Gothique Playing Cards - Coming Soon from Warpunk

[OnTheGrind]

Hi guys. Though I'm a noob, I might actually be useful! After doing some digging on that guy that had the Vivant and Revenant decks, I found on his Facebook Page that he is launching a new deck that is very similar. It is dubbed "Gothique" and will be in Light and Dark versions. According to his facebook post (as of 12 hours ago) he stated that his launch plan is May 1st, guessing that means Kickstarter! Check it out:

[Sher]

Interesting deck. Thanks for sharing! Do you have a link to his Facebook page?

[bamabenz]

https://www.facebook.com/WarpunkGames" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is from the Brian Lee, the Grave Digger/Zombie Black guy.

[wahl0108]

I'm terribly attracted to how they're all in circles. Very cool.

[Sher]

https://www.facebook.com/WarpunkGames" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is from the Brian Lee, the Grave Digger/Zombie Black guy.

OHHHH! No wonder those courts look familiar... I considered pledging for the Zombie Black.

[montecarlojoe]

I think I prefer them now that they aren't zombies. I'm glad he's kept the Stained-Glass look - it's a really stron bit of design IMO

[vasta41]

Not bad. Not particularly my style but I can see intrest.

[MagikFingerz]

I think I prefer them now that they aren't zombies. I'm glad he's kept the Stained-Glass look - it's a really stron bit of design IMO

I agree, the undead courts weren't working that well. I like the new blue background color, very fresh.

[volantangel]

Cant exactly remember, but the previous versions had a different colour scheme on the bg and also different pip arrangements, but the rest are the same. Oh and for those that dont know, those are not original courts, but an adaptation from European styled courts.

[montecarlojoe]

Yeah - I think i've seen them used in Fournier decks?

But at least they are a copy of somthing other than the Bike standards eh?

[Eoghann]

Just FYI guys, I'm pretty sure he's going with MPC again for this project.

[MagikFingerz]

Just FYI guys, I'm pretty sure he's going with MPC again for this project.

Ugh... Then, no thanks.

[Norbie]

Just FYI guys, I'm pretty sure he's going with MPC again for this project.

Ugh... Then, no thanks.

Have you had bad experiences with cards that were printed by MPC?

[lolo]

I really like the colors scheme but the "belt" on the courts is too large. We only see it and the court seems to be "behind".

Sorry my english vocabulary is limited and i have problems to explain what i fell about this "belt"...

I prefer a lot of more these courts design (small belt) :

[Jock1971]

courts kind of reminded me of Ornates.

[warpunkgames]

Hey everyone! So glad to see that you like the new design! I have a couple of comments and questions for you.

Comments:

1. Yes I plan to us MPC for the printing of these decks. If you look at my Zombie Deck project, I got a lot of positive feedback, and from my understanding, the only complaint is that they aren’t very slick. That being said, I have talked with their lead production guy and according to him, they have made huge strides in making their coating much more slick and good for cardistry. They have even changed their tuck box and it looks very similar to USPCC now. So I am pretty confident that they will produce a great product. I am extremely happy with what they did for the Zombie decks, but I don’t any sort of card trick or anything like that, I just play card games, so I can say, they are certainly excellent for that. Their print quality and paper quality is also top notch.
2. The face cards designs are based on an old French style of playing cards. I have moved further away from that original design by adding armor to the face cards and other little changes here and there. Obviously, the colors and pip layout are certainly different as well. But I really like that face card design, and wanted to try and bring a similar style back out into the light with my own flair.

Questions:

1. I don’t know if you are aware or not but I am doing a series of 3 sets, 2 colors each, of this style. This is the second set, the first was the Zombie decks and the last will be a Magic/Arcane themed set. So my question is – I was thinking of making a stretch goal of the cards being printed by USPCC. Do you think this would take away from the series if the cards were printed by a different company? I don’t know if it would happen since my stretch goal would need to really be up there, like in the 20K+ range, just want your opinion on if I should even post it or not. Mind you, I think MPC does a great job and am completely happy with them, but I know some people only want cards printed by USPCC, which I get.
2. My intent for the cards is to be good cards to play card games with. There are a lot of great decks out there, but a lot of them are what I consider to be “art cards”. They look great but are hard to play card games with because of the design. So to get to my point, I am trying to create a brand call “Black Box Playing Cards”. So with this deck, I was thinking of trying to get that brand out there more, and making it more dominate on the box like the attached image. Do you think this is too much? Would it take away from the Zombie deck or the series because it doesn’t match in that respect? (note: the die line for the box is the old version, haven’t updated to the new one yet.) Also, do you think I should put the back of the card on the tuck box or not?
3. What do you think about the “belt” on the cards as lolo mentioned above? I have had several people say they like it or it is fine, but I wanted your feedback.
Thanks so much for the help guys, I want this to be an awesome deck so any other suggestions you may have would be very much appreciated.

Brian Lee
Warpunk Games

[montecarlojoe]

The carte are known as the Paris Pattern: http://www.wopc.co.uk/france/paris.html

http://www.wopc.co.uk/shop/lanvin-playing-cards.html

[wahl0108]

Questions:

1. I don’t know if you are aware or not but I am doing a series of 3 sets, 2 colors each, of this style. This is the second set, the first was the Zombie decks and the last will be a Magic/Arcane themed set. So my question is – I was thinking of making a stretch goal of the cards being printed by USPCC. Do you think this would take away from the series if the cards were printed by a different company? I don’t know if it would happen since my stretch goal would need to really be up there, like in the 20K+ range, just want your opinion on if I should even post it or not. Mind you, I think MPC does a great job and am completely happy with them, but I know some people only want cards printed by USPCC, which I get.
2. My intent for the cards is to be good cards to play card games with. There are a lot of great decks out there, but a lot of them are what I consider to be “art cards”. They look great but are hard to play card games with because of the design. So to get to my point, I am trying to create a brand call “Black Box Playing Cards”. So with this deck, I was thinking of trying to get that brand out there more, and making it more dominate on the box like the attached image. Do you think this is too much? Would it take away from the Zombie deck or the series because it doesn’t match in that respect? (note: the die line for the box is the old version, haven’t updated to the new one yet.) Also, do you think I should put the back of the card on the tuck box or not?
3. What do you think about the “belt” on the cards as lolo mentioned above? I have had several people say they like it or it is fine, but I wanted your feedback.
Thanks so much for the help guys, I want this to be an awesome deck so any other suggestions you may have would be very much appreciated.

Brian Lee
Warpunk Games

1) Printing - go for it! People who truly like the deck will buy the deck anyway, regardless of the printing of company, and changing it to a name more people recognize after your stretch goal will get it on the radar of new people who might not have wanted a non-USPCC deck. In my opinion, you win both ways.

2) I think the back of the card should always be on the tuck box. Some people can't always remember what their decks are called and the back of the box will remind them what's inside instead of them having to open every box they own to find it. People who don't open their cards can also show them off in that way. However, if you do go with the USPCC, I would offer a Bicycle Branded Version for those collectors. I'm not big on most names on the box in general because it takes away from all the space that could be used for the art.

3) I'm not sure what exactly the belt is referring to, if it's the sash or whatever, I think your cards look great as they are!

[lolo]

3) I'm not sure what exactly the belt is referring to, if it's the sash or whatever, I think your cards look great as they are!

I was talking about this :

1017014_489986024434947_8629856277349863063_n.jpg (88.79 KiB) Viewed 1604 times

It takes a lot of space on the cards and hide too much courts in my opinion.

[montecarlojoe]

I see what you're saying - good for flourishing though - would look pretty cool spinning on a finger

[OnTheGrind]

Hey everyone! So glad to see that you like the new design! I have a couple of comments and questions for you.

Comments:

1. Yes I plan to us MPC for the printing of these decks. If you look at my Zombie Deck project, I got a lot of positive feedback, and from my understanding, the only complaint is that they aren’t very slick. That being said, I have talked with their lead production guy and according to him, they have made huge strides in making their coating much more slick and good for cardistry. They have even changed their tuck box and it looks very similar to USPCC now. So I am pretty confident that they will produce a great product. I am extremely happy with what they did for the Zombie decks, but I don’t any sort of card trick or anything like that, I just play card games, so I can say, they are certainly excellent for that. Their print quality and paper quality is also top notch.
2. The face cards designs are based on an old French style of playing cards. I have moved further away from that original design by adding armor to the face cards and other little changes here and there. Obviously, the colors and pip layout are certainly different as well. But I really like that face card design, and wanted to try and bring a similar style back out into the light with my own flair.

Questions:

1. I don’t know if you are aware or not but I am doing a series of 3 sets, 2 colors each, of this style. This is the second set, the first was the Zombie decks and the last will be a Magic/Arcane themed set. So my question is – I was thinking of making a stretch goal of the cards being printed by USPCC. Do you think this would take away from the series if the cards were printed by a different company? I don’t know if it would happen since my stretch goal would need to really be up there, like in the 20K+ range, just want your opinion on if I should even post it or not. Mind you, I think MPC does a great job and am completely happy with them, but I know some people only want cards printed by USPCC, which I get.
2. My intent for the cards is to be good cards to play card games with. There are a lot of great decks out there, but a lot of them are what I consider to be “art cards”. They look great but are hard to play card games with because of the design. So to get to my point, I am trying to create a brand call “Black Box Playing Cards”. So with this deck, I was thinking of trying to get that brand out there more, and making it more dominate on the box like the attached image. Do you think this is too much? Would it take away from the Zombie deck or the series because it doesn’t match in that respect? (note: the die line for the box is the old version, haven’t updated to the new one yet.) Also, do you think I should put the back of the card on the tuck box or not?
3. What do you think about the “belt” on the cards as lolo mentioned above? I have had several people say they like it or it is fine, but I wanted your feedback.
Thanks so much for the help guys, I want this to be an awesome deck so any other suggestions you may have would be very much appreciated.

Brian Lee
Warpunk Games

Tuck Box Gothique.jpg

Few comments, and some things to consider. What is your goal with this deck? I know you are a table top game person and want to incorporate these cards with a game, but is your end goal to have these cards printed and available separately, or only as part of the game? To address your questions:

1. I do not think it will take away from the series if the cards were printed by different companies. There are many examples on Kickstarter of card decks that have done amazingly well, with games incorporated at different pledge levels. I think one of the main flaws of your first campaign was that it was marketed as a game rather than a deck of cards with an accompanying game. If you were to have this as a Bicycle/USPCC deck, I bet you'd raise a lot more funding, especially if you worked on the design a bit and added some cool stretch goals. Basically, by NOT choosing USPCC as the printer, you're closing yourself off to a significant portion of the market, and already reducing the ceiling of the possible funds you will get. You can probably counter my argument by stating non-USPCC cards have done well on Kickstarter, but my counter to that is they have probably been done by well known or backed artists. Being that you're fairly new, it may be much more difficult for you to go non-USPCC and reach your goals.

2. To reiterate what was stated earlier, if you do go USPCC, I think you should have the Bicycle Brand displayed. Regardless of which printer you use, I think you should have the back of the card shown on the box. Either way, looking at both tucks you have created, I think you need some work on this area before it hits mass appeal. I don't think people will worry about the interplay between this box and the Zombies box. Collectors like series, but each part is also seen as a standalone work. People won't ding you for having a Zombies box and a Gothique box that are very different. Also, you need to know your customer. The majority of deck buyers on Kickstarter are card shops and avid collectors, with your random guy thrown in there. Many of these people don't really care about the game aspect of the series, because if they wanted to use a 52+ card deck to play a game, they could just pick up a $3 pack from Walmart. So in that respect, I think you should adapt your tuck box to fit the market.

3. Personally, I like the wide belt, gives the royals a more aggressive look!



Now here's some other things I noticed. For reference, here are your card backs, I think?





Comments:

First off, beautiful card back, loving the design!

1. For the green/blue back, part of the stained glass window is leaking out of the frame. Will this be an issue with the printing companies? I'm not sure how they decide on printing specifications, but you may want to check that out.

2. I noticed you changed the design of the ace. On these card backs, the ace has a sword inside of it, but your new ones have a different pattern. Will you update these card backs? I think it's very crucial to be consistent, or the card collecting community will tear you apart.



I'll add other comments as people take these in, let's start a discussion!

[MagikFingerz]

The question isn't simply "to USPCC or not USPCC", it's about the cards being of the best quality. I have still not handled cards from any other printer in the US that prints cards as well as the USPCC, nor have I heard from anyone who has (and the only non-US printer that's close is the Taiwanese factory that Expert Playing Card Company uses).

Personally, a big part of enjoying my collection is doing flourishes with my decks. When a great design like this gets printed by a sub-par printer, it just makes me sad. If I like the artwork enough, I might get 1 or 2 anyway, but the likelyhood of me getting more or any add-ons at all is pretty much 0. And I don't think I'm in the minority.

[OnTheGrind]

Yeah, I think instead of making USPCC a stretch goal, you should think about starting off with that. Your bicycle tuck boxes were great! You can change your stretch goals to something like dice, coins, embossing, different finishes on the box, or custom seal stickers, etc.

Some other observations I had:

1. If you do go with your bicycle tuck boxes, which I thought were great, you should edit them a little. I think the background behind bicycle should match the blue you have going on in the stained glass, and then the Spade and Background behind the spade should be colored a bit differently. Also, update the spade on that box as well with the new Spade.






2. Again, the back of the card Spade does not match the new Spade you've designed. Consistency is key. Also, I saw that you have diff colored pips instead of red/black. Maybe consider coloring the suits on the back of the card to match? IDK how that would look, the back looks pretty good now, so that may make it worse.

3. I'll address this in my next point, but in my opinion, the Aces looked better with the dark/black backgrounds and the extra flair.





4. For this picture, I wanted to point something out. I know you changed the Ace to take out those extra parts, but I really like them and think they add to the Aces. If you don't like them, disregard, but I think you should make a pic with both your new aces and these to show the difference. Furthermore, on those extra parts, I see that you re-emphasized the suit, which may be confusing because these are Aces, the suit should only be shown in the art once. If you've realized this and removed those extra parts for that reason, I suggest you reconsider adding back those parts and coloring in those circles to match the other circles (on the Ace of diamonds/clubs, you have white circles instead of orange, but the orange matches the other circles in the picture).

5. These Aces are sexy. I prefer the Black background over the white, I'm sure others will agree.

6. Perhaps some consistency with the color scheme for the suits needs to be addressed. We could get a better idea if you posted a card of each suit, maybe your new Aces or some other cards.

[Njall]

I think instead of making USPCC a stretch goal, you should think about starting off with that

I agree.

[Eoghann]

He tried USPCC for his first two projects. They were unsuccessful. That's why he went with MPC.

[Bikefanatic]

I backed for his Revenant and Vivrant decks last year. This time I'm not sure. Those courts are used in the Truth Garden and Voyager decks.

[OnTheGrind]

I backed for his Revenant and Vivrant decks last year. This time I'm not sure. Those courts are used in the Truth Garden and Voyager decks.

In case you didn't catch the earlier post, the courts are from France:

http://www.wopc.co.uk/france/paris.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

by Eoghann » Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:59 pm

He tried USPCC for his first two projects. They were unsuccessful. That's why he went with MPC.

I saw that. I think he could have made it the first time around with the Vivant/Revenant if he had listened to outside input more/marketed a bit more by spreading the word... Or maybe it was a timing issue? Maybe they'll hit the goal this time around. These cards sure are unique compared to some of what's coming out nowadays, IMO

[Sher]

Now Live!

[volantangel]

Well he's not using uspcc, he's using the printer that he printed the zombie white/black cards, does anyone have any idea how they feel ?

[MagikFingerz]

I thought the whole point of using someone else than USPCC was to bring the goal down. With $11k he might as well go with USPCC