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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => Playing Card Plethora => Topic started by: badpete69 on December 11, 2013, 07:57:56 PM
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At the restaurant right now and yes I do check KS on my smartphone hehehe
Noticed a new card project. So here's the link. Will link pics when I get home
www.kickstarter.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/431/334/4c6da62555d07928be4d9c793fe2732b_large.jpg?1386727383)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/406/644/b23cdefdec446b092d19f413212259d6_large.jpg?1386121266)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/406/838/d79f98305c5b4d373c0cf1064ae3c310_large.jpg?1386124505)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/406/659/0c04e82edd1d3ecc592e4d9a5ba210aa_large.jpg?1386121482)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/431/372/d5b833ca167344b4fa88031f4e8094cc_large.jpg?1386727835)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/431/456/eb7f077f973a1866dfbdd7ffc351a78c_large.jpg?1386729144)
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A steampunk deck without zombies or Cthulhu? :-[
Seriously, this theme had been overdone about 5 decks ago.
On the other hand, I'm liking those goggles that they're offering as a reward.
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The courts are okay, don't love the backs. But I LOVE the M.C. Escher-esque king of spades. It really reminds me of his "Drawing Hands" I think it's a really interesting idea.
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Wow! wish I had a video like that. Best one I've seen yet for playing cards. I see some problems though. They don't have an add-ons for decks. I guess they failed to realize people may want more than just one LE deck and one regular deck and if you get an uncut sheet you don't get any decks. $150 for a LE uncut sheet. That's a good profit markup. As a master plumber I can see some of the goggles use slip nuts. Slip nuts are the doohickies that connect waste pipes under your sinks.
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Hi all, this is Dennis Consorte - with the Kickstarter campaign for this set of cards.
Russell, thanks for inviting me to check out the thread.
First, thanks for sharing, and the feedback. We're very open to constructive criticism on the design and will certainly tweak the deck as much as possible, to appeal to as many people as possible. How does that saying go, "you can keep some of the people happy all of the time..." Anyway we'll do our best.
The King of Spades is my favorite card in the deck as well. If you check out the back story on each suit you'll see the reasoning behind each of the Court Cards & get a feel for the direction we're going in with the remaining designs.
Re: add-ons, yes we're trying to figure out the best way to do this. We wanted to include goggles as rewards, and pairing them up with decks resulted in about 24 total rewards (after editing, if my math is right). Speaking with Kickstarter, they seem to steer people away from the add-on concept so we tried to do it as closely to what their suggestions were. Anyway we're open to ideas here.
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I'm curious as to why the first 3 courts have borders and then the QoC has no borders. Doesn't that screw up the whole deck? Or is this a way of advertising both ideas and then seeing which your fan base prefers?
Personally I enjoy the border because then people cannot see what I have in my hand based on the color from the edge of the card. I also love the KoS. A really awesome concept and well drawn. Sort of reminds me of a mix of Alastor Moody from Harry Potter and Bioshock the video game :)
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Am I the only one that never ever needs to see another Steampunk deck again?
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Great feedback on the borders, Speedyy400. I personally like the borders as well, and agree the cards will play better. Let me see what we can do about turning around a prototype of the QoC with a reduced image & border. What do you think of our concept for the Ace of Clubs? The suit is our "Aviator" suit, hence the airship...
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/431/425/9b4acbc32bfb61b7ffaa14b6d2aec5cf_large.jpg?1386728484)
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Nurul & jmrock - noted, that's part of why we thought we'd do a different spin on it with the "how cool would it be if you could actually dress up as your favorite playing card and wear the same goggles he/she is wearing in the deck?" factor.
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You might want to think about backerket.com. It's what Kickstarter should be right now, but they only care about their 5%. Backerket.com does charge 1% of your kickstarter and have a $299 startup fee, but if you join while the Kickstater is going on they charge $150. So you are looking at a fee of $240 + $150 = $390. Check them out. You can do a bunch of stuff for the $390 price and it makes it easy with add-ons which you definitely need. I can see a lot of people wanting to add-on extra this and that in your campaign. Be careful when adding rewards when a reward gets backed it's locked.
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Thanks, I'll definitely check out backerkit, it does look like a huge time saver. Great advice!
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At first, I looked at the deck and was scratching my head, trying to figure out what the concept was, exactly. It seemed odd to make a deck for steampunk goggles - it's like a deck for cane swords and a deck for blue jeans, etc. But then it finally hit me - it's a deck that's advertising a product. As such, they're actually going a good distance here to make a good job of it as opposed to the standard "slap a new back on a standard deck and call it a day" ad concept.
While the concept is a little more interesting than some of the steampunk decks that have drifted through KS, I think you've created a bigger challenge for yourself. You can have a gorgeous deck and it won't get funded because your goal is rather high due to the fact that you're trying to produce two decks right off the bat and you're a completely unknown variable in the playing card design world. Look for a KS project for a two-deck set called "SiShou - Four Beasts" - gorgeous deck, but missed the goal for being a little too ambitious off the bat. I thought it was downright criminal that SiShou failed when so many utterly horrible decks made it to their goal (albeit usually because they set an insanely low goal and used an off-brand printer).
That deck - and your deck - would have had a better shot if you started it as a single-deck project and created the second deck as a stretch goal. The design firm Uusi, for whom I do a good deal of consulting, waited until their fifth project, Pagan, before they introduced two deck colors at the launch, and that was because they have an exceptionally strong and loyal following. Their previous two-deck projects started with a single color as a limited edition and made the second color as a stretch goal, unlimited edition deck.
Have you considered removing the frames around the court cards and the pips? Beautiful art like this shouldn't live within such tiny boundaries! But do be careful about printing your faces into the bleed, past the cutting edge. If certain cards have print-to-the-bleed and other don't, the ones that do will be spotted when the deck is held together in a pile. Leave yourself a decent margin of error for the faces, as well - USPC focuses more on centering the backs than registering the fronts and backs to perfect alignment, so a centered back will almost invariably have a slightly off-center face, and if it's off jus a little too far, you'll be slicing part of your face imagery off the card. It makes sense when you think of it - apparently there's a bit of art to printing as well as science, and for a deck of cards, a well-centered back is far more important than a well-centered face.
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Hi Don, thank you for your thoughtful insights. You raise a lot of good points. I'll try to address them as best as I can:
"While the concept is a little more interesting than some of the steampunk decks that have drifted through KS, I think you've created a bigger challenge for yourself. You can have a gorgeous deck and it won't get funded because your goal is rather high due to the fact that you're trying to produce two decks right off the bat and you're a completely unknown variable in the playing card design world. Look for a KS project for a two-deck set called "SiShou - Four Beasts" - gorgeous deck, but missed the goal for being a little too ambitious off the bat. I thought it was downright criminal that SiShou failed when so many utterly horrible decks made it to their goal (albeit usually because they set an insanely low goal and used an off-brand printer)."
I spent many days trying to figure this part out and obviously there are some ideas that I hadn't thought of (e.g. unlimited deck as a stretch goal -- great idea). I reached out to maybe 10ish other people with decks, plus some stores that sell collectible playing cards) and got their advice - some aligned, some varied widely. For example, this project almost became a single deck, printed by Liberty Playing Cards. Feedback I got was that Liberty has great quality cards, and from the price quotes I got from them, their minimum is substantially lower than USPCC. I also found a couple of other companies - one in China that was substantially less expensive. I was going to set a stretch goal to print on Bicycle stock if we hit their minimums. However from looking at the decks that did get funded, very few were non-USPCC, so I decided to make that the goal.
Getting funded - one thing to keep in mind is that I do online marketing as my day job. Plus, this deck involves some very well-known people in the steampunk community. They're sharing it with their networks, and I'm doing traditional online marketing. I also have 3 other people on my marketing team helping out between client projects. We're doing Facebook advertising, a press release next week and some other stuff. Right now one of the people on the team is working on hitting up other playing card forums and crowdfunding websites.
You could be right and it would be a huge disappointment if this didn't get funded. But you're looking at a production that involves maybe 12 people at its core, plus our networks of friends, family & colleagues helping out. I'm very optimistic and ambitious about this project and I think we made the right decision with our offering. I know we don't have the following right now, but that's part of why I involved some incredibly influential people in the steampunk community (besides the fact that I absolutely love their work and think that they're all amazing people) - they do have a following, just not in the playing cards space.
"Have you considered removing the frames around the court cards and the pips? Beautiful art like this shouldn't live within such tiny boundaries! But do be careful about printing your faces into the bleed, past the cutting edge. If certain cards have print-to-the-bleed and other don't, the ones that do will be spotted when the deck is held together in a pile. Leave yourself a decent margin of error for the faces, as well - USPC focuses more on centering the backs than registering the fronts and backs to perfect alignment, so a centered back will almost invariably have a slightly off-center face, and if it's off jus a little too far, you'll be slicing part of your face imagery off the card. It makes sense when you think of it - apparently there's a bit of art to printing as well as science, and for a deck of cards, a well-centered back is far more important than a well-centered face."
Great advice, again, thank you. Yes we're exploring all options. Right now we're 17 hours into the campaign and are already getting lots of great suggestions like yours. My plan is to explore and aggregate all of it for the next couple of days and then start making some decisions on direction based on what people want to see, and what matches our aesthetic and the themes built into this deck.
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Thought I posted this already but I must not have hit "save" -- here's the Queen of Clubs in the original full width, vs. in a bounding box
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/437/164/5ce816f7210287947dbbd8d384b36a1b_large.jpg?1386868834)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/431/372/d5b833ca167344b4fa88031f4e8094cc_large.jpg?1386727835)
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I love the artwork; I especially love the two decks from the start; and I TRIPLE loved the super-early-bird pricing ... $1 per deck!
I immediately pledged for both decks.
What I *don't* love is that the $27 price for the two decks is both too high, and not fair to early birds. The price of an early bird SE deck is $10, and early bird LE is $13, but if I want 'em both I have to pay $27.
I don't think there's time to fix this before the early birds are all gone, but yeesh. A $4 penalty for supporting the project with both decks? Makes no sense.
Yah I'm supporting it anyway, but pretty bummed out that I had to pay extra to do it. Not a good start.
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Thought I posted this already but I must not have hit "save" -- here's the Queen of Clubs in the original full width, vs. in a bounding box
Take the full width image - looks gorgeous huge and frameless. But pull the art a little bit away from the edge of the card itself, with a fade-to-white leading to the edge of the card (fade-to-black on the black-backed deck). It will look gorgeous - AND you won't have to worry about other design issues.
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I don't mind that the Steampunk theme has been redone, although I do understand the frustration of seeing the same theme over and over again. What matters to me is the art, and I think this deck has gorgeous art and is well designed. :)
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Thanks for the compliments and advice!
I like the full width / fade to white / black idea. I'll see if we can get some mock ups by Monday...
One of the other comments was that the full-width QoC didn't quite match the cards with the frames. Would you suggest taking out the frame for the KoS & QoD, etc and expanding the image? We had versions like this previously but we had to be mindful of the bleed requirements, and they ended up a little cramped with the indices too close to the main image. We can play with this concept though. It would be nice to see the details.
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What I *don't* love is that the $27 price for the two decks is both too high, and not fair to early birds. The price of an early bird SE deck is $10, and early bird LE is $13, but if I want 'em both I have to pay $27.
I don't think there's time to fix this before the early birds are all gone, but yeesh. A $4 penalty for supporting the project with both decks? Makes no sense.
The $27 pledge is not under early bird special.
So i guess that problem here is that there isn't an "early bird special" for people who would like to buy more than 1 deck, which i also feel is a little disappointing, especially for collectors who usually gets at least 1 of each.
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I love your Ace of Hearts man. That is back-of-leather-jacket-cool... (or front-of-baby-doll-T-cool). Looks like you're off to a great start. Good luck!
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Thanks for the compliments and advice!
I like the full width / fade to white / black idea. I'll see if we can get some mock ups by Monday...
One of the other comments was that the full-width QoC didn't quite match the cards with the frames. Would you suggest taking out the frame for the KoS & QoD, etc and expanding the image? We had versions like this previously but we had to be mindful of the bleed requirements, and they ended up a little cramped with the indices too close to the main image. We can play with this concept though. It would be nice to see the details.
Try removing all the court frames and enlarging them like that Queen. If the image interferes with an index, either flip the image or place a "halo effect" around the index to make it more readable. If you're making a deck with detailed art, let that art shine through. The halo can be fine enough to give the characters a slight "glow" or heavy enough to nearly or completely white-out the background under the index. Whichever you choose, BE CONSISTENT. Indices should always be quickly and easily read.
BTW: if you have more questions, I do consulting work for deck designers. My biggest client to date has been Uusi - I've worked with them on all but their first project.
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+1 with Don on the consistency point. Either use the frames or don't.
I see how going full-width has a Wow effect. The problem is that you'd have to re-work a bunch of your artwork. The King of Spades for example, would have to lose his reading lamp. And not sure at all what you'd have to do to the woman's elbow for the Jack of Hearts. Seems like a lot of work and honestly, the frames work great. Especially when a characters bursts out beyond the borders. Adds real pop to the look. Love 'em both but ... either way, choose it and stick with it.
At least within a particular deck :-)
(Wouldn't *that* be cool? A standard framed deck and then the CLOSE-UP deck. Now *that's* a limited edition :-) (Nah ... too much work. But still :-)
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thanks for all the feedback and compliments! Maybe an add-on for printed AoH apparel? I can look into what's involved.
I agree with keeping it consistent. I'd like to get a bit more input, make some more mocks for feedback and then pick a final direction by Monday/Tuesday at latest. I'll talk to Mike Lees, the illustrator and see how his bandwidth looks for these sorts of changes.
Love the small/full print for SE/LE idea a lot... it will add production costs so maybe as a stretch goal if I can swing it.
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Hey guys, thanks for the feedback, it helped a lot. I wanted to run a few ideas by you for input if you have a minute:
1) We're leaning in the direction of 4 colors for the suits, rather than just two (thinking black, brown, green and either blue or red) based on some feedback I got elsewhere. I'm thinking this will open up the deck to more game possibilities. Any thoughts on that as far as usability for "standard" games like poker?
2) We're incorporating some magic components, such as a double-facer, and a cool thing for reveals on one of the cards. I'm also following the advice on borders on the backs. Any other small things that help with this aspect?
3) We've got a small goal of getting more likes on our project page where I'll cover the cost for metallic inks on the LE cards, and possibly the SE deck. I'm also planning some stretch goals for things like numbered seals on the LE decks. The LE will be embossed - I need to keep some things specific to that deck to make it more "special." Are there any other little things that will make it stand out more to collectors?
Thanks!
Thanks
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steampunk - Your growing up quick. I like that your using the feedback, but in your Kickstarter you are there to sell goggles and decks of cards. Keep it simple, but if you want to make your deck more unique that is fine. The world poker tour have the Hearts as red, Spades as black, Diamonds as blue and the Clubs as green. I partially don't like it. I would recommend you keep to the standard colors, but if you want to be adventurous, I feel the suits should be in pairs. You have to think of games like solitaire. If you want too, you can copy my colors texasplayingcards.com (http://texasplayingcards.com) It seems your making your LE card have metallic ink and your deck tuck box Embossed with numbered seals to make is more special. That's good; People like that. That is basically the best you can get unless you want to go with a foiled tuck box. From what I've heard that is big bucks...
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Cool, thanks sprouts. I checked out your site again - nice cards. Are the 4 colors just for the jokers, or for the full deck?
I signed up to be notified when your Kickstarter launches. My 2 cents is not to launch on the 20th. I was going to wait until Monday, January 6th to launch my campaign (after New Year's) but they approved it fast so I decided to take a shot at getting some Christmas traffic. People will be on vacation and my guess is there will be a lull in traffic during that period.
Colors - good point on Solitaire. The challenge with my deck is I have two audiences (well, 3 or more actually). But essentially, a "mainstream" audience and a "steampunk" audience. One person from the Steampunk audience suggested a number of things that would make it more related to the genre. Specifically, he said that there are some 19th century games that require things like 4 colors, and Knaves / Valets instead of Jacks, and a whist box (I had to look that one up).
Would having different shades work for solitaire? For example, on your site you have 2 shades of red for the Jokers. How would you feel about say, the two shades you have for red on your site for hearts & diamonds, then brown & black for clubs & spades? Would they pair a bit better?
For add-on cards, USPCC has a 56 card limit, which I've basically used up. But if I went for Knaves/Valets as an add-on, it would appeal to that audience better. I saw on your deck you said you were doing 64 cards. How did you swing the extra 8 cards? I asked USPCC about doing a run of 4ish additional cards but the only way to do that is to print a full run of 2,500 LE + 2,500 SE. I'm looking at Liberty & some other brands, but I don't know that they could match the deck cut/stock closely enough to make it make sense.
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FYI I checked the thread on your deck, sprouts. I see you had some challenges finding the extra 8 cards on your 64 - what was the final verdict? For mine, I would do an add-on deck to keep the branded bicycle box for the main 52. But I can't figure out how to get extra cards that match 100%. I feel like finding the stock would be pretty easy, but the cut could be just ever so slightly off from another supplier.
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Steampunk:
I still prefer the two colors in two shades concept I pitched to you. But if you insist on making two colors, the most common color pattern I've seen is black spades, red hearts, green clubs and blue diamonds. If you either made the green very dark or swapped it for brown, then made the red and blue very light or bright, that might make for a useful deck in games that call for only two colors of cards - the blacks are the dark-colored cards and the reds are the light-colored cards.
I do have a good idea in mind for making all camps at least partly happy - get in touch with me!
The two most common magician's gaff cards are blank-faced cards and double-backed cards. It can also be fun to make a double backer with two different backs - for example, one from a Bicycle Rider Back and the other from your deck. There's a few very cool tricks you can accomplish with that.
As far as bonuses for the deck to offer as stretch goals, upgrading the stock from Bicycle to Bee Casino is a popular choice with many. Also, matte finish boxes are very fashionable right about now and would probably be more in keeping with what a steampunk/Victorian deck would be kept in. They look gorgeous when you add gold or silver foil accents - look at the Monarchs deck from Theory11 for a few great examples of this.
As far as Sprout's Texas Playing Cards, it looks like he's sticking with USPC but having two separate print runs made, one for the first 56 cards, the other for the remainder. He'll have a third party create tuck boxes large enough to accommodate the full deck. It's going to make the project cost a small fortune, if you ask me. I suggested to him to simply make his cards in the style of USPC standard and with a common USPC back like the Bicycle Rider Back, then have USPC make small decks for his extra cards - I've seen them create decks for children's games like Old Maid and Go Fish which contained far less than 52 cards. It would make the project more cost-efficient and insure that people were comfortable with them because they'd look a lot like their everyday playing cards - in fact, most of the deck would be just that. But he insists on having his custom design all over the place. He's been batting this idea around for who knows how many months now and we're wondering if it will ever leave the "vaporware" stage of development... :))
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Steampunk, you're doing well listening to suggestions. A lot of cretors want to produce THEIR deck without any changes, and ignore a lot of good suggestions. That's fine if they have the money to make it on their own but the simple fact that they are on KS means that need help. You will please a lot of folks by even just considering these suggestions and happy folks are more inclined to back the project. You are off to a good start!
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Don - good speaking with you last night even though I didn't get to sleep 8)
It was very helpful and you had some great ideas for the deck.
BiggerDee - thanks for the positive feedback! Yes, I want the community to get involved - I want this project to adapt organically based on advice from others and also what the project backers are looking for. I can't please everyone, but I think I can shape it into something wonderful with everyone's help.
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I'm glad you talked to Don. What ever he says is good advice. I've noticed on Kicktraq your starting to hit that plateau. After all the craziness, you're almost 50% funded so your probably going to make it. http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle/ (http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle/) I've taking a second look at your Kickstarter and you need to use this dead time wisely; Now is the time to clean it up and make some decisions. If I'm Joe Schmo looking at your Kickstarter for the first time, it looks confusing and cluttered. I might not be a backer. I would post the stretch goal in a nice ribbon and put the "add on list" in a nice image with columns. Also your "Rewards with Gogges" image probably needs to be fatter and more up top on your Kickstarter. Make images of the goggles pop. Remember your trying to sell goggles. Have you decided what your pips are going to be? I noticed 3 different images. You could have a quick vote with the backers as an update. Backers love to be involved in decisions. Lastly, on the back of your card you might want to take the text off. If you want to keep it on that's ok, but you might want to consider making the top of text right side up. It would look better when people have them in their hands. Just a thought.
"Specifically, he said that there are some 19th century games that require things like 4 colors, and Knaves / Valets instead of Jacks, and a whist box"
I think that guy is blowing smoke up your butt. I think you should keep it simple and go with the colors you have. You have Copper for Hearts and Diamonds and Steel for Spades and Clubs. That is Steampunkish enough. Knaves are what Jacks were before 1864 and Valets are what Jacks are currently in France. Remember you can't please everyone. What I'm trying to do is complex and to some people downright crazy.
I like image elements coming out of the borders with your cards. If that means you have to redraw the QoC to make it consistent that might be best. Go ahead and take that image off and make a decision. With the other cards and goggles, I would try put at least 2 per line to conserve space. I don't think people like a long scrolling Kickstarter. You should try to get the image of your tuck box out as soon as possible for both your SE and LE. I would keep the SE box plain Jane and use the LE for your stretch goals. Embossing tuck box, Bee stock, Foiling. The more you make the LE deck special the more collectors will take notice. Hope I didn't step on Don's toes. ;)
I also noticed you have an aggressive PR campaign. I starting to see you on boards I lurk...
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Hey Sprouts, thanks for the feedback. Yeah, the plateau worries me for sure. That's part of the reason for the extra PR & advertising we're doing. We picked up some ads on Reddit & one of the game boards to see if they result in some movement. So far I got one backer through Reddit so we'll see. We also got a review on one of the bigger playing card sites and some press on NJ.com which has 2,000,000 uniques per month according to compete.com. Today we did a press release on PRWeb's full network and tomorrow we've got a social media campaign blasting stuff out. Hopefully it all jives together. If not, I still get some exposure for my other companies so it's all good.
We tried posting on boards but I gave up on that - other boards feel this stuff is spammy and I don't want to be in that category.
Regarding the design, I like the advice that both you & Don gave a lot. He also agrees about the smoke up the butt thing and used the same phrasing so I think that's great to know. In our brainstorming, he did come up with a great idea that I think would appease the 4-color concept while keeping the actual colors used to two.
For the LE deck, it's too late to not offer it as a reward and only offer it as a stretch goal.
The goggles got very little pickup, I'm guessing it's just the audience, so I cut the total rewards available to free up more decks as add-ons, and made the goggles into an add-on.
The pips are on the cards but with the 4 color thing they would change sightly.
The back of the card - great idea with flipping the top & bottom - makes perfect sense. Would you do a white border or a black border on the black backs?
I'll skip the add-on cards - like you said it's complicated. Don came up with an idea for that that could possibly work, but it's too much legwork with the time I have left and could delay getting the cards out, which I absolutely don't want to do (I read too many horror stories about creators not delivering and don't want to be in that pool).
I agree with cleaning up the page - it's busy and confusing. I think I got the story out enough and can cut the text substantially. If the updates didn't auto-email to people I'd put all the extra text into a post on there. I think some people would be interested.
Tuck box - yes I agree. What do you think of the LE back? I like the SE back much better personally. I'm thinking of getting a fresh design for the LE.
Bee stock & foil - it wouldn't work with my expenses. The margins are razor thin on this project and that would put me in the hole a few grand. I think USPCC said they couldn't do the foil in our last email but I'll check again incase I misread. They did say they'd do the metallic inks for a small increase per deck, which I can absorb, so I want to do the copper as a little goal for people to get the shares of the project page up to 500 from the 350ish it's at now. LE would be the first deck to get that and there's another goal for the SE to get it after.
I am embossing the LE deck for sure.
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The courts are okay, don't love the backs. But I LOVE the M.C. Escher-esque king of spades. It really reminds me of his "Drawing Hands" I think it's a really interesting idea.
Oh wow, didn't even notice that, thanks for pointing it out. It's a very cool detail. All the artwork is well done, but I do think that this theme has been used way too often. Nevertheless, I wish Dennis and the rest of the team the best of luck with this project!
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Thanks John!
By the way we got our dice prototypes as add-ons per request from some dice collectors, final versions will have slightly bigger lettering so they're a bit cleaner:
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/455/770/d07469a9e4abb71fb5cb2ed2bc3318c5_large.JPG?1387396595)
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Early bird dice are up for a $1 pledge. Only 8 left.
BTW, I'm curious about why this deck isn't racing off the shelves, so to speak. Do you think there was too much attention on the goggles? Or a bit too much confusion on the pledge levels? Or is it something fundamental about the art?
Sure I get it that there have been a million steampunk decks already, but that doesn't seem like the showstopper. We seem to be able to do zombies and more zombies. Maybe the deck didn't get covered by a couple of the main bloggers? Maybe not enough pictures of the cards themselves? Just really curious.
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Thanks GB, I think all of these things are possible factors as to why we're at 56% and not 100%. Another huge factor is the holidays. I sent out an update to backers asking to share more on social media today - hopefully that will help. When we reveal the new LE backs I think we might get some more pickup too - they're looking pretty cool.
We're on Max Playing Cards (http://www.maxplayingcards.com/en/2013/12/20/bicycle-steampunk-goggles-deck-playing-cards-to-get-a-close-up-view/) and WOPC (http://www.wopc.co.uk/blog/2013/12/steampunk-playing-cards-by-consorte-marketing/), and one of my backers is talking to Tuckbox. Could you recommend a few top blogs that I should be pitching?
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FYI we just posted a backers-only preview of our LE card backs. We'll be changing some of the coloring and other details but it's in project updates if anyone on this thread is a backer & wants to take a look. We'll probably release a more finalized version of the backs + tuck box to the public in the next day or two.
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We're on Max Playing Cards (http://www.maxplayingcards.com/en/2013/12/20/bicycle-steampunk-goggles-deck-playing-cards-to-get-a-close-up-view/) and WOPC (http://www.wopc.co.uk/blog/2013/12/steampunk-playing-cards-by-consorte-marketing/), and one of my backers is talking to Tuckbox. Could you recommend a few top blogs that I should be pitching?
Try Savannah Gladue - she's got a very popular YouTube channel on the topic of modern custom decks. You can find her easily enough on Facebook.
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Will do, thanks Don, I'll reach out to her! Ivan at Kardify just put up a nice interview today: http://www.kardify.com/2013/12/kickstarter-7-questions-with-dennis.html (http://www.kardify.com/2013/12/kickstarter-7-questions-with-dennis.html)
You can see a few variations of the direction we're moving in with the LE card backs there.
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Thought I'd share some more of our artwork:
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/478/477/6c0f40f01c504350823bbe1f0f523bc6_large.jpg?1388261184)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/476/749/621e515c2e41104f22df72ef30cfe625_large.jpg?1388180466)
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/477/143/9695eceecf161b3d583595419d7e8e38_large.jpg?1388192416)
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Did you know that your King of Hearts bears a striking resemblance to David Blaine? If the face was a little leaner, they could be identical twins.
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I should tell him that! This is Dan Garf, he's the backer who appears on the card. He picked up the King & Queen of Hearts for himself and his girlfriend, very romantic. So there's a lot riding on this!
(http://distilleryimage1.ak.instagram.com/56ed728e2a0b11e3aa5e22000a1f96ec_8.jpg)
We added the beard to make him look a little older...
wow you're kinda right...
(http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/david-blaine-gi.jpg)
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dude I just left you a very detailed reply to this and sent you a personal message as well. Here's a copy of it:
Creator Consorte Marketing 16 minutes ago
Hi Jose, if you read my past updates you'll see the history behind this. Originally international shipping rates were much higher, and then after quite a bit of number crunching, outreach & research I was referred to a 3rd party shipper who is cheaper than USPS. I was able to lower the rates for many rewards and in addition to posting the new rates in updates, I believe I sent personal messages to every single international backer who originally had a higher rate listed. When I lowered the rates, I marked the reward levels with the higher rates as "sold out" - that is the only thing you can do on Kickstarter once someone has backed a reward - you can't delete anything that has at least 1 backer to it. What does happen however is if someone drops out or changes their reward level on a "sold out" item, that item becomes available again. I periodically go through the rewards and mark the old ones as "sold out" when I can, but a lot of this is out of my control. To be clear, the rate for 1 deck internationally is $6, and for 2 decks it is $9. Please refer to update #3 for the first reduction http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle/posts/695712 and then the paragraph under the heading "Did We Mention Lower International Shipping?" in update #7 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle/posts/704195
Here's copies of excerpts from the updates I mentioned:
update #3 12/15/2013:
Reduced International Shipping on Larger Orders
We couldn't reduce shipping on everything, but we were able to lower the shipping charges substantially for international backers who ordered at least two decks. We've reduced shipping on rewards that contain goggles by about 50%.
update #7 12/24/2013:
Did We Mention Lower International Shipping?
International Backers: in case you haven't heard, our friends at Bent Castle Workshops hooked us up with a connection to cut our international rates, particularly for the one and two-deck rewards. If you pledged during the first week or so of this campaign, then take another look to be sure that you're in the best reward level. If you find that you saved some money, then please consider putting some of that towards cool add-ons like dice or another deck.
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Yes my apologies, I meant to delete that post.
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We're on Max Playing Cards (http://www.maxplayingcards.com/en/2013/12/20/bicycle-steampunk-goggles-deck-playing-cards-to-get-a-close-up-view/) and WOPC (http://www.wopc.co.uk/blog/2013/12/steampunk-playing-cards-by-consorte-marketing/), and one of my backers is talking to Tuckbox. Could you recommend a few top blogs that I should be pitching?
Try Savannah Gladue - she's got a very popular YouTube channel on the topic of modern custom decks. You can find her easily enough on Facebook.
What about me? I've got an equally popular Youtube channel and Facebook following?
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re: the post, No worries, thanks man, glad we talked this out :-)
Re youtube channel & facebook sure it would be great to work something out. Shoot me a PM on Kickstarter...
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What about me? I've got an equally popular Youtube channel and Facebook following?
...and a negative-twenty-six reputation rating... :))
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What about me? I've got an equally popular Youtube channel and Facebook following?
...and a negative-twenty-six reputation rating... :))
That is only on this forum and probably mainly from you. Oh yeah and this coming from a forum that created 18000 fake members!!! How accurate can the rating actually be if you have so many fake members. Why do we even need ratings in a forum? Haven't seen any other forums with freaking ratings! All I know is every single time I make a comment you are going against whatever I say no matter what it is!
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What about me? I've got an equally popular Youtube channel and Facebook following?
...and a negative-twenty-six reputation rating... :))
That is only on this forum and probably mainly from you. Oh yeah and this coming from a forum that created 18000 fake members!!! How accurate can the rating actually be if you have so many fake members. Why do we even need ratings in a forum? Haven't seen any other forums with freaking ratings! All I know is every single time I make a comment you are going against whatever I say no matter what it is!
I doubt Don is the only one. I know there is at least 1 other. :t11:
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Whatever, the ratings mean nothing to me considering there are 18000 supposed members on this forum, 90% or more of which are fake and created by Don and Alex, so how fair or accurate can the ratings actually be? Don't believe me, check out the UC, they have like 1000 members. Pretty weird that this place has to resort to creating members!
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That is only on this forum and probably mainly from you. Oh yeah and this coming from a forum that created 18000 fake members!!! How accurate can the rating actually be if you have so many fake members. Why do we even need ratings in a forum? Haven't seen any other forums with freaking ratings! All I know is every single time I make a comment you are going against whatever I say no matter what it is!
Whatever, the ratings mean nothing to me considering there are 18000 supposed members on this forum, 90% or more of which are fake and created by Don and Alex, so how fair or accurate can the ratings actually be? Don't believe me, check out the UC, they have like 1000 members. Pretty weird that this place has to resort to creating members!
As of this moment, the home page at UC lists that there's 652 members there in total. On this forum, we have a little over 700 members who've made at least one legit post and a lot of lurkers who prefer reading posts to writing them. There's also double the posts here as well as double the topics and we recently had our ten-millionth page view. It's true that some of the accounts we have are made by spambots, and we knock them off the list when we catch them in action. But we don't "resort to creating members" as you claim. I have more than enough things to do around here and in real life that keep me busy, I don't need to add anything more to that list.
And before people start jumping on bandwagons, this is not a knock to United Cardists. It's a simple explanation of where there are at the moment. The current owner, Mike Ratledge, is a member in good standing of both this forum and the 52 Plus Joker Club and I have nothing but good things to say about him and his forum. There is room in the world for more than one card forum and variety is the spice of life. His board's membership and post totals were ravaged by the previous ownership, something he had no control over.
The reputation ratings are created by the membership in response to comments that people make on the board. It gives people a rough guide to how seriously a particular member's posts should be taken. It's not perfect by any means, but it's better than having nothing at all for the new member to help navigate his or her way around all the opinions and posts here. When one's rep begins to drop a few points, it can be a random thing, like someone being silly or waking up on the wrong side of the bed, but a steady, consistent or massive drop is a sign that you may wish to re-examine what you're saying. In the long run, despite my kidding around, rep numbers don't actually mean anything, aside from needing a rep of at least 1 to post on the STISO board. We do look into negative rep cases for people wanting to post who feel they were unfairly knocked.
I don't go against anything you have to say merely because you said it. If you say something I agree with, by all means, I'll state as much - my ego in such matters is shatterproof and bullet-resistant. I've knocked a LOT of the things that Russell/Sprouts has said in the past, but I was just as quick to point out when he said something that made a great deal of sense and that I agreed with.
To set the record straight, I almost never rate posts (or more accurately, posters) as good or bad. I'll often take the time instead to make a post much like this one, going into great depth when discussing such matters about what issues I have about what was said - it means a lot more than just an anonymous "thumbs up" or "thumbs down". Of all the posts I read (and I read ALL of them), I might rate one or two percent, tops. When I see BS, I call it out as BS, plain and simple.
When I'm wrong, I'm quick to admit it, and rather than being perturbed about it, I welcome it and I'm grateful for someone pointing it out to me, because I'm more concerned about being genuinely knowledgeable rather than merely appearing to be and using a bully pulpit to make what I say into something dressed up to look like the truth. I'm never too big or egotistical to acknowledge when I'm wrong.
Now, Victor, if you don't mind, I think we've cluttered this topic enough with this entire tangent. Should you wish to continue this discussion, we can move it to the Conversation Parlor if you'd like - I'll transfer the relevant posts there for you if you want. I apologize to Steampunk for letting this tangent run as long as it has. It was my fault for making a wisecrack in the first place.
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No worries, I think I'll stay out of that part of the conversation though :)
Getting back on topic, here's our latest reveal, the Ace of Spades
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/496/755/d8f8786c02506a397fb293e59e2c1ac5_large.jpg?1388898161)
5 days to go! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/consorte/steampunk-goggles-playing-cards-deck-uspcc-bicycle
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I think the Ace is pretty cool. Unique, but not completely abstract from the standard spade. I haven't read every post in this thread, so forgive me if I missed an explanation, but is there a significance to the time you chose to display on the card? Also, based off of the hour hand, shouldn't it be almost exactly 1:30? I might be nitpicking, but it just seems a bit off to me.
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Hi Curt, not nitpicking at all, that's a very good observation and I definitely depend on the community to notice stuff that I don't, so thanks!
The time currently isn't significant, however we've been talking to a few magicians about ideas for a reveal. One idea is to have a regular time on the AoS, but then I happen to have 1 last card that I can do something different with, and the suggestion was to use that for a second AoS with a different time on it, to match another card in the deck. There were a few other ideas for reveals as well. What do you think?
In the meantime, I'll definitely make a note to have him adjust the time so that it makes sense where the hour & minute hand are in relation to one another.
Separate from the hands, we got some more feedback:
1) many clocks do oddly use IIII instead of IV for 4pm, so post-funding we may run a poll to see what people prefer. From what I can tell however, it'll end up staying as IV
2) a few people suggested a skeletal format to the face of the clock, whereby you could see the gears underneath. We'll probably do a mock of that post-funding too and run another poll for backer preferences. Something like this: http://stanleyguess.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/stauer-watch-face-detail-a_.jpg
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Why no goggles incorporated into the AoS for the Steampunk Goggles deck? ;)
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Hi Curt, not nitpicking at all, that's a very good observation and I definitely depend on the community to notice stuff that I don't, so thanks!
The time currently isn't significant, however we've been talking to a few magicians about ideas for a reveal. One idea is to have a regular time on the AoS, but then I happen to have 1 last card that I can do something different with, and the suggestion was to use that for a second AoS with a different time on it, to match another card in the deck. There were a few other ideas for reveals as well. What do you think?
In the meantime, I'll definitely make a note to have him adjust the time so that it makes sense where the hour & minute hand are in relation to one another.
Separate from the hands, we got some more feedback:
1) many clocks do oddly use IIII instead of IV for 4pm, so post-funding we may run a poll to see what people prefer. From what I can tell however, it'll end up staying as IV
2) a few people suggested a skeletal format to the face of the clock, whereby you could see the gears underneath. We'll probably do a mock of that post-funding too and run another poll for backer preferences. Something like this: http://stanleyguess.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/stauer-watch-face-detail-a_.jpg (http://stanleyguess.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/stauer-watch-face-detail-a_.jpg)
The watch you pointed out in the photo looks a lot more modern. Rather than mucking about with the face, I'd put the gearwork into the "wings" of the spade to replace what you have there now, and use a little "lens glare" effect to show that it's covered under glass. Perhaps your artist could even try a mother-of-pearl watch face - that and ivory were very popular materials at the time.
Why no goggles incorporated into the AoS for the Steampunk Goggles deck? ;)
He's got a point. Perhaps you could simply place one pair in front of the spade, as though it's resting on the same table or shelf.
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We figured having goggles on all of the face cards (J, Q, K) would be good for the theme without getting too cheesy with the goggles aspect of it. So basically goggles are on 12 of the cards in the deck. We could possibly do stuff with the aces but I personally really like the aesthetic as-is. I could see maybe sticking a little figure into the AoC & AoS wearing goggles - like piloting the airship or standing on the steps of the clock tower. However the corseted heart -- there's just no way that I see to incorporate goggles without detracting from the design. So the short answer is that we could probably do it for some of the aces but the fact that we can't do it for all of them makes me think that we shouldn't do it for any, so that we can stay consistent.
Consistency has been one of the challenges with this deck (e.g. the Queen of Clubs is full-width where all other cards are framed). We'll be reworking the QoC post-funding to match the other cards in this deck, and even the style of some of the other cards such as the King of Hearts to provide a more cohesive look & feel to it.
After we've got this deck funded, if there's enough interest I'd consider a limited run of a non-branded (non-bicycle) deck with full-width designs, and the side-view of the train as the back, and maybe some other stuff to make it interesting and worthy of a project.
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I like those ideas, Don, particularly the lens glare concept, thanks!
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Hey guys, I just wanted to pop in and thank you for your valuable feedback and support on this project, we've passed our funding goal and on our way down the home streeeetch. Anyway, thanks again!
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These decks are now shipping out
(http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae240/1rideout/10486958_338673152952567_2066629598_o_zps921876ff.jpg)
CBJ
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Am I the only one that never ever needs to see another Steampunk deck again?
Yes how many times does steampunk need to be done? Also they could done again if they are an improvement but really I am just seeing more of the same.
EDIT: I have just had a look at the Ace of spades, now I like it.
Thanks for sharing!
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I liked this steampunk deck. I regret not getting at least 2 of each. I only settled with one of each because I didn't think it would fund. And this project wasn't purely about the cards. They also had steampunk goggles for sale which were pretty cool.
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I'm a little late to this thread, but thanks for checking out the deck. Pretty much everyone seems to have received it by now except for a handful of orders that we reshipped and one that we're waiting out due to what I expect to be slow international shipping. Regarding the steampunk theme, I own steampunkgoggles.com so that was the original inspiration behind it. I do agree the theme is really saturated. We're diverging from steampunk projects on Kickstarter for a spell. Right now we're focusing on a couple of games projects, but I'm hoping to do another deck in October or November. We definitely learned from this last campaign and I have new ideas for the next one that I think people will enjoy. I've got plenty left. They're priced a bit higher than they were on KS but you can find them on my site in the "playing cards" category.
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I'm a little late to this thread, but thanks for checking out the deck. Pretty much everyone seems to have received it by now except for a handful of orders that we reshipped and one that we're waiting out due to what I expect to be slow international shipping. Regarding the steampunk theme, I own steampunkgoggles.com so that was the original inspiration behind it. I do agree the theme is really saturated. We're diverging from steampunk projects on Kickstarter for a spell. Right now we're focusing on a couple of games projects, but I'm hoping to do another deck in October or November. We definitely learned from this last campaign and I have new ideas for the next one that I think people will enjoy. I've got plenty left. They're priced a bit higher than they were on KS but you can find them on my site in the "playing cards" category.
Do stop by here first, before you get too deep into the design, and post a Design/Dev topic for it. We'll throw all the opinions at you that you could ever want, perhaps even more!
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Sounds good, Don. We've designed a font and spec'd out the theme but haven't started the artwork or composition yet. Maybe after we get 1 or 2 cards done I'll throw them up and see what you guys come back with. thanks!