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Messages - Cipher Kai

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Playing Card Plethora / Re: Medusa Deck Live on Kickstarter!
« on: October 26, 2012, 02:22:25 PM »
The deck is funded and we made our first stretch goal, all 4 custom aces.  Less than $2,000 more to go for Bee Casino stock and two days left!

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Playing Card Plethora / Re: Medusa Deck Live on Kickstarter!
« on: October 09, 2012, 01:17:51 PM »
We are two-thirds the way there and only one-third the way in!  It's a little early for stretch goals I know but in celebration we are adding free art prints for every backer who pledges for two or more decks!  If you've pledged you can help decide what the print will be. 

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I agree, there are too many decks on KS.  Mine being one of them I want all the attention. ME ME ME!  OK seriously, from our point of view after seeing some of the amazing decks on KS and being a gamer and game company owner I saw it as a really cool way to show off our talented artists work in a new way going back to my roots of gaming before Magic: The Gathering or any of the CCG even existed (and I even got to workon a few of those).  I think a lot of other talented people saw the same thing from the early KS.

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Playing Card Plethora / Re: Medusa Deck Live on Kickstarter!
« on: September 30, 2012, 12:57:30 AM »
Thanks for linking that Don.  It's been a whirlwind!  I'm overjoyed with the response so far.  My hands are a little worn out from all the typing of responses and thanks to our backers.  I didn't realize I'd get an email every time someone backed the project, it sure makes it exciting every time I check my email through my phone or computer. 

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Playing Card Plethora / Re: Medusa Deck Live on Kickstarter!
« on: September 28, 2012, 03:05:34 PM »
We are a go!

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Playing Card Plethora / Medusa Deck Live on Kickstarter!
« on: September 25, 2012, 07:59:11 PM »
The Deck is now live on Kickstarter!  Thanks again for all your support in getting us there.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1188790300/medusa-playing-card-deck


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The Medusa Playing Card Decks is going live on Kickstarter at Noon PST on Friday 9/28. 

I want to say thank you and I really appreciate all the advice and support you guys have given as this project has developed.  It has really made this the best deck possible.

Please check it out once it goes live and even if you don't back it, I would really appreciate any Likes on Facebook and if you could let your friends who might be interested know about it.

I'll post a longer article on the Playing Card Plethora soon!

8
I've added additional early backer specials.  I'll also unlock add ons of key chains, pendants, and dealer coins at the first stretch goal.  I've added a 'design your own Gaff card' level and I'm looking into costs of art prints to make a couple levels or add ons that would have signed art prints.  I'm considering an add on for a custom single deck wooden box with the Medusa head or logo engraved.  Does this sound interesting?  As far as foil embossing custom seal, etc.  I could possibly do that but it would make the retail deck like $15.00  I'd like to keep it in the $10-$12 range.  Those and other things like T-shirts, free 4x6 art prints for orders over $X would have to be additional goals at a higher level to make them viable. 

A question on signed decks.  Do people want the cellowrap signed or do we open it and sign the box itself?


9
Thanks for the input.  I have lowered the cost from $9 to $8 on the early bird special since it started.  Did you mean $8 is still high?  The next lowest is $7 and with the margin that's pretty much giving them away with shipping single decks.  Since I'm allowing an almost unlimited number of decks at the early bird price that's kind of scary though it would be slightly better margins with multiple deck shipments. 

The coin idea is interesting.  We only cast in pewter so we are limited by that.  We could look into doing mutiple colors in a lacquer finish but that would be a new process for us too.  All our figurines are sold unassembled and unpainted.  Pewter does have a low noise.  We can cast with a pretty high degree of precision as our miniatures are extremely detailed at 30mm tall.  Don, do you mean the edges should have a champher on them? 

I haven't checked the price on metallic inks on the cards and I'm not sure it's a good fit.  For anything custom on the tuck boxes it's INSANELY expensive.  We're talking doubling the cost of the entire deck doing embossed or metallic ink +custom seal.  I honestly have no idea how other guys do it.  Custom 6 or 12 pack cases is something I'm looking into but would have to be done with another printer than USPCC because of the cost.  It's something we may be able to do on a short run with a packaging printer we use. 

Conjuring Creations did contact me when I first showed the previews.  It seems like they are extremely busy though so I doubt that will happen.  I've seen a couple metal card clips through outsourced manufacturers but I don't know if that's as attractive as the Eco Clips.

The stretch goals aren't final yet.  I've been having difficulty coming up with goals that I can give everyone that are meaningful and affordable.  I might do goals that are only available to orders over X decks or something.  Another possibility is doing 'unlocks' for items at certain funding levels that people can add on their order for additional cost.  This way we can make sure we have enough people that might be interested in purchasing an add on so we don't get killed by making like one or two of some expensive and time consuming special item.

Thanks again for all the advice.

10
Hey guys,

It's Kai here again.  I've been working on the Medusa Kickstarter and I have a preliminiary draft up.  It's missing a few things still.  I'll add more card images.  Suggestions on what you would like to see would be helpful.  Also the rewards aren't finished yet.  I just have the basics there.  I'm looking at adding some special things.  One we're looking at is a pewter dealer marker (does it have to be as big as normal plastic ones?  cause $$$$ for pewter) and/or key chains.  We are a miniature casting company so we want to use some of our specialties.  It seems like the tendency of Kickstarter campaigns is to go crazy on the reward options but many of those get about 1-20 backers so I'm not sure how many I should ad.  I've been following the Kickstarter discussions on what works and not.  I'm considering framed art prints of various sizes.  For stretch goals I've been considering signed art prints ,4"x6", for all orders over 1 deck.  Things I'm NOT considering are embossed or metallic ink on the box as these make the decks double in price. 

Critique is welcome.

Link to preview: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1188790300/102523131?token=5d27c315

Thanks!

11
Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview *UPDATED 7-12*
« on: July 24, 2012, 05:13:25 PM »
I tried some more experiments with the back design.  I removed the border and the background. 


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Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview *UPDATED 7-12*
« on: July 18, 2012, 05:17:36 PM »
Yeah, I've been thinking the motif might not be necessary the more I play with it.  I was mostly worried about the background not having enough body to it but with the custom icons and illustration there might be enough going on that a lot of negative space would be OK.  The strong upper left to lower right diagonal and negative space in the upper right and lower left might actually look kinda cool with some tricks and flourishing.  Here's the queen without the background.




13
Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview *UPDATED 7-12*
« on: July 18, 2012, 03:25:27 PM »
I did a test by mirroring the design element.  I reduced it from a 10% black to 5% because I think it would distract too much from the illustration and it should be very difficult to notice from the edge.  Fading it to the edges didn't work, it just looked wrong.  Personally I like the one way design but I understand the issue for Magicians.   I'm not sure what I think about the mirrored element though. By the way Encarded, I love your Tendril deck and it was one of my inspirations on desiring to make my own deck. 


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Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview *UPDATED 7-12*
« on: July 17, 2012, 07:09:05 PM »
Here's the Jack of Hearts.  One of my personal favorites :)


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Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview *UPDATED 7-12*
« on: July 12, 2012, 02:22:18 PM »
I've updated the images at the top with the newest version of the cards.  I've put up two possible back colors, one gold and blue.  Let me know what you think!

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Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview
« on: July 09, 2012, 01:24:11 PM »
We'll continue to work on the colors of the back design.  I can see the point about it evoking Christmas, I kind of saw that myself.  We can try thinner borders as well.  I'll try removing the border around the face cards to see how it looks too.  We are thinking about playing with the overall white background a little anyway but need to be careful not to detract from the art itself.

The goal of the deck is to let the artist's fantasies come to life.  Medusa's play a roll in myth and many fantasy worlds and the face cards follow the fantasy races of elves, dwarves, orks, and of course humans.  Though a deck that follows ancient historical themes does sound interesting, hmm.....

If this project does well Wen is already excited to do more deck designs.  I would love to do a whole series of decks but I'm getting a little ahead of myself now  ;)

Thanks again for the input.  I'll update the images with reworks soon.

17
Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview
« on: July 05, 2012, 06:17:53 PM »
So do you just mean enlarging the image on the back or bringing the letter and icon inside the border on the faces as well? 

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Design & Development / Re: Medusa Deck Preview
« on: July 05, 2012, 05:50:52 PM »
@DeckReview: We can experiment with other colors for sure.  If there are suggestions let me know.  I suppose the Ace of Spades being compared to the Guardian deck can't be that bad since that deck is great. 

I'm glad the Medusa makes you feel happy!  That's certainly not the response she gets from most people in mythology hehe.

@Evan: Yes, the current plan is to print them with USPCC and do a Kickstarter Campaign.  Please feel free to suggest colors.  I was thinking of trying a blue.  Do you have a deck you could reference for the kind of borders you're thinking of?

19
Design & Development / Medusa Deck Preview
« on: July 05, 2012, 05:07:07 PM »
My name is Kai Nesbit, I'm the owner of Cipher Studios, a game company that has been producing high quality games for 6 years.  I love all types of playing cards and have worked on several collectible card games at previous companies. Our primary artist we use for our main game, Wen Yu Li, is phenomenal so I asked him to work with me on doing a playing card deck to showcase his talent and to go crazy on his vision of a poker deck. 

I have great respect of the people on these forums and would appreciate feedback on the deck hope you enjoy it. 

Displayed are the Back, Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts, King of Clubs.  As we finish up more of the cards I'll add them here.

If you'd like to see more of the artists work please check out his Deviant art page: wen-m.deviantart.com

*THIS IS UPDATED WITH NEW ART VERSIONS*


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Design & Development / Re: ORNATE Playing Cards Preview
« on: June 22, 2012, 11:56:05 AM »
I really look forward to getting this on Kickstarter.  Gorgeous Randy!

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It looks like we may be able to get the wings moved to go for a symmetrical look.  We're also trying some different background colors because I think it will bring out some of the details better so it's not green on green.

Thanks again for all the input!   

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I'd like to keep the audience broad including collectors because I want to reach as many people as possible with the deck.  I might do what the grid did and offer an upgrade package to USPCC cards if a certain fund goal gets hit.  It didn't seem to hurt them (the awesome art didn't hurt either ;) ) and I think they are now the most successful Kickstarter deck out there. 

Marketing is very key to the strategy.  I've been collecting forum URLs to talk about the deck and looking for ways to advertise through Facebook and google ads.  I'd love to find a list of sites to direct marketing and buzz to for the deck.   The artist and friend I'm working with, Wen Yu Li, has a huge following online at wen-m.deviantart.com.  With over 12,000,000 page views I think we'll get a lot of buzz there once we start showing the cards off.  We've worked together for 6 years on our Anima game and I really want to showcase his style on a deck of playing cards. 

We've finished the back and are working on finishing the art for the face cards and other elements.  I'll create another thread here soon once we get all the parts done so you can see what we've got going.   Heck, I'll put a little teaser in here.  Let me know what you think of the back. 


23
Thanks for all the input.  I'm based in the US but have worked with printers on CCGs that print Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, etc.  They specialize in these kinds of products and I believe they compete with USPCC on quality.  USPCC is a lot more expensive than these other printers because they trade heavily on their personal brand.  There are also highly regarded card stocks from Germany and France that can be printed by specialized factories in China that also do Collectible Card printing.  My main audience is Kickstarter and then it will be hobby distribution at hobby, comic, board game, and tabletop gaming shops.  It seems the main audience is collectors on Kickstarter.  Of course I want to reach the broadest audience possible so I certainly don't want to alienate collectors.  So if collectors only want USPCC I may be required to do that. 

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Design & Development / Card Stocks (CCG, French, German, USPCC, etc.)
« on: June 13, 2012, 01:56:08 PM »
I'm somewhat new to the forums but I've been lurking a little.  I'm working on a playing card deck for Kickstarter (big surprise right?) and I'm trying to decide what the best card stock will be.  I have a background in Collectible Card Games so I have contacts for that type of stock as well as printers who use German and French black core stocks.  I'd really like some advice of playing card collectors on your preference and opinion of the different stocks.  USPCC is way more expensive than the other options so if there is an attractive option that doesn't require their costs I'm very interested.  Are there other stocks other then the ones I mentioned that are well regarded for collectors?

Thanks for your help!

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