it even legit to do that on Kickstarter?  Wave a prize at you and tell you there's a chance you won't even get it despite being a backer?  My head hurts just thinking about it.

There you have it.

[sinsandman]

Hey Sabacc, I just stumbled across this thread. I really like what you are doing here. Might you have some experience in journalism? Seems so. Anyway, digging it, you have brought to my attention a couple decks I had not seen on KS before. Thanks

[Don Boyer]

Hey Sabacc, I just stumbled across this thread. I really like what you are doing here. Might you have some experience in journalism? Seems so. Anyway, digging it, you have brought to my attention a couple decks I had not seen on KS before. Thanks

Thanks.  I've always been good at writing.  In ye olden days when the SATs only had two 800-point sections, I scored a 700 in English.  (550 in math, despite my logical mind...)

It's long past time for another update.  I have to put it in another post - I tried here but hit the character limit for post size, which until now I didn't even realize existed...

[Don Boyer]

As of today, Sat. 31 Dec. 2011 at 1:47am, here's what we're seeing on KS...

Another two bite the dust - Crimson Gate failed on December 17th (no surprise), and the much-liked Galvanic deck died three days later (again, no surprise).  No word on whether CG will come back - my tea leaves are saying no, but they're fickle.  The Galvanic is expected to return in the spring with a more-polished design including custom court cards, giving it a better chance of life.  Long live Galvanic 2.0...
 
 A firm called Mitee Games pushed out a deck called "Whot!" which according to their hype is better than UNO.  But since it's not a standard 52+jokers deck, they've passed by here utterly unnoticed.  They're at 3% of the needed of the $5,500 goal with only seven backers so far (I guess the designer tapped out all the family he/she could find) and five-and-a-half weeks to go.  Don't hold your breath.
 
 The butt-ugly and totally alien Outland playing cards are indeed dying the ignominious death I predicted here earlier - even with such a low goal, they've only hit 29% (all of that from a mere 8 backers!) with 9 days remaining.  Somebody call the coffin maker; he's gonna need some more pine...
 
 In what is to me a bit of a shock, the attractive project for the Day of the Living Deck deck is barely over a third of the way to its $22K goal with a mere four days to go.  Only a hail Mary or an angel investor will save this project.  I'll be sad to see it go, but there were a number of factors working against it, not the least of which being the current deck glut, manufacture by a company other than USPC and people's checkbooks and credit cards groaning under the strain of plain-old holiday shopping, not to mention the "our prices/prizes/premiums are insane" marketing tactics of some of the usual magic/playing card suspects we all know and love/hate.  With any luck, this deck will see the light of day without a Kickstart, since the company putting it together is not exactly inexperienced at this and has apparently done OK with KS so far.
 
 Fairy Tale Art Cards - a week to go, not quite halfway to the goal.  More pine!
 
 With just 67 backers, the Typestache deck hit its goal and has seven days left.  But before you decide you want to jump on the bandwagon and get a deck, read the fine print.  The only people receiving rewards beyond the first 100% are those who manage to get the deck to the next "multiple" of the original goal, representing an additional printing of the deck.  They're only 105% funded now, so that next multiple (the 200% mark) won't likely get reached before the deadline - anyone backing now will just get consolation prizes of an unknown nature.  Woo.  AND hoo.  (Not.)
 
 The Modern Hanafuda deck is running strong despite the completely non-Western playing cards.  I think some pluses in designer Sarah Thomas' favor are that the cards are slightly larger than poker sized rather than the traditional miniature size most hanafuda decks are printed in, in addition to very beautiful and simple modern graphics.  With two weeks to go she's at 97% of her $6K goal - it's practically a shoe-in.  Interesting bonus - invest $1K and you get to collaborate on the back design AND get a credit as collaborator on the tuck box!  If you appreciate art and/or design, this might just strike your interest.  If you like to flourish, it would be like flourishing pieces of art.  If you're a magician, the oversized non-standard cards would present a challenge, but imagine the unique trick routines you could devise, factoring in that the cards represent months in the calendar.  It would have strong appeal with a Japanese audience in particular.  The only unknown - quality of the print job.  Ms. Thomas says she's working with casino-quality card stock - but Gemaco puts out "casino quality" cards as well, and most of them are less than ideal at handling.  No mention of the finish, either.
 
 Lastly - the Internet Meme deck.  It's ugly, like "please turn down the volume of that Technicolor Father's-Day-gift-from-a-blind-kid tie" ugly.  It's a gimmick deck, better suited to the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble.  But it's a wild card - there may be just enough people who mainline the Internet from Gigabit Ethernet cables jacked directly into their veins that it could succeed.  It wouldn't surprise me to find this item for sale at ThinkGeek, purveyor of all fine products nerdy and Internet.  It's just not a collector's deck (unless that collector is a novelty/Internet/junk collector), it's too painful to the eyes for flourishing and with such a cheap Kickstart goal I can't imagine it's made to any quality standards that a magician would appreciate.  They have a month and a half to go, so reaching their goal isn't far-fetched.  They're at 13% of $4.2K.

[phantom1412]

I didn't think the hanafuda cards will be funded.
But as for now, just only 1% left.

[dmbaggs]

Honestly, it's not looking good for a lot of the decks. The meme decks and the other playing card games don't have a large target market so it is difficult to get funding. The decks that are intended for this market are really put to the test in today's onslaught of decks. I'm sad the Galvanic didn't make it but I think it will make its return as a more beautiful creation

[MrLukeCarroll]

Yeah not many are going to make it by the looks of it, but it sends a message that we don't support every Tom Dick and Harry that puts out some custom playing cards.

Yeah the Galvanic's sad but it's probably a blessing as they will come back better than they were

[moonexe]

I'll try to pledge for a deck of hanafuda, that way you guys will all see how they turn out. And if it handles well, it'll definitely be an interesting experience.
What I really can't wait to see is that transformation deck that's being designed by Ncyclopedia. The Tendril deck should be pretty nice, too.

[Don Boyer]

I've already pledged for two hanafuda decks - my girlfriend may want to strangle me, but with her engagement ring arriving in the mail today along with our wedding bands, perhaps she'll be more forgiving... 

[MrLukeCarroll]

Well the Hanafuda's just cracked over 100% so as long as they get more backers then people that pull out in the next two week they will be successfull

[moonexe]

Alright, I'm in for two decks as well Let's hope it all goes well!
My last purchase of the year, though it doesn't really count as this year with the transaction being later...

[NathanCanadas]

So Don, will you be keeping this thread going? That would be awesome. You sure are a good writer!   

[Don Boyer]

So Don, will you be keeping this thread going? That would be awesome. You sure are a good writer!   

OK, so by semi-popular demand, here's a new update of what's going on over at Kickstarter...

I'm going to try to summarize the closed projects chronologically by closing date in blue, then get to the currently active ones in purple.

04 Jan 2012 - the Deck of the Living Dead's first run fell short on this day, making it to about 40% of its $22,000 goal.  This one had its detractors and fans; personally, I liked it a lot and was a backer.

09 Jan 2012 - The hyper-specialized Outlands deck almost got halfway to the finish line when the race ended.  It was a crazy-low goal, only $1,000, and they had a whopping TWELVE backers!  Oh well, que sera sera...  Also on this day, the Typestache deck made it a few percentage points above it's $1,200 goal.  This deck was cute, but rather bizarre in the structure of its pledge reward list - according to which, those extra backers wouldn't have received a blessed thing.  It was also an advertising deck for an iPhone app.  [Scratches head in confusion.]  Why?

14 Jan 2012 - The Modern Hanafuda deck was a huge hit, more than doubling its $6,000 goal.  I haven't heard an update in a little while, but the designer is probably one of those that prefers updating when there's actually something to report.  The cards look great - a modern take on traditional Hanafuda, using larger-than-poker sized paper cards instead of the traditional small tiles, often printed on vinyl or plastic.

16 Feb 2012 - The first Internet Meme deck made it just over halfway to its goal of $4,200 before dying.  No one had high hopes for it's success, since the designs were hard on the eyes, thus answering the question, "Y u no succeed?"    Topical decks like this tend to be of limited appeal around here, even when they are well-made.

24 Feb 2012 - Our own Reagan McClellan, now of UltraApe Playing Cards, had his first success with his Steampunk deck - not to be confused with Lance Miller's Bicycle Actuators, Theory11's Bicycle Steam Punk or USPC's even lamer Bicycle Steam Punk!  His low target of $2,000 was certainly a factor in helping him win more than 210% of his goal - I think he earned a lot of latecomers, once it was seen that the project was practically a done deal.  His will be the first deck of Brahma Playing Cards, the international division of India's Archduke Playing Cards, owned by the Discourse's own Rajas Paranjpe.  Since his Eaglebacks were such a big hit among those few outside of India to get their hands on a pack or two, we're eagerly anticipating what he does with this deck.

10 Mar 2012 - Our own Paul Carpenter, a.k.a. Xmetal, of his own new card design house Encarded, managed a huge coup, taking the top-dollar playing card record with a whopping $41,648, just over double his original goal.  His was also the first deck on KS to include as rewards the soon-to-be-released Eco Clips in custom designs made specifically for his cards.  Our hats are off to you, Paul.  Having an awesome and truly unique deck design certainly didn't hurt!

19 Mar 2012 - Cosmo Solano, noted magician who's been in the business for quite some time and recent new member of the Discourse, may have broken some kind of record with over 700% of the $3,000 goal being reached.  It was kind of a fix, though - Cosmo wanted this deck made regardless, but saw Kickstarter as a great place to expand his fan base and interest in his deck.  Kudos to you, Coz - you've succeed!  Since he exceeded his funding by such a wide margin and backer demand for his decks was high to say the least, he actually announced before the funding period ended that he'd be using the excess funds for a SECOND print run, before the first was even finished, to satisfy that demand!

20 Mar 2012 - The second attempt by the makers of the Dead of the Living Dead was a huge hit, earning over 270% of a goal just a little short of $10,000.  I liked the mix of backer packages on this one better, and they managed to raise more than they were asking for in the initial attempt (see 04 Jan 2012, above).  The awesome overfunding goals were likely the cause of the upsurge in interest.

21 Mar 2012 - The Feminist Deck, a salute to 52 female musicians (some of who were also artists on the deck) just crossed the goal post with a few hundred to spare above its $12,000 goal.  It's not really the kind of deck this community is interested in, which is how it managed to fly under the radar, virtually undetected.  No offense, ladies!

Whew - that took longer than I thought it would!  And now, on to the currently active projects, listed in order of the project's fundraising deadline.

Thu 05 Apr 2012 - in a mere four days, it looks like Sean Whelan's second attempt at the Galvanic deck will be a success, having crossed the 100% threshold only a handful of hours ago.  The deck had a good start but lagged when Sean sort of fell asleep at the switch, not promoting the project as heavily as we've seen other creators do.  But in a last-ditch effort to cross that line, he introduced some very popular incentives to not only get more people on board but to increase the pledges of existing backers, offering huge discounts on extra decks for more funding.  Way to go, Sean - let's hope your declined-card and canceled-backer rates are low enough to keep you above water on this one.

Sun 22 Apr 2012 - Uusi Design's first deck, Blue Blood Playing Cards, has received a generally warm reception here, though some are distressed with the whole border issue (it's like Artifice all over again)...  Uusikissa1, one of the two principals of Uusi Design, joined the board and is rapidly becoming popular around here as well, announcing that he and his partner, Linnea Gits, are planning more decks for the future, each aimed at specific market segments, which seemed to appease the collectors' side of the border debate.  Their deck, based in part on Japanese and European royalty, is at 63% of its goal of $9,000 with three weeks to go - this one is largely seen as having excellent odds of success.

Mon 23 Apr 2012 - Reagan's deck, Ultra Ape Poker Playing Cards, is not only the second deck from him, but also the second of three decks with deadlines occurring on this calendar week!  Yikes!  Sucks to be a card collector...    This deck, while improving with each update, is struggling a little because, while it has well-received artwork much like his Steampunk deck did, many people aren't liking the apes-as-Roaring-'20s-gangsters theme.  It's also a hard time in playing cards right about now - only so much cash to go around and a lot of cool decks on the horizon (Seasons) as well as recently released (Vaudeville, Blades Blood Edition, Pro-Cardistry [cool being a relative term regarding this deck!]).  Some of his more interesting incentives, like leather card boxes, might be the wild card that helps him over the top.  Reagan's at 12% of his goal of $8,500, and will again be using Brahma Playing Cards for the print run.

Fri 27 Apr 2012 - a new Internet Meme deck from a different designer popped up on the radar recently, and the deck's designer actually came on board the Good Ship Discourse to defend some of his design choices and seek advice from the more experienced members here in playing card design.  The deck has issues, to be sure - it's just as topical as the last one, though more varied, and there's presently numerous images that would easily trigger a cease-and-desist from more than a few copyright/trademark lawyers.  To his credit, he recognizes the deck's limited appeal, is just targeting to those to whom it appeals and has stated that he and his associate working on the design will be removing the infringing material - though it would seem to leave him with not a lot to work with, considering that many memes are indeed based on someone else's images, words, etc.  It stands now at 2% of its goal of $3,000.

Mon 14 May 2012 - the Mystic Deck, Techno Edition, which was not very well-received here at all, closes on this date, currently at 9% of its goal of $12,000.  He's offering some rather bizarre rewards, among which are unboxing videos and an "electrocuted deck", whatever the hell that means.  The project's amateurish presentation and terrible grammar leads one to think this guy's not a serious and dedicated card designer.  And that card back!  Wow, that's one funky shade of purple!  I don't even think Prince could get behind that!  But with nearly a month and a half to go, anything's possible.  The designer states he's printing with USPC, but with a goal that low, is THAT even possible?

Holy crap, that was a postful.  That's practically worth five posts in my post count!

I'll try and update this in a week or so.

Cheers, and good night...

[NathanCanadas]

So Don, will you be keeping this thread going? That would be awesome. You sure are a good writer!   

OK, so by semi-popular demand, here's a new update of what's going on over at Kickstarter...

...

Holy crap, that was a postful.  That's practically worth five posts in my post count!

I'll try and update this in a week or so.

Cheers, and good night...

Holy raviolis! Everyone should upfame you for the amazing effort you've put into making this. Wow. Thx a lot Don, this is really helpful, and it shows how dedicated you are.
Thanks a million more times!

[Don Boyer]

Holy raviolis! Everyone should upfame you for the amazing effort you've put into making this. Wow. Thx a lot Don, this is really helpful, and it shows how dedicated you are.
Thanks a million more times!

1) Thanks.
2) You didn't need to quote the entire article just to say a few lines of thanks.  It really eats up the page real estate for no good reason.
3) According to a recent message I got from Alex, my fame number might as well be "Holy raviolis" for all that it actually means.  The fame system is still being tweaked and poked, so any number, high or low, doesn't mean anything.  Not to mention I would need to be upfamed by pretty much everyone capable of doing so to make a worthwhile dent in that number... 

[Don Boyer]

More updates...

Thu 05 Apr 2012 - Sean Whelan's second attempt at the Galvanic deck managed to cross the finish line with a little more than $500 to spare over his $10K goal!  Yay, Galvanic!  Yay, Sean!  Yay, beer!  (Oh, wait, that's for the Red Stripe ad...)

Sun 22 Apr 2012 - With only 12 days and $285 to go, it's looking like Uusi Design's Blue Blood Playing Cards will indeed hit its goal of $9,000.  It's not a shoe-in, but it might as well be.  It's an awesome deck!

Mon 23 Apr 2012 - Reagan McClellan's Ultra Ape Poker Playing Cards appears to have hit a wall, gaining only a single percentage point since my last update to reach 13%/$1,117 of the $8,500 he needs to make it.  There's less than two weeks remaining; I hate to say it but it looks like he'll either need a Hail-Mary or another trip to the drawing board before this deck sees the light of day in the printing room at Brahma Playing Cards.  But hey, it could be worse - he could be doing as well as...

Fri 27 Apr 2012 - ...Shane Wiker's Meme Playing Cards, barely off the starting blocks with $205 in funding on a $3K goal.  It appears that recognizing a deck's limited appeal isn't enough to lift that limited appeal.  Two-and-a-half weeks and counting...

Mon 14 May 2012 - the Mystic Deck, Techno Edition is 4% up from last week at $1,589/$12K.  The good news is that at this rate, if funding stays steady, designer Alfonse Prince will hit his goal in about 22 weeks.  The bad news is that his deadline is only five weeks away...ouch.  Not lookin' good, Al...

Two new projects in the playing card arena popped up on the KS radar this past week or so.

Sat 02 Jun 2012 - the Hipster Playing Cards, designed by Ray Thomas of Seattle, is themed on the hipper-than-thou premise.  The cards have seemingly random images of things that hip slackers appear to like.  It's another deck with trademark/copyright issues, judging from images of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in a can, a Holga camera and a Motobecane bicycle.  The art is reminiscent of Xeroxed 'zine publications from the pre-Interwebs days (because they were really hip, died, and are now so retro they're hip again - I think; it's so confusing)...  Let me just say I'm not holding my breath.  It has a tiny goal, only $3,500, and is only 8% of the way there at a whopping $303 from 12 backers.  That would be his brother (y'know, the one that ISN'T a dick), that chick he dated back in the fall, the bartender who serves him a free Tecate now and then, that dude in the shades that kicks his ass at pool, that graphic designer who plays bass guitar at open mic...you get the idea...

Sun 03 Jun 2012 - SIGIDI: a bold name.  African Heritage: a bold theme.  These playing cards: a somewhat confusing concept.  Apparently there's something in there about raising awareness of African culture, and they offer face cards of former African kings, queens and "jack" prime ministers, postcards, polo shirts, composition notebooks (?), poor spelling and syntax (??), and not just unique pips, but unique suits, including one that's shaped like Africa (not enough ? on the keyboard for me to express it accurately).  This would probably have been an awesome deck in the 1970s or maybe even the early 1980s.  But even then it would have had little appeal to the communities that flock to this site: collectors, magicians and cardists.  Designer Clint Griffin of Tampa set the goal very high with this one at $25K - I don't see it getting that far in time, or even close to it.  Right now, it's at 1%, $260/$25K, with just under eight weeks remaining.

Some odds and ends - deck projects that aren't the standard 52 with jokers:

Sat 21 Apr 2012 (only 11 days left!) - Deck 88, a customized-art 88-card fortune-telling/tarot deck by Avery Kroft of Redmond, WA; $150/$5K (3%), 2 backers.

Wed 9 May 2012 - Cartes Infernales, a deck of Luis Breton engravings from the 1812 Dictionnaire Infernal by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy; project designed by Ariana Osborne, Portland, OR; $132/$3,666 (3%).  I'm fond of the artwork on this one, though it has absolutely nothing to do with poker in any way, shape or form.

Fri 8 Jun 2012 - Arcadia Tarot Cards, a photographic version of the Rider-Waite deck by artist Michael Bilotta, Worchester, MA; $0/$3,500 (0%).  This is at zero because I think it was just posted.  The photographer looks like he's into some really great imagery and has the chops to pull it off.  If you like tarot, give it a look.

An FYI to anyone looking at making a deck on Kickstarter - these last three decks did NOT turn up in a search for "playing cards" but did appear in a search for "deck cards".  Gotta game those keywords, folks!  Many people missed the "Play Me Burlesque" deck for the same reason last year, though it had no problems raising the cash - mostly-naked women can go a long way in deck promotions, it would seem...

That's it for this week's report.  A reminder to those who kickstarted the Return of the Deck of the Living Dead - questionnaires went out in the past week!  Get those responses back fast, before you kick the bucket...  (OK, it's a lame joke, but I'm tired...)

EDITED to include live links to active and recently-finished projects.

[Lara Krystle "Lane"]

Whoa, @Don... see what I mean by a WONDERFUL PERSON!!!!!!!
Upfame UPFAME UPFAME!!!!!!!!!

now we need to work on the DISCOURSE.

Man I feel so blah... no muse to work on it hahaha but I will one of these days, so we can see our stuff there. I hope..

[Don Boyer]

Whoa, @Don... see what I mean by a WONDERFUL PERSON!!!!!!!
Upfame UPFAME UPFAME!!!!!!!!!

now we need to work on the DISCOURSE.

Man I feel so blah... no muse to work on it hahaha but I will one of these days, so we can see our stuff there. I hope..

Yeah, momentum on that deck is about 2 bpm right about now.  Imagine concrete moving through your veins.  You were one of the driving forces there - perhaps some more regular appearances and bumps will help.

[dcell59]

I checked out the Cartes Infernales and Arcadia Tarot Cards projects. For Cartes Infernales, you have to pay $66 or more to get a physical deck of cards. Arcadia Tarot Cards just appears to be producing photos, and all you can get is a signed print from his photo gallery (I'm not even sure it's one of the tarot card photos). I also found the projects "The Urban Tarot Deck" ($65 to get a deck) and the less expensive ($25) "Sacred Awakening" deck. Both of these came up when I searched for "deck" (but not "deck cards")

I would sure like to see Kickstarter improve their search capabilities. If you search for "cards", you can't even narrow down the results, and I don't need to be shown all of the already-funded projects that I can no longer support.

[uusikissa1]

Hey Don,

Thanks so much for the awesome updates on all the Kickstarter projects (including ours of course!!!) some pretty entertaining and informational writing there.

Just thought I'd let you know as of 10:31 today we are officially funded!!! Thanks to everyone here for their guidance and support. We are currently working on some extra goodies for the possibility of over funding. Still12 days left...

Thanks again!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1244376122/blue-blood-playing-cards

[Rajas Paranjpe]

Very interesting post Don Boyer
Congrats uusikissa1 for successful funding!

[Don Boyer]

I checked out the Cartes Infernales and Arcadia Tarot Cards projects. For Cartes Infernales, you have to pay $66 or more to get a physical deck of cards. Arcadia Tarot Cards just appears to be producing photos, and all you can get is a signed print from his photo gallery (I'm not even sure it's one of the tarot card photos). I also found the projects "The Urban Tarot Deck" ($65 to get a deck) and the less expensive ($25) "Sacred Awakening" deck. Both of these came up when I searched for "deck" (but not "deck cards")

I would sure like to see Kickstarter improve their search capabilities. If you search for "cards", you can't even narrow down the results, and I don't need to be shown all of the already-funded projects that I can no longer support.

I'll have to give that a deeper search tonight from work.  I didn't go too crazy over those last few projects since none of them were traditional decks of playing cards, though they did look kind of cool.  And the search function is all up to the key words put on the project by the designer - it's not really in KS's hands.  What would be nice, though, is a single, consistent category for card projects - I've seen them in at least three different ones so far.

Hey Don,

Thanks so much for the awesome updates on all the Kickstarter projects (including ours of course!!!) some pretty entertaining and informational writing there.

Just thought I'd let you know as of 10:31 today we are officially funded!!! Thanks to everyone here for their guidance and support. We are currently working on some extra goodies for the possibility of over funding. Still12 days left...

Thanks again!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1244376122/blue-blood-playing-cards

It was practically a guarantee that you'd reach your goal - the project speaks for itself!  I'd better get invested as soon as I can - money's been tight but I want in on this one.

Very interesting post Don Boyer
Congrats uusikissa1 for successful funding!

Thanks, as usual, Rajas.  We should talk sometime soon!

[uusikissa1]

Hey Don,

Thanks so much for the awesome updates on all the Kickstarter projects (including ours of course!!!) some pretty entertaining and informational writing there.

Just thought I'd let you know as of 10:31 today we are officially funded!!! Thanks to everyone here for their guidance and support. We are currently working on some extra goodies for the possibility of over funding. Still12 days left...

Thanks again!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1244376122/blue-blood-playing-cards

It was practically a guarantee that you'd reach your goal - the project speaks for itself!  I'd better get invested as soon as I can - money's been tight but I want in on this one.

Thanks again for your support and gracious compliments - we work extremely hard on all our projects (whatever they may be) and take great pride in the designs we produce. We are really thrilled the deck got funded and can't wait to see it produced. We also just added 48, 72 and 144 deck pledges (limited amount of those pledges of course) as we are now starting to receive requests for larger quantities. Totally understand the "money's tight" thing...ah, longing for the good old days when money was flowing.

[NathanCanadas]

Great new update! So many decks out right now!!!!!!!!

[Don Boyer]

Here's a quick rundown of a series of deck projects I discovered on Kickstarter that aren't already covered previously and are either closed or don't fit the traditional "collectible deck" mold but might still be of interest to some people here.  I included the closed ones in case someone's interested in looking for it in the post-KS marketplace.  I did NOT include games that do not use either tarot or playing cards in their design or that require "deck building" from either a limited or unlimited pool of cards.  I also left out projects that closed before Thursday, 01 March 2012.

Gang, some of these are "Eh, it's not my thing," but some are "Holy crap, how in the hell did I not find out about this sooner!  I WANT this!!"  You have to decide which is which for yourself.

Thu 08 Mar 2012: Stolen Child Tarot, the second attempt at making a limited-edition major-arcana tarot deck.  Monica Knighton, Austin, TX; $5,546/$2.5K (221%).  SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED!

Fri 09 Mar 2012: Darkana Tarot - if Big Blind Media or Alchemy 1977 decided to make a tarot deck, there's a good chance it would look like this!  Dan Donche, Colorado Springs, CO; $5.9K/$2K (295%).  VERY SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED!!

Sat 10 Mar 2012: The Golden Moth Illumination Deck, a tarot-like inspiration pack of 68 cards printed slightly smaller than a bridge deck.  Aijung Kim, Richmond, VA; $4.8K/$4K (120%).  SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED!

Fri 16 Mar 2012: Woe to the Living, a game of classic pulp horror that doubles as a really cool-looking playing card deck!  Trevor Cram, Salt Lake City, UT; $5.9K/$1K (594%).  EXCEPTIONALLY SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED!

Thu 22 Mar 2012: The Hero Deck, a game designed to teach children to be heroes using examples from the past.  "Matt", Brighton, MI; $2.6K/$2K (130%).  SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED!

Thu 19 Apr 2012: The Urban Tarot Deck, a tarot deck using modern graphic imagery with the traditional Tarot design.  Robert Scott, New York, NY; $26,771/$25K (107%).  CLOSES IN EIGHT DAYS!

Fri 11 May 2012: "Sacred Awakening" Card Deck, a custom Tarot-style deck in a New Age style.  Sa'ahrah Ester Felix, Makawao, HI; $166/$5K (3%).

Check these out, if you haven't already.

Cheers, and 'till next time...

Don!

[dcell59]

And the search function is all up to the key words put on the project by the designer - it's not really in KS's hands.  What would be nice, though, is a single, consistent category for card projects - I've seen them in at least three different ones so far.

But that's not something the designer should have to deal with. In 1994, the original Yahoo categorization-style search was fine, but web site technology has improved so much that Kickstarter is just primitive. Even the simple search available on The Discourse is far superior to what KS offers. Admittedly, I'm a bit spoiled because my job involves content management software, but KS could do a much better job without that much work. I don't know what they are spending their 10% of the millions of dollars being spent on their site on, but it doesn't look like it's the site itself.

[Don Boyer]

And the search function is all up to the key words put on the project by the designer - it's not really in KS's hands.  What would be nice, though, is a single, consistent category for card projects - I've seen them in at least three different ones so far.

But that's not something the designer should have to deal with. In 1994, the original Yahoo categorization-style search was fine, but web site technology has improved so much that Kickstarter is just primitive. Even the simple search available on The Discourse is far superior to what KS offers. Admittedly, I'm a bit spoiled because my job involves content management software, but KS could do a much better job without that much work. I don't know what they are spending their 10% of the millions of dollars being spent on their site on, but it doesn't look like it's the site itself.

Actually, there's technology that's been around for many, many years - museums use a system of categorization for art projects that seems to work for them, right?  Even ye olde Dewey Decimal System would be better than the free-for-all they have now.  I discovered decks last week that were totally awesome and yet didn't generate a single hit when searching "playing cards".  That burlesque deck I got post-KS I missed because of that very same reason; if I 'd have been in on the KS, I could have attended the wrap party here in my city!

No artist likes their creations to be pigeon-holed into a specific label, but if they want to be funded, potential backers have to be able to identify and find their work.

[Don Boyer]

Welcome to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, on this lovely spring night in the wee hours of Sunday morning, April the 15th, coming to you from New York.

(Can you tell I used to be an on-air deejay at a radio station?  )

-------------------------------------

First, a brief rundown of the standard playing card projects I detailed for all of you last week that are still in progress, in order of the time that the project's fundraiser closes, listed in Universal Coordinated Time as a courtesy to the international audience.

Sun 22 Apr 2012, 22:20 UTC - Uusi Design's Blue Blood Playing Cards: $13,707 raised, $9,000 goal, 152%.  If you haven't funded this yet and want this deck at KS prices, NOW is the time!

Mon 23 Apr 2012, 04:10 UTC - Reagan McClellan's Ultra Ape Poker Playing Cards: $1,187 raised, $8,500 goal, 13%.  I recently exchanged a few words with Reagan about this project and the very long odds against it at the moment.  He's recognizing that things could have gone more smoothly, and that the bitter online debates about the design didn't help.  However, he also appears to be taking this as a learning experience, which in itself can be viewed as a success for the designer as he begins looking into a third project with a different theme.

Fri 27 Apr 2012, 12:22 UTC - Shane Wiker's Meme Playing Cards: $262 raised, $3,000 goal, 8%.  It's practically at a standstill from last week.

Mon 14 May 2012, 21:07 UTC - Alfonse Prince's Mystic Deck, Techno Edition: $1,654 raised, $12,000 goal, 13%.  Another project that's become utterly stagnant.  And that shade of purple hasn't improved one bit, either.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 UTC - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $320 raised, $3,500 goal, 9%.  Up exactly seventeen dollars, the record low increase since the last report.  Slow night in tips, I suppose...

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 UTC - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $350 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  Up ninety dollars.  It's a long way to that goal, even with the amount of time still remaining.

-------------------------------------

And on to new business in the standard playing cards arena.

Fri 04 May 2012, 16:45 UTC - Vlad Korzinin, whose KS profile states that he hails from Barcelona, Spain, posted here about a project he was working on called Creative Cards with some prominent designers and artists from the four corners of the Internet.  His Kickstarter project went live this week, and it's a doozy.  Much of the artwork is top-notch, though beauty is often thought of as in the eye of the beholder; there's been a little back-and-forth between Discourse members about who likes which cards.  The project's goal is manageable, only $9,000, and while he and his associates aren't printing with USPC, they are printing with a globally-respected brand, Cartamundi.

The biggest speed bump this project faces on its way to success is its own reward structure.  As of yet, there's a vanity reward at $1,001 consisting of five decks and a custom-designed joker, plus some standard consumer-level rewards  However, there are no rewards for retailers looking to buy in bulk for resale and the individual decks are the most expensive I've seen for a KS project.  A single-deck reward costs a whopping $32, while the best deal available, $99 for four, still only brings that price down to $24.75 a pack.  Production costs alone can't possibly justify such incredibly expensive cards - someone's aiming to make a killing in the collectors' market.  Even though we expect an art deck to cost more, we certainly don't expect it to cost this much more, particularly in the fundraising stage.  Also - and correct me, please, if I'm wrong - but isn't it required that you be based in the United States to run a Kickstarter project?  Because I've heard from a handful of people overseas who wanted to go the Kickstarter route but were turned down because they weren't domestic.

The project "Creative Cards" stands at $644 raised on a $9,000 goal, 7%, with about nineteen days to go.

-------------------------------------

Now, for this week's updates on the non-standard card projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional card games using decks other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.  While not everyone's preferred weapons of mass distraction, these cards do have some appeal in the card community, especially if, for example, you're from a region where Skat is the most popular card game, if you're a magician who employs tarot as part of a mentalism routine or if you're a cardist whose exceptionally huge hands are perfect for the 78 cards of a tarot deck...

Thu 19 Apr 2012, 22:09 UTC - Robert Scott's Urban Tarot Deck: $28,780/$25K (115%).  Closing this week!
 
Sat 21 Apr 2012, 17:38 UTC - Avery Kroft's Deck 88: $150/$5K (3%).  Raised zero dollars since the last report.

Thu 10 May 2012, 03:59 UTC - Ariana Osborne's Cartes Infernales: $12,323/$3,666 (336%).  This deck went from practically nothing to more than triple-overfunded in about a week!  Kudos to you, Ms. Osborne!

Fri 11 May 2012, 08:23 UTC - Sa'ahrah Ester Felix's "Sacred Awakening" Card Deck: $166/$5K (3%).  Unchanged from my last report.  The design's really "out there" even for New Age.

Fri 8 Jun 2012, 21:12 UTC - Michael Bilotta's Arcadia Tarot Cards: $25/$3,500 (0%).  He gained exactly one backer since this kicked off about a week ago.  This project is a little problematic - it looks like it could be very beautiful, but the KS page lists very little, and the reward structure is designed for failure.  There's exactly one reward at $25 for a print from the artist's online photo gallery, and it's a limited reward of only 50.  So this means that assuming all the rewards have been taken, he still will find himself with only $1,250 - far short of his goal.  Irrational expectations, anyone?  And most astonishing is that the deck itself isn't even a reward!

-------------------------------------

That's it for the non-traditional decks.  There's a few odds and ends here - many decks that have been in varying stages of production are now coming up for KS surveys, including Vortex and Bicycle Spectrum.  If you haven't received your survey, keep your eyes out for it - if you have, fill it out fast!  Also, the creators of the Woe to the Living game/playing card deck are still taking backers post-KS - read all about it on this topic:
http://aethercards.com/discourse/index.php?topic=2296.0
and on this topic:
http://aethercards.com/discourse/index.php?topic=2304.0

Thanks, and that's all for now.  Have a good week.

[sinsandman]

Awesome update Don, much appreciated, keep them coming.

[Don Boyer]

Awesome update Don, much appreciated, keep them coming.

I'm glad someone's enjoying them - they take a LOT to create!

If you happen to spot a KS project that I've missed, even if it's something you think is cool but might not entirely fit into the mold of standard playing card deck, give me a shout and I'll check it out.

[NathanCanadas]

Awesome update Don, much appreciated, keep them coming.

I'm glad someone's enjoying them - they take a LOT to create!

If you happen to spot a KS project that I've missed, even if it's something you think is cool but might not entirely fit into the mold of standard playing card deck, give me a shout and I'll check it out.

I can totally see the amount of work you put into those. It is a pleasure to read and a good distraction from all the other stuff going on in my life right now. Thanks a lot for your dedication Don.

[Don Boyer]

It's a little after two a.m. on Saturday morning, April 21, and no, it's not the Farm Report!  Welcome to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

-------------------------------------

To kick things off, the "rundown" - where are all those projects we saw last week...

Sun 22 Apr 2012, 22:20 UTC - Uusi Design's Blue Blood Playing Cards: $17,258 raised, $9,000 goal, 191%.  We're getting near the finish line on this one at 40 hours to go, and there's an overfunding goal at $18K that's just begging to get reached...  I just invested for three decks!  Why haven't you?

Mon 23 Apr 2012, 04:10 UTC - Reagan McClellan's Ultra Ape Poker Playing Cards: $1,287 raised, $8,500 goal, 15%.  46 hours remain as I type this, and it's up $100 from my last report six days ago.

Fri 27 Apr 2012, 12:22 UTC - Shane Wiker's Meme Playing Cards: $290 raised, $3,000 goal, 9%.  Raised another $28.  It isn't looking good, but it never really was, so...

Fri 04 May 2012, 16:45 UTC - Vlad Korzinin's Creative Cards: $1,667 raised, $9,000 goal, 19%.  He's added a limited reward for bulk purchase/resale, but it's very expensive - $999 gets you 60 decks, at a whopping $16.65 a pack, "wholesale".  There's only two such rewards available, and both are still up for grabs.  It's such a beautiful and ambitious deck, but it's just too expensive for what the market's willing to bear, I believe.  All that work...and there may be no deck to show for it.

Mon 14 May 2012, 21:07 UTC - Alfonse Prince's Mystic Deck, Techno Edition: $1,685 raised, $12,000 goal, 14%.  Raised a mere $31.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 UTC - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $348 raised, $3,500 goal, 9%.  Up $28 this time.  Still not holding my breath, thankfully...

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 UTC - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $360 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  Up ten bucks, a new record low.

-------------------------------------

We have one deck to introduce to you in the "new business" portion of the report.

Fri 11 May 2012, 02:43 UTC - If ever you needed a good laugh looking at a deck, this could be it.  I looked at it, scratched my head and asked, "Why?"  Amber Tapper, an accountant from Rio Rancho, NM was inspired by the "Ransom" font on her old computer to create the R@n$0m Playing Cards deck.  Her project page sounds just a little too amateurish, replete with misspellings, right down to the mention that her cards are being professionally printed by "USCC" in "groups of 2,500."  She's actually cutting and pasting bits of newspaper to make the designs collage-style, which is ambitious but doesn't make for a good-looking or practical card.  The reward tree is simple and straightforward, the most common rewards being "you give me a multiple of $10, I give you that many decks."  But would you pay $10 for this, printed with her "unusaul and unique images" by "USCC"?

The project isn't the worst thing I've ever seen, but it needs polish like I need air, and she's nearly insured her demise by cutting the deadline super-short: from non-existent last week to only 19 days left today.  Her project is at $20 raised, goal of $10,000, giving her 0% after rounding down.

-------------------------------------

Now, for this week's non-standard card projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional card games using decks other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Thu 19 Apr 2012, 22:09 UTC - Robert Scott's Urban Tarot Deck: $33,595/$25K (134%).  SUCCESSFUL!
 
Sat 21 Apr 2012, 17:38 UTC - Avery Kroft's Deck 88: $150/$5K (3%).  Raised zero dollars for the second week in a row, with only ten hours remaining.  Forget life support for this one, it's a goner.

Thu 10 May 2012, 03:59 UTC - Ariana Osborne's Cartes Infernales: $15,045/$3,666 (410%).  Awesome!

Fri 11 May 2012, 08:23 UTC - Sa'ahrah Ester Felix's "Sacred Awakening" Card Deck: $166/$5K (3%).  Unchanged for the second week in a row.  Y'know the old expression about the lights being on but nobody being home?  Well, the lights aren't even on here.

Fri 8 Jun 2012, 21:12 UTC - Michael Bilotta's Arcadia Tarot Cards: $25/$3,500 (0%).  Not a single dollar or backer gained.

-------------------------------------

Thanks, and that's all for this week's report.  Have a better one.

[Curt]

Thanks for creating and updating this thread Don. Since you are being so consistant with the updates I will put this as a stickied topic, so it is easier for everyone to find.

[Don Boyer]

Thanks for creating and updating this thread Don. Since you are being so consistant with the updates I will put this as a stickied topic, so it is easier for everyone to find.

That's awesome!  Thanks, bro!

[Don Boyer]

It's Saturday morning, April 28th, and welcome to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

-------------------------------------

As usual, I'll start with "The Rundown" - what progress has been made since last week?

Sun 22 Apr 2012, 22:20 UTC - Uusi Design's Blue Blood Playing Cards: $19,138 raised, $9,000 goal, 212%.  SUCCESSFUL, in spades!  Congratulations to Linnea Gits and Peter Dunham!

Mon 23 Apr 2012, 04:10 UTC - Reagan McClellan's Ultra Ape Poker Playing Cards: $1,308 raised, $8,500 goal, 15%.  FAILED.  Sorry, Reagan.  "Remember, Bruce, why do we fall down?"

Fri 27 Apr 2012, 12:22 UTC - Shane Wiker's Meme Playing Cards: $349 raised, $3,000 goal, 12%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  Just too many issues to begin with on this one.

Fri 04 May 2012, 16:45 UTC - Vlad Korzinin's Creative Cards: $1,871 raised, $9,000 goal, 20%.  More bad news for this deck: the designers are offering a poster, but there's no plans to offer an uncut sheet.  A project this beautiful practically cries out for it.  But he has under a week left and there's just no wind under those wings.  It's a shame, really.  It had a lot of potential, but the design house pushing it is shooting itself in both feet.

Fri 11 May 2012, 02:43 UTC - Amber Tapper's R@n$0m Playing Cards: $432 raised, $10,000 goal, 4%.  She's offering uncuts plus a deck as a swap-out for the four-deck reward, and isn't charging extra for international shipping except on orders of a brick or more.  She should be glad that this project appears headed for the recycling bin in just under two weeks along with the rest of the newspaper clippings, because those shipping costs would probably have killed it for her anyway.  And the Theory11 Hyperbole Award goes to Ms. Tapper for this statement from her home page:

I know my R@n$0m playing cards will satisfy and impress cardsharks and novices alike.  You will not be disappointed.

Sorry, Amber, but you're too late.  I'm already disappointed.

Mon 14 May 2012, 21:07 UTC - Alfonse Prince's Mystic Deck, Techno Edition: $1,834 raised, $12,000 goal, 15%.  Up by $149, which I think is the biggest jump it's had in a while.  Two-and-a-half weeks to go, though.  It doesn't bode well for this rather poorly-received deck.  They "Redisgned the logo" a few weeks back and simplified the back design a lot, but it's still one ugly shade of unprintable purple.  The spot cards will be bog standard (woo AND hoo to that).  And get a load of this, quoted from the most recent update:

Q: WHAT IS AN ELECTROCUTED DECK?
A: Guys, please read the FAQ. It's a deck that has been electrocuted! How can i explain it more than that.

Indeed.  Who can argue with that logic?   

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 UTC - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $947 raised, $3,500 goal, 27%.  Up $599 this week, a huge jump.  With over a month to the deadline, this project still has life in it.  I just wonder how they're planning to overcome the copyright hurdles found in many of the images they've displayed on their home page (and likely many others as well).  There's no way to know without asking since the project's had zero updates.

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 UTC - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $370 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  Up ten bucks for the second consecutive week.  At this steady rate of progress, they'll achieve their funding goal just over 47 years behind schedule...

-------------------------------------

We have one deck again this week to introduce to you in "New Business" - but for a change, it's actually a pretty good one.

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 UTC - 4pm Designs out of Vineland, NJ, proudly brings you "The Grid" Playing Cards, a design that everyone says looks ripped straight out of "Tron" - and that's a good thing.  It's the design house's first playing card deck and you can tell they're new at this, but the design itself is rock-solid.  No whacky design concepts, no strange colors or fonts - just a clean, futuristic redesign of the standard Anglo-Rouen deck we've all come to know and love.  If done right, who knows - it could represent a revival of the black deck!  It's certainly one of the rare few that's neither completely magic-centric nor covered in Gothic images and/or skulls.  They might run into a little legal problem, though - and not with USPC, oddly enough.  They're hoping to print with the house that Bicycle built, but one of their concepts, the extra "X" card, is taken straight from Bent Castle Workshop's "Pegleg Pete's" and "Deck of the Living Dead" deck designs.

Combine all of that with a reasonable reward pricing structure starting at only $8 a deck, and I'm predicting a solid success for this design, especially if they're able to get USPC on board as the printer.  As of now, they have nearly two months to go but are already at $1,132 raised on a $5,000 goal, putting them at 22%.  While they're absent from the present reward structure, they did announce in the FAQ that uncuts would be available as sort of an overfunding goal once they hit 200%/$10,000.

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I present this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Sat 21 Apr 2012, 17:38 UTC - Avery Kroft's Deck 88: $150/$5K (3%).  FAILED.

Thu 10 May 2012, 03:59 UTC - Ariana Osborne's Cartes Infernales: $18,016/$3,666 (491%).  This could be a contender for the overfunding multiplier record for a playing card project, which I think is currently held by Cosmo Solano's Bicycle Spectrum deck at 704%.

Fri 11 May 2012, 08:23 UTC - Sa'ahrah Ester Felix's "Sacred Awakening" Card Deck: $166/$5K (3%).  Unchanged for the third week in a row.

Fri 8 Jun 2012, 21:12 UTC - Michael Bilotta's Arcadia Tarot Cards: $50/$3,500 (0%).  CANCELED four days ago by the project's creator.  I'm hoping he brings this project back, comes to his senses about his reward structure and shows off his designs a little more.  He seemed like he had an excellent concept but terrible execution on his project.

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Thanks, and that's all for this week's report.  Have a better one.

[NathanCanadas]

I think we've seen a dozen decks on sale and on kickstarter in the past 2 weeks... It's crazy. Now that the big companies have slowed down, the individuals are kicking in. And then there is HOPC by BC, and Mystery by BDCVD, and the T11 deck, I forget what it's called. But nice essay Don. As always, we can count on you.
PS: Somehow this wasn't in my recently unread topics although I hadn't clicked on it since you updated it...

[Don Boyer]

It's Saturday morning, May 5th (and my mother's birthday!), and welcome to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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What do we have on tap for this week on "The Rundown" - what progress has been made since last week?

Fri 04 May 2012, 16:45 UTC - Vlad Korzinin's Creative Cards: $2,878 raised, $9,000 goal, 32%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  While the project did gain about a thousand dollars over last week, there was just too much against this deck getting made, not the least of which being the high cost of a deck.

Fri 11 May 2012, 02:43 UTC - Amber Tapper's R@n$0m Playing Cards: $632 raised, $10,000 goal, 6%.  With less than a week to go and only up two hundred dollars from last week, this deck appears to be heading to the same place as the newspaper clippings used to create it - the recycling bin.

Mon 14 May 2012, 21:07 UTC - Alfonse Prince's Mystic Deck, Techno Edition: $1,884 raised, $12,000 goal, 15%.  Only up fifty bucks this week.  What little steam this deck may have had appears to have fled, with only a week and a half to go and a loooong way to twelve thousand.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 UTC - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $1,072 raised, $3,500 goal, 27%.  Up $125 this week, not as strong as last week.  At four weeks remaining, while it isn't impossible to hit the goal, he won't be doing it at this speed.

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 UTC - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $391 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  Up twenty-one bucks - that more than twice what it earned in the last two weeks.  But with under a month to go, I don't hold out a lot of hope for this one.

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 UTC - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $16,853 raised, $5,000 goal, 337%.  WOW, that's a whopper of a success story!  There's a month and a half left and this project's just blown up all over the place!  Having crossed the 200% mark, this will be a Bicycle-branded deck from USPC.  There's been some debate over an alteration to the Joker design - traditional look or jokers on what look like light cycles - but it appears they may be sticking with the more traditional look.  I'm glad - those light cycles might have drawn a cease-and-desist from Disney, Inc., owners of "Tron".

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We have many decks this week to introduce to you in "New Business" - good, bad and...well, I'll let you decide!

Thu 31 May 2012, 18:56 UTC - Chuck Brodd's Phil's Poker Cards were presented using a most unusual sales pitch - it sounded as if Chuck was expecting defeat for the project from day one!  He comes out and explains that the deck is actually being made as a future product for a pool hall that he'd like to open up.  The deck is very stylish, 100% plastic, and would be at home at almost any casual guys-hanging-out poker game, with imagery of darts and boards, billiards and playing card suits tastefully laid out on the card back.  He wants to produce in five colors, but for the moment is sticking to just two: black if he hits 100%, gold as well if he hits 200%.  A single deck is $20 - very costly, even for plastic - but the price comes down dramatically if you opt for two at only $25.  He's aiming for USPC to print it on their Prestige plastic stock, so it should have good handling for playing cards or magic, maybe not as good for some flourishes.  He's at $1,768 raised, $14,000 goal, 12%, with about three-and-a-half weeks remaining.

Sat 02 June 2012, 19:49 UTC - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper, the two principles of design house beta17, present ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards.  The deck has an attractive shade of purple on the backs and a hyper-futuristic design, generally well-received with a few exceptions.  The biggest hang-up we're having with this deck is that it's bloody expensive: $13 for a single pack.  Strangely, the best deal on the deck is at the $100 tier - one brick, or about $8.33 a pack.  The prices go UP instead of DOWN for bigger bulk purchases!  All the other tiers are at least $10 a pack.  It gives one pause...  Right now, it's at $3,689 raised, $15,000 goal, 24%, with four weeks to go.

Tue 05 June 2012, 19:41 UTC - Juan G. Perez' Bicycle Eclipse Playing Cards, by Hidden Mirrors comes in with a unique premise or two.  While it's a good design choice to put a white border around a black deck, some Discourse members were questioning certain other design choices, such as pips that appear both in color with white outlines and totally white on the same card (sort of a fusion of the Bicycle Pirate and De'vo's Blades series).  Also off-putting were the indices that are split on the border between black center field and white border, resulting in a bizarre-looking, hard-to-read appearance (which is ironic, considering that Juan was actually trying to make them easier to read).  His inclusion of his own MUSIC in the pledge rewards only added more bizarreness to the mix.  The project currently stands at $3,089 raised, $10,000 goal, 30%.

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 UTC - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards (a mouthful if I ever saw one) are among the most bizarre offerings I've seen in a straight-up playing card deck thus far.  He says in his pitch, plain as day, that "NO.  I am not selling decks of cards.  This is not a Home Shopping Network."  Uh, hello?  If you aren't selling them, what incentive do people have to BACK them?  The answer is NONE!  I suppose it's for the better, though - these cards fell out of the ugly tree and hit most of the branches on the way down.  He has added playing card deck rewards starting with two decks at the $25 tier, but he tops out at a mere four decks.  All the rewards higher than include either autographs (doubling the price for them!) or having your face immortalized as a court card or a joker.  Honestly, folks - would you plunk down a grand for your face on a joker and four decks?  The fact that they glow in the dark on both sides is just icing on the gimmick cake - and you know this isn't a USPC project!  At a month-and-a-half to go, he's at one sole backer, $25 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 0%.  I hope Nick's not holding his breath.

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And now, for this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Thu 10 May 2012, 03:59 UTC - Ariana Osborne's Cartes Infernales: $20,836/$3,666 (568%).  It's closing in on the overfunding multiplier record for a playing card project, held by Cosmo Solano's Bicycle Spectrum deck at 704%.

Fri 11 May 2012, 08:23 UTC - Sa'ahrah Ester Felix's "Sacred Awakening" Card Deck: $141/$5K (3%).  After being unchanged for three week in a row, this project actually LOST fifteen dollars in the last week.

I have one more deck to add, but I'm out of time for now - to be continued...

EDIT: I'm back!  It's Sunday, May 6th, and here's that last deck I mentioned.

You might remember this deck when it debuted, the Triple Topper.  It was a bold if misguided concept - in addition to value and suit, he made color an independent variable, hence the three-dimensional nature of the deck.  5 value times 5 suits times 5 colors left you with a 125-card deck (try shoving that into your jeans pocket)!  The guy garnered a whopping three backers, $90 in contributions, but with a $6,000 goal, that wasn't happening.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 UTC - Well, ever the optimist, Brian Ciesicki is back, with the exact same Triple Topper deck, but with a marginally more modest goal of $5,000.  With just under eight weeks to go, he's earned himself a huge $20 sum from 2 backers.  I'm not hopeful that this project will fare much better than the last, and that making the goal $500 still wouldn't do it.  Playing cards as we know and love them can be complex enough without having to think three-dimensionally!

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Thanks, and that's all for this week's report.  Have a better one.

[Don Boyer]

It's Sunday morning, May 13th (and Mother's Day in the U.S. and perhaps some other parts of the world!), and welcome to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.  Yes, I'm a day late, but at least I'm not also a dollar short...

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What's up this week on "The Rundown" - what progress has been made since last week?

Fri 11 May 2012, 02:43 UTC - Amber Tapper's R@n$0m Playing Cards: $752 raised, $10,000 goal, 6%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  What a surprise...

Mon 14 May 2012, 21:07 UTC - Alfonse Prince's Mystic Deck, Techno Edition: $1,885 raised, $12,000 goal, 15%.  A "huge" gain this week - exactly ONE DOLLAR.  With a mere day-and-a-half remaining, it looks like Alfonse Prince won't get to electrocute one of his decks after all.  Aw....

Thu 31 May 2012, 18:56 UTC - Chuck Brodd's Phil's Poker Cards:  $1,768 raised, $14,000 goal, 12%, up $254.  Even a lowered price on the decks and a removal of the hard case haven't been enough to boost this deck more.  The current lowest price offer is $20 for TWO decks, not just one - but it's limited to 100 and the first 34 are already spoken for.  It would be a shame to see this one fail, 'cause those cards look great on the backs.

Sat 02 June 2012, 19:49 UTC - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards:  $7,022 raised, $15,000 goal, 47%, up about three grand from last week.  That's a big jump, and shows that this deck may have the legs to meet the goal before the final buzzer.  The minimalist design is awesome - if only it didn't cost so much.  They did reveal it's a 5,000-deck print run, and that international shipping rates are pretty cheap.  That might make the difference to overseas investors.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 UTC - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $1,179 raised, $3,500 goal, 33%.  Up $107 this week, again not as strong as last week.  At three weeks remaining, it's not impossible to hit this goal, but neither is it likely.  This deck had some serious copyright problems anyway and would likely have never seen the light of day once those copyright owners caught wind of it.  And still not a single update from the deck's creator...asleep at the switch?

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 UTC - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $401 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  Up ten bucks.  Twenty-one backers, twenty-one days remaining.  It would take a serious miracle.

Tue 05 June 2012, 19:41 UTC - Juan G. Perez' Bicycle Eclipse Playing Cards, by Hidden Mirrors: $6,857 raised, $10,000 goal, 69%, up over $3,700 from last week.  If this deck keeps that pace, it will be funded by this time next week.  Despite the design issues, it seems there's enough people out there who like the deck as it is.  Different strokes, I suppose - more power to 'em.

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 UTC - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards: $110 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 1%.  I hope Nick's not holding his breath.

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 UTC - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $26,773 raised, $5,000 goal, 535%.  That's nearly ten thousand dollars in a single week - 200% of his goal, right there!  The astounding thing about it is that this project's deadline is still over a month away!  He's upped the ante a little, adding not just Eco Clips but new prints and even a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the deck!  I strongly believe we'll be hearing more from 4pm Designs in the future...

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There's a new deck this week to introduce to you in "New Business" - but I've run out of time!  I'll continue this tomorrow.

EDIT: Well, it's Monday morning, and time to wrap this puppy up!

On to "New Business"...

Sun 10 June 2012, 22:44 UTC - Kevin von Kolen from Phoenix, AZ has an interesting mission statement: "My Name Is Kevin, my goal is to get a buisness going with the help of kickstarter and get out there and be successful."  Wow.  How many fifth-graders do you know that have the same goal?  Either that, or they still want to be police officers and fire fighters...  His CUSTOM LEGENDARY PLAYING CARDS (54CARDS) 52+2 Jokers (and that's a word-for-word quote from the project title!) are absolutely nothing like any deck you've seen before - because I've never seen such a lazy design in my entire life!  They have funky color-swirlies that were cribbed from Google clipart, atrocious court cards, an obvious one-way back and even the pips were appropriated from elsewhere on the Internet.  Better still, his cards come in "clear plastic cases" - y'know, like those cheap and cheesy souvenir decks they sell at tourist traps the world over?

I can imagine what was going through his mind when he came up with the idea - "Gee, I want to get a business going.  Let me poke around on Kickstarter.  Hey, those playing card projects seem to make a LOT of money!  I'm gonna make one of THOSE!"  It's obvious from the word "go" that he's never done proper design work - in fact, this is so bad, I'd question whether he's even used playing cards before!  He has a low goal, only $5,000, so it's plain as day that he's not using USPC for these (I think they'd cringe at the request!), but he's not even close to building up steam to get them made.  With 27 days to go, he's raised $437 of a $5,000 goal, putting him at 8%.

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And now, for this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Thu 10 May 2012, 03:59 UTC - Ariana Osborne's Cartes Infernales: $26,042/$3,666 (710%).  SUCCESSFUL.  She did indeed break the overfunding multiplier record for a playing card project, formerly held by Cosmo Solano's Bicycle Spectrum deck at 704%.

Fri 11 May 2012, 08:23 UTC - Sa'ahrah Ester Felix's "Sacred Awakening" Card Deck: $141/$5K (3%).  UNSUCCESSFUL.  Unchanged for four of the five last weeks - on the next-to-last week, it actually LOST some funding.  There will be no "awakening" for this pack of cards...

Sat 16 June 2012, 16:59 UTC - Doug Beasley's Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards are an interesting project: it's not a wacky game system, it's not tarot, no "awakening" per se.  Y'see, Doug's a photographer, and created this project as a means by which to spark the imagination of fellow photographers and photography students.  Using an elegant Japanese-influenced design, each card has a photo assignment on it, some very simple, some quite difficult.  Call it a way to get out of "photographer's block"!  And it's all wrapped in what has to be the most unique box I've ever seen.  From out of nowhere, this projects skyrocketed past it's goal and is still building steam.  It's at $7,091/$5K, 141%.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 UTC - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $30/$5.5K, rounded down to 0%.  While he has plenty of time remaining, it doesn't look like second time's the charm for this project.

That should just about cover this report.  Hopefully, I'll have next week's report at the usual day and time, ready for your consumption.  Meanwhile, have a good week and keep shuffling!

[Billywiz]

Thanks for doing this Don, great job. The Grid deck is the only one I backed and it's nice to know it will be funded.

[Don Boyer]

Thanks for doing this Don, great job. The Grid deck is the only one I backed and it's nice to know it will be funded.

No sweat - glad I could help.  It's because people like you appreciate this that I keep doing it.  Collecting all the information and plugging into these reports is VERY time-consuming.

EDIT: this week's report is finally completed!

[Lara Krystle "Lane"]

Hey @Don are you going to add those Legendary Playing cards? hahahahah!!!!
Or should I say the Legendary Google images playing cards?

http://aethercards.com/discourse/index.php?topic=2509.0

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/405472496/custom-legendary-playing-cards-54cards-52-2-jokers?ref=live

[NathanCanadas]

Hey @Don are you going to add those Legendary Playing cards? hahahahah!!!!
Or should I say the Legendary Google images playing cards?

http://aethercards.com/discourse/index.php?topic=2509.0

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/405472496/custom-legendary-playing-cards-54cards-52-2-jokers?ref=live

He just added them in his update... Probably reluctantly LOL

[dcell59]

Looks like the Legendary project is now but a legend.

[codehog]

I am lost and confused, why would they go so far and then pull out with 26 days to go. It may of had issues but it looked doable.

JJH

[dcell59]

It looked to me like Kickstarter shut the project down. The creator's account was deleted. One reason this can happen is a creator trying to back their own project.

[NathanCanadas]

It looked to me like Kickstarter shut the project down. The creator's account was deleted. One reason this can happen is a creator trying to back their own project.

I think the creator purposely closed his project and shut down his account. I don't see why he would want to back his own project anyways. If he funds it himself it's not like it's going to change our opinions and he'll have to pay and extra 10% to kickstarter and amazon.

[dcell59]

You may be right, but I have heard of instances where KS project creators tried to push a project to get funded by self-financing. I've seen other instances where a project was going to fail and an obvious family member stepped in and donated a bunch of money. It seems odd that this guy would delete his account, as well. Anyway, it's history (for now, at least  )

[Russell CircleCityCards]

This is the email I received after I emailed him and told him "I was a huge fan of his awesome cards..."

"Legendary" Kevin wrote...

I'm not sure kick starter suspended it and nothing changed from when it was approved.  Ive modified them a bit and am gonna put them back on soon.

[Don Boyer]

A likelier bet is that he used appropriated images that he had no rights to use.  Or he's lying through his teeth to try saving face because his project was on a crash-n-burn trajectory... 

[Don Boyer]

It's Sunday morning, May 20th, only eight days to Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer in the U.S., and welcome to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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Please note that all times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

What's up this week on "The Rundown" - what progress has been made since last week?

Mon 14 May 2012, 21:07 - Alfonse Prince's Mystic Deck, Techno Edition: $1,907 raised, $12,000 goal, 16%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  Now I can rest easier knowing this deck is not out there waiting to assault my eyeballs...

Thu 31 May 2012, 18:56 - Chuck Brodd's Phil's Poker Cards:  $2,352 raised, $14,000 goal, 16%, up roughly $500.  He's making steady gains, but Chuck's deck only has 11 days to go.  It doesn't look good.

Sat 02 June 2012, 19:49 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards:  $8,162 raised, $15,000 goal, 54%, up about eleven hundred from last week.  Funding, while still coming, has slowed for this deck.  Less than two weeks remain to raise the other half of the funds needed to get this project off the drawing board and into your deck collection.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $1,299 raised, $3,500 goal, 37%.  Up $120 this week, a little better than last week.  Less than two weeks remain, and Ray hasn't posted a single update to this project.  It's pretty clear he's never designed a deck or run a Kickstarter before; people respond when they hear back from the designer.  He probably thought the project would simply speak for itself.  It does - and it's calling out for help!

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $401 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  Unchanged from last week.  Two weeks to go.  No updates from Clint Griffin.  Very little chance of success.

Tue 05 June 2012, 19:41 - Juan G. Perez' Bicycle Eclipse Playing Cards, by Hidden Mirrors: $7,171 raised, $10,000 goal, 71%, up only about $300 from last week, a serious drop (down 90%).  He still has sixteen days left, but if he can't build some buzz around this deck of his, he's not going to make it.


Sun 10 June 2012, 22:44 - Kevin von Kolen's CUSTOM LEGENDARY PLAYING CARDS (54CARDS) 52+2 Jokers: $452 raised, $5K goal, 9% - CANCELED.  It could not have happened to a more appropriate deck.  At 21 days to go, the plug was pulled, and the designer's Kickstarter account was even deleted on top of that.  I've heard of running away with your tail tucked between your legs, but this is a step beyond that.  Posing as an adoring fan, our own Russell contacted the creator, who claimed that Kickstarter were the ones who shut it down for reasons unknown to him and that he plans to modify his project and bring it back to KS.  (You don't have to resort to threats, Kevin!) 

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards: $85 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 1%.  He actually managed to LOSE $25 in funding from last week.  I hope Nick's not planning to make card design his sole employment.  He's got four weeks.  It ain't long enough.

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $30,896 raised, $5,000 goal, 617%.  Up just over three thousand from last week.  33 days to go.  This deck is a monster!  It will be made, guaranteed - and if the pace continues, 4pm Designs may be doing more than just a five-thousand-deck print run for his nearly-one thousand backers.  Taking a cue from Encarded, they're also offering six of the eight printing plates as rewards.

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On to "New Business"...

...there is no new business!  No new playing card decks were introduced this week!

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And we're up to this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Sat 16 June 2012, 16:59 - Doug Beasley's Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards: $8,288/$5K, 165%.  Up nearly $1,200.

Mon 11 June 2012, 17:36 - Warren Tusk of Los Angeles brings us The New Tarot.  His take on the subject - this is a "sequel" to the standard 78-card tarot deck, adding 77 new cards in the form of four new suits and a continuation of the Major Arcana from XXII all the way to XLII (that's 22 to 42, for those who are Roman-numeral challenged).  Why 77 and not 78, like the original tarot?  The designer says it's because he has no analogue for the Major Arcana card 0, The Fool.  The artwork is hand-painted in that sort-of photo-realistic style commonly found on the covers of many sci-fi/fantasy novels, and some pledge rewards include being painted into the deck as the subject for a particular card!  If you're into traditional tarot and want to break your routine a little, something like this might be just the thing you were looking for.  The project's at $3,880/$7,500, 51%.

Sun 17 June 2012 06:05 - Aimee Whatley of Portland, OR is working on the Archetypes Tarot Deck, taking the traditional images of a standard tarot deck and updating them for the modern age by finding modern analogues to those images and their symbolic meanings.  Her work is all-photographic, with some use of digital editing and manipulation.  I like the images myself, but some might not appreciate her version of "The Tower" from the Major Arcana - the Twin Towers on 9/11/01 after the planes hit and before their collapse.  There's no denying there's some artistic talent at work here.  Like the New Tarot, above, she's also offering at some pledge level to have you photographed for inclusion in the art for one of the cards in her deck.  The one most serious drawback this project has would have to be the reward level to get a single deck: $65!  I understand that it's meant as a work of art as much as it is a functional tarot deck, but that's kinda pricey, especially when competing projects offer a deck for less than half as much.  It's currently at $150/$3K, 5% and four weeks to go.

Thu 28 June 2012, 00:57 - Another project out of Portland, OR comes to us from a 25-artist team calling themselves "The Tarot Collective".  Their project is aptly named: The Collective Tarot, Round III.  This is a unique tarot deck using original suits and Major Arcana cards (in some ways resembling the New Tarot deck), but with a more pen-and-ink style of art gracing the cards' faces, and the imagery is largely modern (just like the Archetypes Tarot Deck).  Round I was a 500-deck print run from 2008, Round II was a 750-deck run from 2010, both courtesy of Eberhardt Press - the demand is apparently strong enough to warrant a third printing, at least in the opinion of the Collective.  Again, the only major obstacle I see for this deck is the pricing, just like the Archetypes deck - cheapest deck is $30, but the reward is "somewhat limited" at 1,000 backers.  Might as well think big, right?  After the first thousand, the decks are $40 a pop, though they do go back down to $30 when buying either multiples or other add-ons like their "Ace of Bones" t-shirt.  This project is at $13,609/$20K, 68%, with over five weeks remaining.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $30/$5.5K, rounded down to 0%.  Unchanged from last week.

That's the big picture on cards over at Kickstarter.  Have a good week and keep shuffling!

[Don Boyer]

It's Saturday morning, June 2nd - my apologies for missing last week; I was in Toronto with my fiancee, Lee Asher and Tom & Judy Dawson (the authors of the collected edition of "Hochman's Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards").  Suffice it to say I had a great time and wished my visit was longer.  Now, let me welcome you to the latest edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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Please note that all times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

What's up this week on "The Rundown" - what progress has been made since last week?

Thu 31 May 2012, 18:56 - Chuck Brodd's Phil's Poker Cards:  $2,443 raised, $14,000 goal, 17%. UNSUCCESSFUL.  It's a shame, because I liked the card designs.  Perhaps he'll give it another try...

Sat 02 June 2012, 19:49 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards:  $9,647 raised, $15,000 goal, 64%.  At fourteen hours remaining, it doesn't bode well for this deck.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $1,509 raised, $3,500 goal, 43%.  This one's in even worse shape as ULTRAVIOLET, with only 18 hours remaining.

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $391 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%.  This one lost ten dollars in the past two weeks.  I get the feeling that some designers simply toss a deck out there with no thought whatsoever to promotion and advertising.  At 37 hours to go, this one's a lost cause.

Tue 05 June 2012, 19:41 - Juan G. Perez' Bicycle Eclipse Playing Cards, by Hidden Mirrors: $8,605 raised, $10,000 goal, 86%, up about $1,500 from two weeks ago.  At three days to go, it's not impossible to cross the finish line on this one - but only if they can roughly raise the pace of funding to about 400% of what it is presently.  Since they're promoting re-investment by literally giving decks away, Juan might just do it.  It helps that he's been getting the word out and visiting message boards like this one.

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards: $110 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 1%.  It looks like he found the $25 he lost in funding two weeks ago, but this project's at an utter standstill.  He's got 15 days to go and there's no hope in sight.  (What a relief!  Those cards were an eyesore.)

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $38,120 raised, $5,000 goal, 762%.  Up about 150% from two weeks ago, roughly $7,500.  This deck is an unstoppable machine.  20 days left and blowing the doors off the other deck projects.

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On to New Business...

Sun 8 July 2012 22:00 - out of Sarasota, Florida comes Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards.  That's simply the title of the Kickstarter project, not the finished deck.  This project uses a total of 36 models posing in various attire to create a Victorian/Gothic feel to the imagery.  The model pool will be equally split between gender and skin tone.  He plans to use light-skinned models to represent one of the suit colors and dark-skinned models to represent the other suit color.  I got a look at some of his work (he includes links to his sites on the project home page), and it could very well become a gorgeous deck.  The finished deck will be, according to Mr. Huber, printed in poker size on casino-quality stock; I left him an inquiry on what printer he's using, but I'm inclined to doubt that this is a USPC job.  The project's biggest negative is the reward structure.  There are zero rewards that offer more than one deck, and the decks aren't cheap - $25 a piece.  Higher rewards include a 2013 calendar with images from the deck and an art book displaying all the cards and other pertinent information about the shoot, signed and dated by him.  It certainly doesn't look like he has the mass market in mind for this and he's set a rather high goal to reach.  With a bit over five weeks to go, this project stands at $25 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0%.

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And we're up to this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Sat 16 June 2012, 16:59 - Doug Beasley's Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards: $9,568/$5K, 191%.  Up about $1,500 in two weeks.  Funding has slowed, but this one's already over the top, so it doesn't really matter much.

Mon 11 June 2012, 17:36 - Warren Tusk's The New Tarot: $5,482/$7,500, 73%.  With a low goal and about a week and a half to reach it, this one could become a success - but it will be close.

Sun 17 June 2012, 06:05 - Aimee Whatley's Archetypes Tarot Deck: $900/$3K, 30%.  With fifteen days left, she really needs to find ways to step up the funding or this deck won't get made.

Fri 22 June 2012, 18:39 - Portland, Oregon appears to be a hotbed of tarot activity, with yet another tarot deck project from Richard Fox entitled The Symbolist Tarot Deck.  The deck is a full 78-card tarot utilizing artworks from the Symbolist period from the late 19th century throughout Europe.  The MSRP for the deck will be $25, but backers on KS will only pay $18, less if pledged for in bulk, right down to a retailer's package going for $12.50 a deck.  The deck presently stands at $1,804/$8K, 22%, 20 days left.  That's not a lot of time - I hope Richard is promoting the hell out of this deck.

Sat 23 June, 22:55 - Adam Blodgett of Olympia, Washington has a charming take on the tarot in his project, The Chibi Tarot.  "Chibi" is a Japanese term - the literal meaning is "short person" or "small child", but it's more commonly referred to when describing things that are small and cute, particularly images or figures of people or creatures, and sometimes this type of work is called "super-deformed" when representing characters with small bodies and large heads.  Adam's starting with just the Major Arcana cards, intending to use any overfunding from this set to create new items to sell based on the deck, like keyrings, stickers, etc., as well as to help fund a full 78-card tarot deck of the same theme.  You can get the digital version of the finished cards for as little as $5, and the physical deck, printed 3.5 inches by 6.5 inches, for $25.  Higher reward levels include sketches, a book on how to use the cards, a tarot reading and even getting your image on one of the forthcoming Minor Arcana cards when they're produced.  The thing is that no one reward includes more than a single deck - he's definitely not considering retailers in this.  But considering that this deck's only made of Major Arcana images, it probably would have been a tougher sell to them anyway.  Mr. Blodgett's nearly halfway to his goal, $2,409/$5K, 48%, three weeks remaining.  He's got an excellent chance of reaching that goal.

Thu 28 June 2012, 00:57 - The Tarot Collective's The Collective Tarot, Round III: $18,545/$20K, 92%, about three-and-a-half weeks remaining.  I'd be extremely surprised if this didn't meet its goal.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $45/$5.5K, rounded down to 0%.  Going nowhere fast.

That's the big picture on cards at Kickstarter.  Have a good week and keep on shuffling!

[Zim]

And still, no normal purple deck... I wanted this.

[NathanCanadas]

Well, thank you Don! It looks like this week lots of projects will fail, some deserving to succeed IMO. Hey, it's life. Hopefully they'll come back better than before!

[Lara Krystle "Lane"]

And still, no normal purple deck... I wanted this.

Hey @zim, The NOC from HOPC has plain purple decks. If you really just wanted a plain purple one you can go with them.
the Eclipse is really cutting it close. I wonder if they will make it

[Zim]

And still, no normal purple deck... I wanted this.

Hey @zim, The NOC from HOPC has plain purple decks. If you really just wanted a plain purple one you can go with them.
the Eclipse is really cutting it close. I wonder if they will make it

|:
I wanted purple deck with S&M back style, and this one had it.
Btw, I planned buying NOC deck - but I got to the shipping part and it was too scary.

[NathanCanadas]

And still, no normal purple deck... I wanted this.

Hey @zim, The NOC from HOPC has plain purple decks. If you really just wanted a plain purple one you can go with them.
the Eclipse is really cutting it close. I wonder if they will make it

|:
I wanted purple deck with S&M back style, and this one had it.
Btw, I planned buying NOC deck - but I got to the shipping part and it was too scary.

The designer of the deck is, I believe, on these forums. If he lowers his goal to 10,000 and goes for a second try, I'm pretty sure he'll make it.

[Don Boyer]

And still, no normal purple deck... I wanted this.

Hey @zim, The NOC from HOPC has plain purple decks. If you really just wanted a plain purple one you can go with them.
the Eclipse is really cutting it close. I wonder if they will make it

|:
I wanted purple deck with S&M back style, and this one had it.
Btw, I planned buying NOC deck - but I got to the shipping part and it was too scary.

The designer of the deck is, I believe, on these forums. If he lowers his goal to 10,000 and goes for a second try, I'm pretty sure he'll make it.

I'm assuming you're all referring to the Ultraviolet deck.

Nathan, it's not so easy to arbitrarily reduce the goal to get the deck made, especially in the figures you're talking about.  Without enough cash to fund the printing, packaging and shipping, the project will screech to a halt.  What would they leave out by slashing their budget by a third?  Would they make people come get the decks themselves and to hell with the deliveries?  Or maybe they'd just stick stamps on the tuck boxes and bricks and simply hope that they reach their destinations intact?  They could try skimping on the printing part, but if they do, there's not really much there worth packaging and shipping, now is there?

I'm sure there's some wiggle room in their budget, but one-third is a huge chunk.  And let's not forget that they are trying to make at least some profit on the deck - sure, it's a labor of love, but love doesn't pay the gas and electric bills.

Btw, I planned buying NOC deck - but I got to the shipping part and it was too scary.

Did you hear they found a less-expensive way to ship overseas?  If you haven't check the shipping prices since opening day, you might want to take another look.  I really like the NOC deck in all its colors, but purple fans will love the purple deck.

[Zim]

I'm assuming you're all referring to the Ultraviolet deck.

Nathan, it's not so easy to arbitrarily reduce the goal to get the deck made, especially in the figures you're talking about.  Without enough cash to fund the printing, packaging and shipping, the project will screech to a halt.  What would they leave out by slashing their budget by a third?  Would they make people come get the decks themselves and to hell with the deliveries?  Or maybe they'd just stick stamps on the tuck boxes and bricks and simply hope that they reach their destinations intact?  They could try skimping on the printing part, but if they do, there's not really much there worth packaging and shipping, now is there?

I'm sure there's some wiggle room in their budget, but one-third is a huge chunk.  And let's not forget that they are trying to make at least some profit on the deck - sure, it's a labor of love, but love doesn't pay the gas and electric bills.

I think the problem of this deck was the price, the faces and the advertising.
The price was high compared to other kickstarter decks.
The faces are very creative and innovative, and some might see them as weird.
The advertising just wasn't enough.

Did you hear they found a less-expensive way to ship overseas?  If you haven't check the shipping prices since opening day, you might want to take another look.  I really like the NOC deck in all its colors, but purple fans will love the purple deck.

In fact, I checked the shipping prices only in the opening day...
Thank for the advice, much better prices.

[Don Boyer]

It's Sunday morning, June 9th (oops - it was the 10th!) and time for another edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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Please note that all times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

What's up this week on "The Rundown" - what progress has been made since last week?

Sat 02 June 2012, 19:49 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards:  $9,784 raised, $15,000 goal, 65%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  BUT, don't despair!  They're restructured the rewards list and started their SECOND ATTEMPT at making their goal!  The NEW project can be found here, and it presently stands at $7,265 raised, $15,000 goal, 48%.  The new ending is at Thu 05 July 2012, 21:57.

Sat 02 Jun 2012, 23:28 - Ray Thomas' Hipster Playing Cards: $1,527 raised, $3,500 goal, 44%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  In a way, this is a good thing.  Can you imagine what quality work $3,500 would buy?

Sun 03 Jun 2012, 18:34 - Clint Griffin's SIGIDI: African Heritage Playing Cards: $391 raised, $25,000 goal, 1%. UNSUCCESSFUL.  This deck just didn't stand a chance at all.

Tue 05 June 2012, 19:41 - Juan G. Perez' Bicycle Eclipse Playing Cards, by Hidden Mirrors: $11,314 raised, $10,000 goal, 113%.  SUCCESSFUL.  Juan's project was teetering on the brink for a little while, but a full-court press in getting the word out combined with additional decks added for certain rewards made just the right combination he needed to pass the finish line and then some.

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards: $110 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 1%.  Unchanged since the last report.  It's on life support, waiting for the plug to be pulled.  7 days remain.

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $41,450 raised, $5,000 goal, 829%.  Raised about three grand since I last wrote about this deck.  4pm Designs just managed to hit ALL the right buttons in reaching its core constituents.

Thu 05 July 2012, 21:57 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's  ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards: $7,265 raised, $15,000 goal, 48%.  See the first entry on this list for more details.

Sun 8 July 2012, 22:00 - Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards: $25 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0%.  Totally unchanged from last week.  This has the potential to be a gorgeous deck, but the reward structure rules out retail buys, it really is expensive, and there's virtually no mock-ups of the possible finished product.  This would be different if it was some drawing or a computer-created design, but it's a photographic project.  I don't think you can make a good mockup of a playing card featuring a photo of a model - without the photo or the model!  It's really a shame, but let's hope it picks up steam, and soon.

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On to New Business...

Mon 16 July 2012, 22:30 - Straight out of Chicago, Seth Thomas and Spencer Rohan (a.k.a. WoC Cards) brings us the War of Currents Playing Cards.  This Bicycle deck has one of the most intriguing and well-planned themes I've ever seen.  The "War of Currents" played out worldwide roughly from the late Victorian Era to near the beginning of The Great War (that's World War I, to those people less anachronistically inclined).  America was just barely beginning to develop electricity as a public utility, but two competing formats went head to head against each other, vying to be the chosen format going into the future.  Alternating current was developed and promoted by Nikola Tesla (the inventor of the Tesla coil), while direct current's chief proponent was none other than the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Alva Edison.  There's much more detail about the war in this Wikipedia article, for those who want to learn more.

The deck has so much detail and thought put into its design, right down to remembering its Bicycle roots with images of two bicycles on the back of every card.  There's images of the two main "combatants" in the war and their supporters divided between the red and black suits, the pips and face-card backgrounds are custom designed with excerpts from actual patent application images, the two ad cards tell some of the story about these two brilliant scientists - and on top of all that, it looks absolutely great!  Bonus rewards include pendants, belt buckles, prints, posters, and the most interesting "artifact" I've ever seen in a Kickstarter project: a one-of-a-kind "Steampunk Ace" - the deck's Ace of Spades reproduced on gold-colored plastic with black vinyl print!  That's got to stoke the collector in someone out there...

This project "current"-ly stands at $6,202 raised, $8,000 goal, 72%, with 36 days to go.  It really launched into a powerful start and I'd be completely shocked if this deck wasn't a huge success, earning at least a few multiples above the goal.

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And we're up to this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Mon 11 June 2012, 17:36 - Warren Tusk's The New Tarot: $7,743/$7,500, 103%.  In about a day and a half, this deck is getting made!

Sat 16 June 2012, 16:59 - Doug Beasley's Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards: $10,330/$5K, 191%.  Up about $800.  The money still keeps coming in for this one.  It's really a cool concept, designed to spark creativity.

Sun 17 June 2012, 06:05 - Aimee Whatley's Archetypes Tarot Deck: $985/$3K, 30%.  Up only $85 with just six days to go.  This one doesn't look like it's got the "oomph" it needs.  It's a shame; it's an attractive deck.

Fri 22 June 2012, 18:39 - Richard Fox's The Symbolist Tarot Deck: $2,908/$8K, 36%, 12 days left.  Roughly $1,100 up from the last report is very good - but it might not be enough in the time remaining.  Mr. Fox has actually checked into this message board, having discovered my review page from the analytics for his project page.

Sat 23 June, 22:55 - Adam Blodgett's The Chibi Tarot: $2,824/$5K, 56%, 13 days remaining.  Up only about $400, it doesn't look like it's enough of a boost to get to that goal in time.

Thu 28 June 2012, 00:57 - The Tarot Collective's The Collective Tarot, Round III: $21,078/$20K, 105%.  As predicted, the goal has been met and there's still 17 days to go if you want to get in on the action - it's a sure thing!

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $45/$5.5K, rounded down to 0%.  It's completely unchanged from last report with 19 days to go.  I think it's safe to say this project is dead in the water.

That's all for now.  Have a good week and keep on shuffling!

[Don Boyer]

Hey, guys - a little bump here (and a shameless ploy to get an extra deck of cards)! 


The Kickstarter project ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards by beta17 has hit the 50% mark!  With 23 days to go, they're building steam - come get in on the action!

[Don Boyer]

It's Sunday morning, June 17th and Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.  For the first time ever, I'm actually getting to celebrate Father's Day - and no, I didn't have a baby!  My future wife has a son who lives at home with us! Now that that's out of the way, it's time for another edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck-Related Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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Please note that all times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

I'll start off as usual with "The Rundown" - what's up, what's down, what's sideways and pear-shaped with the playing cards projects from last week?

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards: $120 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 1%.  No one here ever expected this deck to survive.  Only 8 hours remain.

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $42,727 raised, $5,000 goal, 855%.  Up about a grand-plus from last week.  This is definitely one for the record books - this guy knows how to promote a deck of cards, that's for sure.  I look forward to their next project, as this one will be over by the time I log my next report.  Oh, and don't forget - there's less than a thousand decks left that haven't been promised to investors, so if you want in, what the hell have you been waiting for?

Thu 05 July 2012, 21:57 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's  ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards: $9,565 raised, $15,000 goal, 64%.  Up exactly $2,300.  Things are looking MUCH better for this deck on the second time around.  With about two-and-a-half weeks left, it's far from a sure thing just yet.  I expect something like what happened with the Bicycle Eclipse deck - a photo finish, hopefully with this deck ahead by a nose!

Sun 8 July 2012, 22:00 - Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards: $51 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0%.  Wow - this deck had an excellent concept, but it's got zero momentum out of the gate and doesn't appear to be hurrying up any time soon.  In addition to the issues I mentioned about this deck last week, I have not seen or heard one peep out of the deck's designer - there's absolutely no promoting in card collecting circles at all.  Another of many decks designed by people (and Kickstarter project creators) who thought they simply had to post it and everyone would come running...  Dude, you gotta promote, promote, PROMOTE, or you're dead.

Mon 16 July 2012, 22:30 - Seth Thomas and Spencer Rohan's War of Currents Playing Cards:  $8,169 raised, $8,500 goal, 96%, with about a lunar month left.  It's up nearly two grand from last week (and my apologies for misquoting the goal amount last week, it was NOT $8,000).  This is pretty much a sure thing with so much time and so little distance to cross.  Electrical engineers everywhere, rejoice! 

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And now for New Business - what new deck projects have sprung up in the past week?

Well, I have two decks for you, and each in its own special way is probably one of the quirkiest decks you've ever seen coming out of Kickstarter!

 Wed 11 July 2012, 14:21 - Ana Cortez from Sante Fe, NM presents "The Book of Knowing" - Extraordinary Playing Cards.  In a project that's part homage to her dearly-departed father's artwork and part divination deck, Ms. Cortez has taken selections from her father's collection and is using them as the faces for a rather unique deck of playing cards.  Scratch that - they're playing cards only in the sense that they have the usual thirteen values, four suits and two jokers that make up your average Bicycle deck, but the resemblance stops right there.

She personally describes the deck as "perfect for meditation, inspiration, divination, card playing, story telling, or simply to appreciate as art pieces."  Note that "card playing" was quite a distance down that list...  I wouldn't call a deck that's three inches wide and four-and-a-half inches long (that's TWICE the size of a bridge deck, folks!) "perfect for...playing cards" by any stretch of the imagination.  Were it not for the fact that this has the standard playing card deck features to it in terms of deck composition, I'd sooner file this with the tarot decks I list in "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" below.  Many of the rewards include an e-book called "Playing Card Oracle" and/or a live reading with Ms. Cortez herself.

Magicians would likely pass because the art would distract from any trick you used them for (plus they have images that print into the bleed on some of the faces).  Flourishers would need a whole new set of skills to work with cards this big.  So, buy it for the art, buy it for reading your past and/or future, but don't buy it because you're looking for a new deck for your beer-and-pretzels poker game next week.  The project is at $1,123 raised, $6,260 goal, 17% with three-and-a-half weeks to go.  I left her a question about who's manufacturing the deck for her, but I'm thinking that the answer won't include the letters U, S, P or C anywhere near each other...

Fri 20 July 2012, 06:59 - Prepared to get "brain-Washington'd": out of Tacoma, WA, by Amy McBride and Maija McKnight (jointly known as Tacoma Makes), comes Tacoma Artist Playing Cards, and that's got to be the most times I've ever written "Tacoma" in a single sentence!  This isn't your typical big-deal USPC project; while it's true USPC is making it, it's actually got more in common with a well-made tourism deck.  Fourteen artists join forces, design 54 cards between them, and every single one is a popular or noteworthy location in the city of Tacoma, except the Jokers, which will be caricatures of two famous "Tacomans" (or would "Tacomi" be more correct?  Maybe Tacomians?).  While I'm sure it will look gorgeous, it's got limited appeal for people not interested in Tacoma, unless they happen to specialize in collecting tourism decks.

What makes it crystal clear that Tacoma fans are their target audience is that all deck rewards are listed in dollar amounts that DON'T include even domestic shipping, never mind international!  The preferred method of delivery is actually in-person pick-up!  Everything else costs extra.  This, combined with all the rewards except for the $1 pledge including invitations (standard or VIP) to the launch party, and that the cheapest reward to include a deck is $20, makes this deck a real specialty item and not meant for the world at large, but just the parts of it that exist in - where else? - Tacoma, WA!  I'm really surprised at the number of big-ticket rewards people have pledged for - this is clearly aimed at and meant for very loyal locals.  This project is at $8,535 raised, $13,000 goal, 65% with just over a month remaining 'til the deadline.

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And now, this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Mon 11 June 2012, 17:36 - Warren Tusk's The New Tarot: $8,148/$7,500, 109%.  SUCCESSFUL.  Looks like there were just enough people interested in the idea of a "sequel" to the traditional Tarot deck.  The art's pretty nice, too!

Sat 16 June 2012, 16:59 - Doug Beasley's Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards: $12,589/$5K, 252%.  SUCCESSFUL.  This project really had the legs to go the distance, despite it being focused more on photography than any sort of divination.  I'd compare it to a photographer-specific "Whack Pack".  If you don't know what that is, look it up! 

Sun 17 June 2012, 06:05 - Aimee Whatley's Archetypes Tarot Deck: $1,115/$3K, 37%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  As I type this, the project ended about two hours ago.  It was a cool concept, but just didn't grab the attention it needed.

Fri 22 June 2012, 18:39 - Richard Fox's The Symbolist Tarot Deck: $4,168/$8K, 52%, 5 days left.  Mr. Fox, I'm sorry to say that your deck is unlikely to succeed.  But if I were you, I'd consider what I learned from this project and give it another try.  Despite the long odds, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Sat 23 June, 22:55 - Adam Blodgett's The Chibi Tarot: $3,866/$5K, 77%, 6 days remaining.  Holy cow - he snagged over a grand in funding in the past week!  If he can keep this up and get the momentum going just a little faster, he might make it - I predict another photo finish!  You should check this out - the cards vaguely reminded me of "South Park", which I always considered cute (yes, I have a somewhat different sense of cute; get over it!).

Thu 28 June 2012, 00:57 - The Tarot Collective's The Collective Tarot, Round III: $22,869/$20K, 114%.  Up another $1,800 in the past week with ten days to go.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $45/$5.5K, rounded down to 0%.  Another week unchanged.  I looked at the creator description for Mr. Ciesicki - it mentions that he's got "10 years experience promoting my game."  I really hope to hell he's not working in advertising anywhere...

Mon 13 Aug, 11:05 - New to the list this week is Chris Alan Martin's The Chris Martin Tarot from Cheboygan, MI.  Where do I begin?  Is it with the fact that he named his project in a (ahem) very humble fashion?  Or perhaps that his whole project description takes two very poorly-written sentences in a single paragraph?  What about the fact that some of his rewards have a projected delivery date of January, 2014, and the earliest reward would be expected to ship August, 2013?  Perhaps I should go with the fact that his goal is a pie-in-the-sky twenty-five thousand dollars?  Or maybe that his decks require a minimum donation of seventy-five dollars to get just one?  I mean, it does come with a signed print of one of the original 16"x20" cards, so maybe that makes it worth it...

I know - I'll just copy and paste the first paragraph of his personal mini-bio!

"I have been creating artwork for over thirty years.  I am creating what I would consider to be a classic tarot deck with a lot of symbolism and hidden meaning in each card, very intricate details. The style of this tarot deck could best be described as Rider-Waite/Robin Wood style Tarot mixed with the work of artist Alex Grey and a tinge of evilness."

Hey - who doesn't want a tinge of evilness in their tarot deck?  Am I right?  I'm betting his two backers do...

The project current stands at $150/$25K, rounded down to 0%.  Hey - he's got two months, it could happen...

That's all for now.  Have a good week and keep on shuffling!

[Don Boyer]

It's Monday morning, June 25th - I would have had this out yesterday but I was feeling a bit under the weather.  It's time once again for another edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck Projects Report!  Do you like the shortened title?  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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Please note that all times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

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I'll start off as usual with "The Rundown" - what's going on with the playing cards projects from last week?

Sun 17 June 2012, 14:46 - Nick Lampsas' Metagalactic "Blackout" Glow In the Dark Playing Cards: $120 raised, $6,000 goal, rounded down to 1%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  He had six backers in the end, two for $10 each and four for $25.  Poor, deluded souls... 

Fri 22 June 2012, 19:01 - 4pm Designs' "The Grid" Playing Cards: $47,444 raised, $5,000 goal, 949%.  SUCCESSFUL!  This wildly-popular deck has raised more funds in actual dollars as well as in percentage of goal than any other deck project I've seen to date.  With just hours to go before the deadline, 4pm Designs actually RAN OUT of decks - this is a completely sold-out deck.  If it hits retail - which it likely will judging from the fact that three backers pledged for a gross each - expect it to go for a premium over MSRP.

Thu 05 July 2012, 21:57 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's  ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards: $12,381 raised, $15,000 goal, 83%.  Up nearly three grand, another strong week.  A week-and-a-half remains and support is remaining solid.  If they can keep the momentum going, this will definitely become a successful project, though not by a huge margin, I'd predict.

Sun 8 July 2012, 22:00 - Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards: $51 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0%.  No change from the last report.  Less than two weeks to go and this thing's as lively as a ballroom dance for nonagenarians.  I really wanted to see this deck succeed, but it's not even close.  If this was compared to swimming the Atlantic from Coney Island Beach to the shores of Great Britain, this deck would have maybe one foot in the water and one still on the sand at the beach.

Mon 16 July 2012, 22:30 - Seth Thomas and Spencer Rohan's War of Currents Playing Cards:  $10,926 raised, $8,500 goal, 129%.  No surprise - this deck blasted through its goal and is still all charged up and running fast with three weeks remaining.  They've got flyers now, which they plan to plaster all over the streets of Chicago.  Those might make nice souvenirs for the residents of the Windy City...

Wed 11 July 2012, 14:21 - Ana Cortez' "The Book of Knowing" - Extraordinary Playing Cards: $1,740 raised, $6,260 goal, 28%.  That's about six hundred dollars up from last report with two-and-a-half weeks to go.  I've been in touch with Ms. Cortez a few times over the past week - she's increased the reward offerings to include packages for retailers, but thus far it's still been a difficult row to hoe for her.  She's also looking at printing options - one of the presses she's considering is Brahma.

Fri 20 July 2012, 06:59 - Amy McBride and Maija McKnight/Tacoma Makes' Tacoma Artist Playing Cards: $17,080 raised, $13,000 goal, 131%.  I don't know if I've ever seen a deck jump up to double its funding in a single week, but that's exactly what this one did!  I'm thinking there's some very happy Tacomans out there right about now...

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And now for New Business - what new deck projects have sprung up in the past week?

One new deck disappeared from the radar as fast as it appeared.  Dante Vex's The Dogma Deck was shut down by the artists who designed it only a few days after bringing it to Kickstarter.  Dante Vex has been on these boards and mentioned that the deck's design was a collaborative effort, but some of the collaborators just didn't see eye to eye on the result.  Recognizing that the deck needed some polish and reworking, they yanked the plug on it rather than try to force it down backers' throats as is.  (Never force things, they usually break.  )  Before the voluntary ending of the project, they'd raised $1,158 in pledges from 33 backers for a $10,000 goal, with adding the "Bicycle" brand name as a possible overfunding goal before it was shut down.  Keep your eyes out for a possible reappearance, and check Dante Vex's posts for more information.

Sat 21 July 2012, 22:00 - Mark Baker of Spokane, WA bring us the Valor Playing Cards Deck.  It has a rather unique design to it, another one of those decks that screams either "I've gotta have this" or "I can't stand this", depending on who you ask.  All the indices are white - black suits and red suits.  Other than the indices, the cards have no pips.  But if you arrange the cards valued Ace through ten in left-to-right rows, using row order spades, diamonds, clubs, hearts (modern new deck suit order), the images on the cards form an American flag, stylized to appear as though it's been flying over a firebase in the boondocks of Afghanistan.  The face cards have no faces - instead they have a "J", "Q" or "K", respectively, with the letter appearing almost like a little ragged letter-shaped hole, inside which you can see a portion of the same American flag image.  The deck's back is a one-way design marked "VALOR PLAYING CARDS" in the center with obscured images of red, white and blue stripes running horizontally in big, thick bands.

It the deck patriotic?  Hell, yes, it is.  But it's really not much more than a novelty deck.  I'm sure if sold through big-box warehouse stores through the "red states" of the US, they'd be phenomenal hits and get sold out almost as fast as they could be printed.  But for the people who generally frequent this site, they use a deck for one of four things: collecting, magic, flourishing or playing card games like poker.  Collectors might be interested, but since it's not a Bicycle deck or even a USPC deck judging from the relatively small goal, most will pass.  Magicians would find this deck a total no-go due to obvious one-way backs and difficult-to-read indices.  Flourishers would likely pass as well - the deck back is black and design-free in the corners and the monochrome indices would be much less interesting to display in fans and such.  That leaves people who play card games such as poker.  They'd not be big on this deck, either, again due to the one-way back and all-white indices like the magicians, but furthermore due to how the cards are borderless and forty of them have edges that are all differently colored because of the American flag puzzle they all form together, thus allowing people to have a chance to distinguish a card's value from seeing its edge while held in a complete deck.

The project is at $602 raised on a $7,250 goal, 8%, with just under four weeks remaining.

Sun 22 July 2012, 22:52 - Timothy Niou from Vancouver, WA designed CORE: Playing Cards for your consideration.  It's a minimalist design along the lines of the Ultraviolet deck, but draws its inspiration from the miniature Arc Reactors constructed by Tony Stark in the "Iron Man" movie franchise.  The design is still being tweaked - larger pips for one - but that might not help with the issue of the pips looking too similar to each other due to an all-angular redesign.  The abstract face cards are also a "love-it-or-hate-it" kind of thing.  The designer does pop in here as "tniou", so you can check out his recent posts and fire questions at him.  As of now, the projects running at $1,365 raised, $15,000 goal, 9% with just under a month to go.

Mon 23 July 2012, 02:59 - From ReDraw, a collective of artists from Kansas and Missouri being "shepherded" by Jeremy Todd and Ali Dalsing comes the ReDraw deck.  It's another artists' collective deck: pretty artwork for all the faces, but in this case lacking a unified design for the indices, rendered the deck a bit less practical.  But then again, most artists' collective decks aren't necessarily meant to be practical.  And like most art decks, it's expensive - $20 for a single deck, $35 for two.  Oddly enough, however, the deck has an insanely low goal of only $1,200, so I'm thinking it's practically certain to appeal to enough people to cross such a low hurdle.  The flip side of that coin, however, is how good of a deck does $1,200 buy?  It's at $480 raised, $1,200 goal, 40% with 27 days to go.

And NO, I will NOT be following the Stinky Playing Cards project!  It's all about cheese, has no traditional card values or suits - and it stinks! 

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And now, this week's "Not Your Average 52-Plus-Two" - your non-standard deck projects.  As usual, this does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Fri 22 June 2012, 18:39 - Richard Fox's The Symbolist Tarot Deck: $5,318/$8K, 66%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.

Sat 23 June, 22:55 - Adam Blodgett's The Chibi Tarot: $5,470/$5K, 109%.  SUCCESSFUL.

Thu 28 June 2012, 00:57 - The Tarot Collective's The Collective Tarot, Round III: $25,059/$20K, 125%.  As of 10:18 UTC, only 62 hours remain.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $56/$5.5K, 1%.  Up $11 with four days to go.  Seems this iteration of the project will meet the same fate as the last one.  Do they even allow three attempts at the same thing, especially when they fail so miserably?

Mon 13 Aug, 11:05 - Chris Alan Martin's The Chris Martin Tarot: $150/$25K, rounded down to 0%.  Unchanged from last week, still the same two backers...

That's all for now.  Have a good week and keep on shuffling!

[NathanCanadas]

As usual, Don, great report. I was wondering about this: could you by any chance be able to pick a different color for successful decks, decks who have just reached their goal with some time left, and not-yet-backed decks? It's just an idea, and since I've noticed you've made color changes for different kinds of decks, I think this would make it pretty cool and easy to read. Thx!

[Don Boyer]

As usual, Don, great report. I was wondering about this: could you by any chance be able to pick a different color for successful decks, decks who have just reached their goal with some time left, and not-yet-backed decks? It's just an idea, and since I've noticed you've made color changes for different kinds of decks, I think this would make it pretty cool and easy to read. Thx!

It's already pretty easy to read, and I'm moving away from color alterations.  Successful decks are always at the top of the list because they're listed chronologically - to be successful, it would have met its goal sometime in the previous week.  Then I remove them in future reports.

Standard decks are in bold, while non-standard decks aren't.  Decks that are overfunded have percentages of 100% or greater.

The reason I'm moving away from the color changes is that this is a LOT of work to put together and consumes a good deal of time.  No color changes is more efficient from the writer's point of view.  From the reader's point of view, the color changes mean they'd have to keep a color chart just to know what all the colors mean, which also isn't exactly enjoyable reading.

[Don Boyer]

It's Saturday morning, June 30th, last day of the month - I thought I'd try getting a small head-start on this week's edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

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Please note that all times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

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Here's "The Rundown" - what's going on with the playing cards projects from last week?

Thu 05 July 2012, 21:57 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's  ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards: $15,089 raised, $15,000 goal, 101%.  A continued strong flow of backers and their cash barely brought this deck over the goal with a few days still left for fundraising.  Overfunding goals, anyone?

Sun 8 July 2012, 22:00 - Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards: $51 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0%.  Another week with no change from the last report, and only eight days remain.  Not much more to say, really - we're watching a sinking ship that barely made it into the harbor.

Mon 16 July 2012, 22:30 - Seth Thomas and Spencer Rohan's War of Currents Playing Cards:  $11,434 raised, $8,500 goal, 135%.  Still going strong.  No overfunding goals announced yet, but they've given backers a sneak peek at a video project they're working on that's apparently related to the deck's theme and done in a retro style like something from a 1960s educational film.

Wed 11 July 2012, 14:21 - Ana Cortez' "The Book of Knowing" - Extraordinary Playing Cards: $1,844 raised, $6,260 goal, 29%.  The project's only up about a hundred dollars this week - unfortunately, despite having some cool and vaguely surreal art, it doesn't appear that this deck is getting made.  Can't write it off completely, but it would require a true miracle to pick up over 70% of the needed funding in a week-and-a-half.

Fri 20 July 2012, 06:59 - Amy McBride and Maija McKnight/Tacoma Makes' Tacoma Artist Playing Cards: $17,707 raised, $13,000 goal, 136%.  It's only up a bit more than six hundred bucks this week - I guess they found all the Tacomans they needed! 

Sat 21 July 2012, 22:00 - Mark Baker's Valor Playing Cards: $685 raised, $7,250 goal, 9%.  It's only up about $80 this week, and only three more remain on this project.  This deck needs a lot more wind beneath its wings than what it's shown so far.

Sun 22 July 2012, 22:52 - Timothy Niou's CORE: Playing Cards: $6,023 raised, $15,000 goal, 40%.  Up over $4,600 (about 31%) in a single week!  The designer announced the results of the deck back vote - the third design was the favorite - as well as two unique gaff cards: both are double-backers, but one has a card reveal on one side (very much like the Vaudeville deck) while the other has a core glowing red instead of blue on one side.  I still wish he'd tweak those pips into something more easily distinguished from each other, but it seems he's got plenty of backers eager for the deck just as it is.

Mon 23 July 2012, 02:59 - Jeremy Todd and Ali Dalsing's ReDraw artist collective's ReDraw deck: $921 raised, $1,200 goal, 77% with 22 days to go.  Nearly doubled its money in a five-day span.  Looks like a lock for getting made.  If they hit some serious overfunding, perhaps they'll look into getting a higher-grade print shop.  No art deck can be all that great when the print job is so insanely cheap.

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"What's next", you ask?  Why, it's "New Business", of course!  What new deck projects have made their presences known since last week?  Just one...

Sun 12 Aug 2012, 22:06 - Noel Quiles of Millville, NJ is here with Genesis "Aboriginal" Playing Cards.  Noel's started checking in here at the Discourse, seeking input on his deck's design - you'll recognize him as "tpxstuidios".  He's planning on producing it through USPC using Aristocrat stock - no word yet on the finish.  His stated inspiration for the deck is the first book of the Bible, which shares the same "first name" with his deck.  The deck's design is heavy on the parchment look, customized Aces but the same standard face cards, and a back meant to evoke Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  It's not a bad start, but I don't think there's enough elements of the deck that tie back to Genesis just yet.  Perhaps if he created court cards that evoked characters from Genesis, the first two obviously being Adam and Eve, possibly followed by Cain and Abel.  While his design is stated as being complete, he's not opposed to reworking his design to better suit his audience, as he's already shown with a reworked back design that removes the obvious one-way mark of the word "GENESIS" running through the middle of the card.  Possible alternatives include two placements of the word or none - none is so far the crowd favorite, and I'm in agreement with them.

The deck is at $1,099 raised on a goal of $15,000, putting him at 7% with about a month-and-a-half to go.

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And now, this week's "Not Your Average Pack" (yes, I changed the name) - your non-standard deck projects.  This does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or collectible playing cards, but it does include art decks, traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

Thu 28 June 2012, 00:57 - The Collective Tarot's The Collective Tarot, Round III: $26,891/$20K, 134%.  SUCCESSFUL.

Fri 29 June 2012, 22:18 - Brian Ciesicki's Triple Topper - 3 dimensional card system: $66/$5.5K, 1%.  UNSUCCESSFUL.  Brain gained $10 in the final days of his second attempt at getting this deck concept off the ground.  I'm seriously hoping he gives up after two spectacularly failed tries.  It's a flawed concept and it doesn't get better with age.

Mon 13 Aug, 11:05 - Chris Alan Martin's The Chris Martin Tarot: $150/$25K, rounded down to 0%.  Unchanged for the second week in a row.  Not exactly a surprise.

There has been no new projects in this category for this past week.

That's all for now.  Have a good week and keep on shuffling!

[Don Boyer]

It's Saturday morning, July 7th - I hope everyone (in the US!) had a safe and happy Independence Day celebration on Wednesday the Fourth.  Welcome to this week's edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

Please note that all currency listed is in U.S. Dollars and times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.  For Standard Time, subtract an additional hour.  Most of the U.S. currently uses Daylight Saving Time from the second Sunday in March at 2:00:00 AM until the first Sunday in November at 2:00:00 AM (with a few localized exceptions in places such as some Native American tribal territories and the entire state of Arizona, which do not observe Daylight Saving Time at all).

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Here's "The Rundown" - what's going on with the playing cards projects from last week?  New feature: completed projects are shown in italics, like this.

Thu 05 July 2012, 21:57 - Patrick Burke and Ethan Soper's  ULTRAVIOLET Playing Cards: $18,532 raised, $15,000 goal, 124% (up 23%).  SUCCESSFUL.  The deck had a very strong finish, stronger than I thought would happen.  Congratulations to Beta17 Design - I sure we're all looking forward to the next deck you create!

Sun 8 July 2012, 22:00 - Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards: $51 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0% (no change).  Only 41 hours remain for this beautiful but doomed deck idea.  Short of finding an angel investor, it's just not going to happen.

Mon 16 July 2012, 22:30 - Seth Thomas and Spencer Rohan's War of Currents Playing Cards:  $12,177 raised, $8,500 goal, 143% (up 8%).  They came up with a surprise campaign for the Fourth of July: 76 slots (as in 1776, of course) in the rewards for 4 decks at $35.  I'm guessing they went pretty fast.

Wed 11 July 2012, 14:21 - Ana Cortez' "The Book of Knowing" - Extraordinary Playing Cards: $3,111 raised, $6,260 goal, 50% (up 21%).  In one short week, roughly twelve hundred dollars was raised!  Cortez has vow that, Kickstarter or no Kickstarter, this project will be made!  With four days left, it's not likely to happen this time around, but she seems to have a growing support base - perhaps a second time around will do the trick for her.

Fri 20 July 2012, 06:59 - Amy McBride and Maija McKnight/Tacoma Makes' Tacoma Artist Playing Cards: $18,838 raised, $13,000 goal, 145% (up 9%).  It looks like some of the overfunding is going into the tuck box - they posted a mock-up of it, complete with custom seal.  It's one-color, but in this case that's a good thing; its style reminds me of some vintage decks of the past.  Vintage collectors - take note!

Sat 21 July 2012, 22:00 - Mark Baker's Valor Playing Cards: $953 raised, $7,250 goal, 13% (up 4%).  Two weeks remaining and this project just hasn't built up a head of steam.  Baker did recently added a new reward - for $8, you can send the deck to an active-duty member of the Armed Forces.

Sun 22 July 2012, 22:52 - Timothy Niou's CORE: Playing Cards: $9.390 raised, $15,000 goal, 62% (up 22%).  Another three-grand-plus and still climbing!  Niou's offered his backers another vote on the card design, this time for the court cards.  The first design was extremely abstract, while the newer design is still in the minimal, angular style he prefers, but more readily recognizable as court characters.  The voting closed on July 3rd, but the results haven't yet been posted.  I have to say, if the new courts are voted in, I'll have to reconsider this deck for my own collection.

Mon 23 July 2012, 02:59 - Jeremy Todd and Ali Dalsing's ReDraw artist collective's ReDraw deck: $1,308 raised, $1,200 goal, 109% (up 32%).  They hit their goal with over two weeks to spare - no surprise there, considering how low it was.  Zero updates, so no news about overfunding goals.  The decks are still terribly expensive, but considering what the Black Rock Collective deck sold for, perhaps it's not really out of the ballpark for an art deck.

Sun 12 Aug 2012, 22:06 - Noel Quiles' Genesis "Aboriginal" Playing Cards: $3,070 raised, $15,000 goal, 20% (up 13%).  This past week has been kind to this deck, with nearly $2,000 in funding pledges.  Quiles has been on this message board discussing the aspects of his deck and getting input from collectors and magicians on certain design elements.  I'd say the design has improved considerably from when it was first offered.  Let's hope the trend continues and that funding kicks into high gear; he's got about five weeks left, and if he continues steadily at this week's pace, he will fall about two grand short of his goal.

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"What's next", you ask?  Why, it's "New Business", of course!  What new deck projects have sprouted since last week?  Well, we have two on deck for you!

Mon 30 July 2012, 03:10 - Straight from San Francisco, CA, "AlieN InK" - also known as Jeremiah DesLonde and Sebastian Brenes - bring you GalaxY CardS by AlieN InK.

What do I like about this project?  Well, the artwork to me is pretty gorgeous - it's all space-themed.  Traditional suits have been replaced with blue Earths, gray Moons, yellow Suns and red Ringed planets.  These are beautifully rendered in miniature on the number cards and just plain look cool.  For the court cards, we get to see images of the card suit progressing into eclipse and growing larger going from Jack to Ace.  To me, I think this was an elegant way to make court cards in a deck with celestial bodies rather than human ones.  The artwork impresses me, and more than a few people are hoping this is original design work and not a copy-and-paste from somewhere else on the Internet.  Have I mentioned how cool it will be to have a "ten of Earths" card or a "seven of Ringed planets" to look at?  Astronomy and space buffs would eat this stuff up, no problem.

What do I not like about this project?  It appears from their Facebook page that AlieN InK is not just the design firm, but also the manufacturer.  This is definitely not a USPC project, or attached to any major card company - they state as much in their home page.  Customized suits are a cute novelty, but not well-suited for serious play, despite the designers' suggestion of using the brighter suits (Suns and Ringed planets) as "red" suits and the darker ones (Earths and Moons) as "black" suits.  Magicians would be loathe to use these in performance because people would be too taken by the design to give any thought to the tricks being performed, while card flourishers might feel more fifty-fifty (beautiful cards can look good in displays, but again there's the "distracted spectator" factor).  They're using what could be a decent stock - French-made textured 310 gsm black-core, similar to what's used on Bicycle decks today - but the fact that it's neither Bicycle nor USPC will put two strikes against this deck in the minds of many collectors.  The goal being set so low (only five grand) will lead experienced deck backers to think the cards will be inferior quality compared to the rough average of fifteen grand being the goal for USPC-made deck projects.  The card indices are wide rather than narrow, meaning "squeezing" the cards into a decently-concealed hand may be difficult, particularly if you play card games that require large numbers of cards held in-hand.  Unless bought in decent quantities, these decks are pretty costly, coming in at $15 for a single deck reward, plus significantly higher costs for signed decks, something most companies give for little or no extra cost.  And lastly, at least for me - the funky UppeR CasE LasT LetteR of EacH WorD ThaT Isn'T an ArticlE in the company and deck titles is kind of juvenile (or at the least, amateurish), and calling investors getting a deck "Plaliens" (without even bothering to explain what the word actually means) doesn't help dispel that image.  It reminds me way too much of that creepy Skulkor campaign where everyone was being called "brother" and being asked to change their Facebook icon to the Skulkor logo to win prizes.

The project is currently at $1,872 raised on a $5,000 goal, putting them at 37% with three weeks to go.

Sun 20 Aug 2012, 15:23 - the 11-person design team from Mount Laurel, NJ, known as "Mecha-Muse" present the Spider Kingdoms Playing Card Series (3 decks).  Another in a long series of decks that tell a story (without actually telling the story), these decks come in three varieties.  We have the "<Red & Blue> 'New World Design'", the "<Black & Silver> 'Dark World Design'", and a Mystery Deck that will only be distributed if they reach the over-funding goal of twenty grand, double the goal needed to succeed.

Thematically, this reminds me a lot of the "Forgotten Realms" campaign setting from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, with spider kingdoms standing in for elves and drow (dark elves).  The court card art is both attractive and distracting, each being a figure standing in front of something resembling stained glass (a web, perhaps?) and a dividing line through the center with a spider symbol in the center (same symbol for all the courts) used to separate the two opposed images found on the tops and bottoms of modern courts.  Some may like the line, some may not - it does take a bit of the artwork space away and compared to the court images is pretty boring.  The pips have been tweaked - while the hearts and clubs look familiar, the diamonds have a more "shield" shape to them (the bottom half is elongated) and the spades look more like arrowheads.

Price-wise, they're actually not bad at all.  While only being sold in pairs in quantities of less than six decks, a single pair is only $14 - $7 each deck.  This drops to as low as $5 for bulk purchases.  There's also a limited edition art book available - only fifty copies - which will also explain the story behind the decks.  The people pledging for it will actually get their names in it as well as the autographs of all eleven designers - and did I mention it comes with three pairs of decks and is only $75?  One caveat: there's no mention of who's printing the deck and the goal seems too low for USPC work.

The project currently stands at $1,362 raised on a $10,000 goal, putting this project at 14%.

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And now, this week's "Not Your Average Pack" - your non-standard deck projects.  This does not include specialized games using non-standard playing cards, "deck building" games or other collectible card games, but it does include traditional decks using designs other than the standard Anglo-Rouen 52-card deck (such as tarock, tarocchi, skat, hanafuda, etc.), and tarot and other fortune-telling decks.

But before I get to the reports, I have a question for my readers - the decks featured in "Not Your Average Pack" aren't usually the types of decks that people here go for, at least as far as I know.  I've been considering dropping this portion of the report, but before I decide, I'd like input from my readers about what they think of the idea and of the section in general (or anything else about my report, for that matter).  Please leave replies and post your feedback!

Mon 13 Aug, 11:05 - Chris Alan Martin's The Chris Martin Tarot: $225/$25K, 1% (up 1%).  He got one new backer to join the other two.

Thu 13 Aug 2012, 13:39 - Katenia Keller of Augusta, ME brings you the Sacred Geometry Deck.  It takes a different spin on the traditional tarot design, using strictly geometric paintings to represent the cards of the traditional tarot deck.  She completed and published the Major Arcana three years ago and is seeking funding to complete the Minor Arcana and release them as a complete deck.  I'd tell you more about the project, but there's not much more written about it - the home page is three brief paragraphs long.

She's including telephone tarot readings with the decks in her reward structure, and this really ratchets up the cost of a deck in the rewards.  A single complete deck, both Major and Minor Arcana, with a five-card, hour-long reading will set a backer back to the tune of two hundred dollars.  That's right - a two with two more zeroes to keep it company.  For just one complete deck.  At higher levels she includes artwork, both from the deck and new, original art, but only one reward includes the full deck, with some only offering the Major Arcana deck made in 2009, and none offer more than a single deck.  Only 100 Major Arcana decks and 500 combined Major and Minor Arcana decks are being made available.  It's a little shocking how costly the rewards are, especially for a project with such a low goal - it currently stands at $470 raised on a goal of $4,400, putting this deck at 11%.

Fri 31 Aug 2012, 18:14 - Noted Los Angeles, CA-based author Dusty White offers up Astrology Tarot cards: the complete reinvention of the tarot.  While the project name is a little unwieldly and out-there, the actual deck is to be called "Ouroboros Cards", named after the image of a snake devouring itself by the tail to form a closed circle.  This is a rather ambitious project with lofty claims.  The deck is astrology-based, and according to White more accurate than traditional tarot decks, giving clearer and more precise information about future events including details such as precise time of day, location, etc.  Furthermore, he states the deck is easier to use than a standard tarot deck and includes instructions on using the deck for everyone pledging for one.  Not just written instructions - personal phone calls, video and web instructions are included!

That would likely be the reason for the rather high cost of this deck: the starting-level package for a single deck with instruction is $45.  The price gets lower in bulk but never really reaches the "reasonable" level for the common user.  Some rewards also include instruction in standard tarot readings by White.  Interesting side note: in addition to his writings on tarot and astrology, White is also noted for a series of books of the "how to pick up chicks" variety, including one for women he co-wrote with two women on how to get men to give you whatever you want.

The deck is at $2,815 raised on a whopping $57,750 goal, standing at 5%.

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A final note in closing - I will be on vacation from approximately mid-August until the second week of September.  My updates may not be as regular during this time period.  It's a big trip for me - I'm heading to south Florida with my fiancee to get married - so I'm sure you'll understand if I'm a little too preoccupied to post as regularly as I usually do. 

That's all for now.  See you next time and keep on shuffling!

[Don Boyer]

It's Monday morning, July 16th, and it's time for another semi-regularly scheduled edition of the Kickstarter Card and Deck Projects Report!  I'm your host, Don Boyer, "live" from New York.

Please note that all currency listed is in U.S. Dollars and times for project endings are given in Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC.  This is the same as Greenwich Mean Time for all practical purposes, displayed in 24-hour time.  Subtract four hours for US Eastern Daylight Time, seven hours for US Pacific Daylight Time.

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Let's get started with "The Rundown" - what's going on with the playing cards projects from nine days ago?

Sun 8 July 2012, 22:00 - Dave Huber's Custom Artistic and Photographically Unique Deck of Cards: $26 raised, $15,809 goal, rounded down to 0%, UNSUCCESSFUL.  It actually lost twenty-five bucks in funding in the home stretch...

Wed 11 July 2012, 14:21 - Ana Cortez' "The Book of Knowing" - Extraordinary Playing Cards: $3,148 raised, $6,260 goal, 50% (up <1%).  UNSUCCESSFUL.  The huge twelve hundred dollar kick she got last week didn't carry over to the deadline, but I feel that this isn't the last we'll hear from Cortez on this project...

Mon 16 July 2012, 22:30 - Seth Thomas and Spencer Rohan's War of Currents Playing Cards:  $14,326 raised, $8,500 goal, 169% (up 26%).  This deck's doing very successfully - but it closes TONIGHT, so if you like this deck and want in on the action, NOW is the time!  These decks almost invariably go up in price at retail - if they even make it to retail.

Fri 20 July 2012, 06:59 - Amy McBride and Maija McKnight/Tacoma Makes' Tacoma Artist Playing Cards: $20,142 raised, $13,000 goal, 155% (up 10%).  I may not be a backer of this deck, but honestly, I'd be interested in seeing what the finished product will look like - and I've never even been to Tacoma!  It's a very handsome deck and I have a feeling this will be one of those really rare decks that collectors pull their hair out looking for a few years down the line, like those Bicycle "Tall Stacks" decks and a few others.

Sat 21 July 2012, 22:00 - Mark Baker's Valor Playing Cards: $1,042 raised, $7,250 goal, 14% (up 1%).  Only five days remaining with little hope in sight.  I seriously hope that Baker retools his deck and gives it another go - the basic idea isn't all that bad, it's just that the functionality of the cards really isn't there, and this needed some real court cards instead of capital letters in the center of the card.  He could have made the four branches of the Armed Forces each represented in one suit of court cards!  It's a natural, right?

Sun 22 July 2012, 22:52 - Timothy Niou's CORE: Playing Cards: $13,251 raised, $15,000 goal, 88% (up 26%).  This deck is really going to go down to the wire, closing in about six days from now.  Now that it's also BICYCLE-BRANDED, I can easily see this deck hitting the goal - but without you investors, that ain't gonna happen, so give this deck a look if you haven't already.  Bicycle collectors, you have no excuse left to NOT look! 

Mon 23 July 2012, 02:59 - Jeremy Todd and Ali Dalsing's ReDraw artist collective's ReDraw deck: $1,660 raised, $1,200 goal, 138% (up 29%).  I haven't heard "boo" from the designers of this deck, there are zero comments and zero updates.  And yet it got funded...  It's a real anomaly.

Sun 12 Aug 2012, 22:06 - Noel Quiles' Genesis "Aboriginal" Playing Cards: $6,140 raised, $15,000 goal, 41% (up 21%).  The pace is indeed picking up for this deck - while it's still no shoe-in, it's looking better for this project's chances.  I'm guessing that USPC dropped the minimum deck order to 2,500 cards again, since this deck's coming out in a release of 2,500 decks and it's not the only recent deck project I've seen in such low numbers, both on Kickstarter and from self-funded designers.

Mon 30 July 2012, 03:10 -  Jeremiah DesLonde and Sebastian Brenes' GalaxY CardS by AlieN InK: $2,381 raised, $5,000 goal, 48% (up 11%).  They're doing OK, but OK won't be enough - at this rate, they won't meet the goal in the 13 days this project has left.  The art is really pretty nice - I just wish the deck didn't have so many other issues.

Sun 20 Aug 2012, 15:23 - Mecha-Muse's Spider Kingdoms Playing Card Series (3 decks): $1,971 raised, $10,000 goal, 20% (up 6%).  This is a pretty slow pace for a project that's so ambitious, especially one with an overfunding goal of twenty thousand dollars.  Five weeks might sound like a long time, but without some kind of boost, it'll never make it at this pace.

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Now, for New Business.  What new decks are people screaming at each other about?  Just one, this week.

Sun 12 Aug 2012, 22:30 - Out of Victorville, CA, comes Christopher Lazarus Wolk and his new deck, "The Great Lazarus" Playing Cards.  We've seen art from this deck in the past, but what's mystifying to a number of people on this board is why he's ditching earlier designs that were actually better than the ones he's replacing them with?  The indices look like they were carved out by Fred Flintstone - and not in a good way.  The courts are standard courts, but to make them look custom, they're in negative and monochromed, using shading for the black courts and some sort of red-orange fire-looking pattern for the red courts, supposedly representing the Tomb of Lazarus and the Ressurection of Lazarus from the Bible.  The back is an ambigram (how original), purchased from an online website rather than designed on his own.  There's a joker reveal, a barcode reveal, a sticker seal reveal - he's got all the bases covered for the less-discerning magician or collector.

Here's a quote, word for word, from his project's home page - complete with syntax errors.  I'll give him some credit; at least the spelling appears correct once the syntax gets cleaned up...

"This Exquisite Deck is an Tribute to my Grandfather "Lazarus Wolk", who flew 53 Successful Bomber Missions for the U.S government, In 3 major war's, for the Freedom we have Today! He's an Amazing man, Hero, Mentor & The Best Grandfather a Grandson could ever ask for."

For a tribute deck to his grandfather, there's nothing other than his name on this deck that would indicate as much.  And why bother with the Biblical references if that's the case?  Is it a tribute to his grandfather or to the character Lazarus from the Bible - or to the project owner's own middle name and oft-used message board handle?

But the thing that's making me stay away from this project first and foremost is that on a budget of merely $5,000, he thinks he's going to get 2,500 decks from USPC and get them shipped out to all his backers, along with any other rewards he's promising them.  He hasn't indicated anywhere that there's additional behind-the-scenes funding, and I have to grant you that such funding could exist, but why not say as much?  Assuming there isn't such funds, there's no way on Earth that Wolk can deliver what he's promising.  He's offering a lot in overfunding goals, but it's looking more to me like he wanted to insure the project's success with the low goal and is counting on the overfunding just to get it made.

The project's at $2,882 raised on a goal of $5,000, putting it at 58% of its goal with just under a month remaining

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Due to general reader disinterest, I'm cancelling the "Not Your Average Pack" section from this and future reports.  If I find a deck that's pretty exceptional for one reason or another but doesn't fit into the standard playing card mold, I'll just post it with the other decks in the report or add it in a sidebar.

I'd like to end by reminding my readers that I will be on vacation from approximately mid-August until the second week of September.  My updates may not be as regular during this time period - there's a chance I won't post at all.  If anyone's interested in sitting in for me on this report while I'm away, send me a PM and we'll discuss it.

That's all for now.  See you next time and keep on shuffling!

[Don Boyer]

Thank you, readers - if you haven't heard yet, I've been promoted to PCP Mod, and I've folded this report into the New Deck Report on the PCP board.  Check in there for future updates!

So long, and thanks for all the fish!