--Here's some hi-res images of the playing cards. As far as the style keep in mind we are celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. I was going for a vintage yet modern feel.
--As far as the treasure hunt... it wasn't meant as a gimmick but a way to bring attention to ghost towns in Northern PA that many people don't know about. I have decided not to hurt the design by putting the codes on the card. I plan on giving a map with codes to everyone who buys the cards. I felt it was in the best interest of the design to do it this way.
--With the feedback I've gotten I decided to update the back of the card.
Let me know what you think!
Mr. Tomlinson - deck creator, I presume?
First, welcome to the Discourse. We're an opinionated bunch, but only because we're passionate about playing cards.
My personal assessment - leaving out the treasure hunt was a good idea. Too gimmicky. You could, however, simply include the map you mentioned as an ad card in the deck and forgo making a gaff card. Another way to include it that would cost less than printing maps would be to create a QR code which you can place on the ad card or on the box somewhere, inside or out, which redirects to a page where you can make the map available with all those nice Google features for navigation and such.
On the deck itself... I'm not a huge fan of the pips, if you haven't noticed. But that's just me. My best suggestion in that regard would be to SWAP COLORS in the indices and pips. You have the black suits represented by the lighter of the two index colors and the red suits by the darker one - I've found it to be mentally distracting when using decks arranged like that. Switch the court faces if you must to match the color change.
I would also remove the engraving effect from the court card faces. You're already printing the cards on an embossed surface, assuming you're using a stock that isn't utterly smooth, and you have all those wavy lines in the background. It takes away from the art to keep the faux engraving lines on the faces on top of all of this. That, and you'll have too many people thinking you cribbed the idea from the Federal 52 series of decks. You might even consider ditching the way lines in the background as well. Just go for a look that replicates color illustrations of the time - not printing, but painting. It would do your art much more justice to present it that way.
The backs appear fine, but you're basing the overall pattern on a deck back (the Bicycle Rider Back) that didn't exist until 1893, nearly three decades after the War Between the States ended. Look at the Bicycle Americana deck and draw inspiration from that back instead, minus the faux weathering, and I think you'll have a much more attractive back design.
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