DYSTOPIA Playing Cards by Joker & Thief -- Live on KS

[vasta41]

From J&T KS update:

This HALLOWEEN, Joker and the Thief plunges into the madness of the apocalypse. Today we introduce a project 12 months in the making.
In collaboration with Pedro Oyarbide, Dystopia Playing Cards is a disturbed tribute to Mad Max, Australian Motor Culture and the Australian Film Industry.
With the wasteland as our playground, we realised we could dial everything on this project up to 11! In other words, we went a bit mad.
Featuring 100% custom art work and illustrations, this high octane project launches on October 31st on Kickstarter! Stay tuned as we trickle even more details about this fuel and blood injected deck within the next few days.
Expect early bird deals and exclusive accessories on launch day. BE THERE.

[Räpylätassu]

Both Joker and the Thief decks have been pretty dope, I hope that this is great too. Looks great so far!

[JuFiN]

Similar theme to Wasteland Rebels by Kings Wild which is a hard deck to try to compete with. Looks pretty cool based on what I can make out so far though, so ill end up backing regardless I suspect.

[Joker and the Thief]

Hi guys!

Glad to hear you're interested in our newest project!

I have some more images for you from our Instagram. Take a look! Dystopia Playing Cards will feature completely custom courts, ace of spades, jokers, pips, fonts, as well as a custom seal and killer tuck box.
We can't wait to reveal more!

See you on Halloween!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMAPBmgBqUR ... ayingcards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMC3Y7oBKXU ... ayingcards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMC3H-MhqYD ... ayingcards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL_DtuOjZlx ... mesmilaras" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JuFiN]

Not concerned about a halloween launch leading to a slow first day due to people being too busy doing halloween things to check out kickstarter? Im pretty confident this will fund but I have also noticed that the first day tends to be the most important.

[Joker and the Thief]

This is a good point, we've considered this.
By launching at 3PM in Cali we hope to get around this, as it isn't too late in other timezones, and doesn't interrupt Halloween proceedings at night.

[Joker and the Thief]

WE ARE LIVE - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo ... ying-cards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[vasta41]

Backed. As usual another AMAZING back (of card) by J&T.

[Azid]

Backed, good to see that international shipping is a bit lower then last time (17 AUD $ for 1 or 2 decks).
(Joker & Thief Gold 1 or 2 decks = 22 AUD $) <- Didn't back it + i missed early bird on that one.

[Joker and the Thief]

Thank you for your support guys! Let's get to 100%! We're currently 20% in, let's pump those numbers up!
Many thanks, we hope you guys love the design.

[52Ravens]

Great to see a new design from you guys, really nice colour palette, I'll definitely be backing, but is it just me or is the back design one-way?

Excluding the JT in the middle there are a couple of things that make it one-way.

Is it just an old prototype design in the photos, or it it meant to be that way?

[jsantafe]

Well, I agree the design is pretty cool and the campaign great, however the shipping to Europe is really high, way higher than many successful campaigns in KS lately.
The aftermarket may work better. Bedt of luck anyway!

[Thedissident001]

Really wanted to support a homegrown Aussie project. $16 AUD for single early bird deck and $17 AUD for postage? Come on!!! This hobby is being slowly strangled for those in the southern hemisphere

[guru]

It is a pretty good project, no doubt about it. But, the international shipping just kills it for me. Your last 2 projects were quite successful (I own both decks) and I'm sure you'd have learned a lot from those campaigns. Still, I don't understand why there hasn't been any change in your strategy wrt shipping. There are things you could have experimented like going with 2 shipping partners (one for US n other for International) or going with a Taiwan-based fulfillment partner ( EPCC would have easily recommended one) or doing fulfilment from Hong Kong (no import tax for shipments coming from Taiwan & HK has got a few good options. MPC is there as well.) or if you'd have a thought about Australian backers, doing fulfillment locally for them (Good Games etc.) and/or even offer free shipping to Australian backers. There have been Kickstarter projects where the creators learned their lessons through previous successful projects and were able to offer better deals in their next project/s to both US & International backers. The community here would have easily helped you by offering suggestions and sharing insights from the campaign standpoint.

Anyways, this may look like a rant, and I apologize for being overly critical here. For international backers, it is better to go for aftermarket I think. GW etc. may offer better deals once the deck is available through them.

Best of luck to you James & JT team.

[Räpylätassu]

I'm suprised that this is still on 40 % funded. I really hope that this deck happends.

[Justin O.]

I really wish I liked this more than I do, I love Fury Road, I love post-apocalyptic, I love cars, but I can't get into this deck. I think the design is much too busy; the color palette doesn't do the artwork any favors, and doesn't feed the theme to me; and I wonder if the title of the deck doesn't line up with the aesthetic, dystopia makes me think of blade runner thematically, not mad max, which I think of as post-apocalyptic, two themes I think of as disparate

[rousselle]

I suspect that pricing *may* have something to do with it. I know that I'm in for the early bird, because that was the only pricing tier that made any fiscal sense for me. I know I'm not the first to comment on how the pricing of custom decks in general seems to be escalating at a rather steep climb, but this one, if I recall correctly, was one that stood out to me in particular as being relatively costly.

(That said, I do find Justin O's assessment on theme to be astute. However, that wasn't a sticking point for me.)

[Justin O.]

I suspect that pricing *may* have something to do with it. I know that I'm in for the early bird, because that was the only pricing tier that made any fiscal sense for me. I know I'm not the first to comment on how the pricing of custom decks in general seems to be escalating at a rather steep climb, but this one, if I recall correctly, was one that stood out to me in particular as being relatively costly.
(That said, I do find Justin O's assessment on theme to be astute. However, that wasn't a sticking point for me.)

Because the artwork didn't grab me I hadn't looked a the tiers, and I have to agree about the pricing, $16 for one deck is quite alot, thought it does appear to have a pretty fancy tuck (which doesn't appear to be shown in the images) I wonder if this is where the added cost comes in..? I gotta say I am pretty sold on the tuck features as described, wish they had a prototype image to show. Still not into the art enough to get on board but I do this this is a solid deck for people who are.

"Embossing on all sides and flaps
3 Foil Colours
Interior and Exterior foil coverage
Black Dyed Imported Paper
Custom Shape Foil Perforated Seal
"

[Joker and the Thief]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all of your feedback. This is extremely valuable to us and is very much appreciated.
We understand that some of you may not be into the design, we realise this may not be for everyone. But we're glad that a lot of you love it!

That said, in order to give this campaign a bit more of a boost we've opened some new tier levels for single and two deck sets at EARLY BIRD Pricing.
Let's get this show on the road and smash 100%! Thank you all for your support.

Please help us out today - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo ... escription" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[montenzi]

Price is not a problem, but shipping is very expensive. AU$16 for deck and $17 for shipping???

[jerichoholic]

I like the design myself but I don't like the shipping cost. $12 to ship 1 deck to Canada, I can get it with less shipping from Art of Play later.

[Joker and the Thief]

I like the design myself but I don't like the shipping cost. $12 to ship 1 deck to Canada, I can get it with less shipping from Art of Play later.

Glad to hear you like Dystopia's design. You'll find that if you buy these off Art of Play later (it isn't confirmed that they will be stocking them yet) that the shipping prices will be close to identical. As we are using their fulfilment services.

We're currently at 52% funding, all and any support now would be greatly appreciated to ensure that this project actually happens!

Again, thank you all for your support!

Cheers,
James
Joker and the Thief Playing Cards

[sinjin7]

Design is subjective, so I won't get into that aspect at all. Unfortunately, this campaign is struggling to overcome 3 main obstacles:

1 - These guys had two previous campaigns that were not run that smoothly on KS, and I think people remember that. The 2nd campaign attracted less supporters than the first, and this third campaign is following that negative trend.

2 - These decks are over-priced, it's as simple as that. Especially considering there are so many well-designed decks coming out now days that are much more competitively priced. I think J&T realized this and put out another tier at the more realistic EB pricing, but all that does is make those who pledged for the full-priced tiers to drop their pledge to get the new EB priced tier, which undercuts the gains they make from attracting new supporters at the lower price point.

3 - One of the biggest complaints is about the shipping. Since they keep using Art of Play to do their fulfillment, the shipping rates will continue to be very high.

I also found it pretty disingenuous that they suggested the Dystopia deck may not be carried by Art of Play. If these fund, of course they'll be carried by Art of Play, we all know this. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if we see an 11th hour boost to get them over the top and funded, with said boost coming from. . .wait for it. . .Art of Play.

[Azid]

Relaunching: Friday, January 13th, 6PM PST!

They say that funding goal will be lower and fulfilled this time by Amazon.
And printed by USPCC instead of EPCC.

Full Article here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo ... ts/1771807" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Joker and the Thief]

Hi all, thanks to Azid for posting an update here! Yes we are returning on Friday, January 13th at 6pm PST!

We'd like to thank everyone on this forum for your contribution to the original campaign and for all of your advice and feedback. We have taken this on board. We'll briefly list a few changes on this campaign:

1 - MUCH lower funding goal.
2 - Printed by USPCC
3 - Lower prices per deck
4 - Custom letterpress tuckbox, utilising luxurious imported dyed paper, deep embossing and rich foiling. Made in the USA by Clove St. Press (Same tuck manufacturers for Dan and Dave and using the same process undertaken by theory11).
5 - Fulfilment by Amazon. While the price for sending single decks internationally will remain mostly the same (these costs are unavoidable when shipping from the USA) International rates for multiple decks are MUCH fairer. Shipping within the USA is also heavily discounted. Plus Amazon is fast, and reliable!
6 - Much faster production turn around time due to manufacturing and shipping within the USA. We aim to get you your decks sooner!
7- Of course we have some awesome early bird sales!

That's the basic run down. Please check out our update for more details. We hope to see you on Kickstarter on the January 13th @ 6PM PST!

Thank you guys!

[Joker and the Thief]

Hi all,

Apologies for the double post!

Just a reminder that we are relaunching in less than 24 hours - tomorrow at 6PM PST!
We have $10usd Early Bird Specials in limited quantities as both Single Deck and Two Deck tiers!

See you tomorrow, and thank you in advance for your support!

Cheers,
James
Joker and the Thief Playing Cards

[vasta41]

I'm happy this came back. Better than before, too! I'll be there (9pm EST).

[Joker and the Thief]

I'm happy this came back. Better than before, too! I'll be there (9pm EST).

Thank you! We're excited to see you there!

[Joker and the Thief]

We're less than 12 hours away guys! Be sure to get ready for when Dystopia drops on Kickstarter at 6PM PST.
Tell your friends, your neighbours, that random guy in the street, even your local barista!

See you very soon and thank you very much for you continued support here on this forum!

[Joker and the Thief]

We're just under an hour away from launch, everyone! We hope to see you there. We will post a link here as soon as we go live!