UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

Hello everyone.
I'm new to this forum and also new to playing cards industry. However, I've been loving playing cards from the very long time. The decision to create a deck for my own came accidentally. I gathered a small team of enthusiasts and here we go.

We worked hard from December to February, we collected all and every piece of frost and ice we found, and while there on the mighty North the winter still reigns, we want to offer you a very special item.
Winter is cold, dark and dangerous in the places where we live.

In this deck we've put all the power, darkness and glory of northern winter.

Main Ideas follow.

Characters:
~~~~~~~~~~~
Every royal card here is a character. They are not faceless "Clubs King"s or "Hearts Queen"s, they have their own thoughts, feelings and history. Their own mind.

Totems:
~~~~~~~
The inner sense of the characters itself is described in this totem animals so we can look at their souls unchained and uncovered.

Her Majesty, Winter:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the main character, she appears on every image of the deck. She touches our heroes, holds them, leads them, punishes and rules them.

I'm getting a Game Of Thrones vibe from this, especially House Stark. Consider my interest piqued.

Beautiful work! I'll get a deck if the price is right!

lumpyliew wrote:

Nice designs for the court cards . any pictures for the tuck case and AoS?

Or back design?

To MagikFingerz, lumpyliew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will show you colour sketches of AoS and back. Please, note that it is not a final artwork, it of course will be improved.

AoS: We are faithful to our idea of the Winter character, so you can see her presence here too. The lower part of the image is supposed to be a reflection in the ice.


Back: We decided to make it a bit easier to avoid overloading the card with symbols, images and characters. The back is covered with frosty pattern, that arrives at windows glass in case it is too cold outside.


To samurai007
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The price is planned to be around 15$.

P.S.
~~~~
Thank you for your replies.
Of course, this is not a final edition of this cards. I already have an improved edition actually, and the work is still in progress.

If you want, you can write about the ways to improve this cards. We will definitely take your opinion into account.

LXandR wrote:If you want, you can write about the ways to improve this cards. We will definitely take your opinion into account.

I'll just reiterate the basics for satisfying cardists and collectors in general:

- Thin borders (makes fans more aesthetically pleasing)
- Indices fairly close to the edges (or at least not too far from them, especially when the indices are in a big font)
- Two-way back design (subtle one-way backs are fine)

We plan to launch our project in the beginning of August.
We a performing the last preparations for now.

Project's page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WinterDeck" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sign up if you want to be informed of al our news.

After a big discussion, we decided to postpone the project's launch till the beginning of September.
We are sorry for the delay, but it gives us a chance to improve our project!

Thank you all for your help!

LXandR wrote:After a big discussion, we decided to postpone the project's launch till the beginning of September.
We are sorry for the delay, but it gives us a chance to improve our project!

Thank you all for your help!

I'd love to see some updated designs, and I'm sure it would help spark some interest among our members as well

Wow, thanks for mentioning!
I really thought I have already posted it here.

The improved designs of the cards follow:



We decided to change king's face a bit, to make it more 'Evil'.
Also, it was decided that in case of success on Kickstarter, our deck will be printed by USPCC.

Thank you for your attention!

We've just passed the moderation on Kickstarter! Our project have been accepted!!! Hooray!
This means that nothing will stop us launching the project on Monday, September 16th, 8 PM EST.

Also, I want to inform you that our Facebook Page goes live!
Check out https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ultramar ... 1758202825" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best regards to everyone!
Alexander,
Ultramarine Designs.

Updated original post now live on KS

Wow!
That was really fast! Thank you very much!

It just left to me to add that we've created a special landing page to make spreading the word about us as easy as possible!

Check out:

http://umdesigns.net/share/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you for your help and good luck for all of us.
Cheers!

Alex,
Ultramarine Designs

I like the design, but it seems like there is a lot of work left to do. With only three cards, I don't think you will get enough pledges to fund this. If it gets funded I don't see how you're going to get it to people by January. Anyways, I think you should get some more cards designed while your project is running so it has a better chance of succeeding.

Thank you for your answer!
The work is still in progress, we don't stop and still working while the project is running. So you can be sure that we'll do our best on the way to fulfilling our responsibilities!

I love how much more polished the art looks now - can't wait to see the other courts!

A few details: First, there are two separate decks. The Winter deck and the Backer's Edition deck. The Winter deck will be the deck that's shown. The Backer's deck will have drawings of people (presumably people who pledge for the include-my-face reward) instead of the regular courts.

Funding goal $15,000
Stretch goal $17,000
The stretch goal adds a court-like face to the tens.

Winter Deck
Early bird $11, international plus $7.
Regular $13, international plus $7.
USPCC

Backer's Edition Deck
There are no pledge levels for Backer's Decks.
But you can do Backer's Deck add-ons.
So I guess you have to pledge for something else to get a Backer's Deck (I suppose you could pledge the $1 thing).
Each deck $25, international shipping ... uh, not mentioned.
Plastic. (Not plastic coated. "Full-plastic.")
Printed in Russia. (Not USPCC.)
Limited edition, not to be reprinted.

The shipping on the Backer's Deck is mixed up. In one paragraph he says that the deck will be printed in Russia and shipped from here. In another paragraph he says it will be printed in Russia and shipped from there. So ... either here or there.

I love it that the deck creator brought his designs to UnitedCardists, but I've got some notable misgivings:

The way he wrote it, he's committed to producing two decks. Even if no one pledges to use their picture and just one person pledges for the Backer's deck as an add-on. Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done just to complete the first deck. Adding a whole second deck is gonna be a lot of work. And even though he's sourcing that job in Russia, I wonder how many printers will do a short run on a full-plastic deck. I don't think he's really thought this through.

Here's what he says about risks: "... the decks will be printed and shipped by USPCC. This guys know everything about playing cards, so we have no reasons to worry about." It sounds like he hasn't even talked with USPCC yet. Getting through the USPCC process is not trivial. Again, it comes across as not really prepared.

Adding a court face to the tens? I know that some decks have photos or illustrations on every card. But turning just the tens into face cards ... doesn't seem like a good idea at all.

And finally, I'll admit that I'm put off by the poor spelling, typos, and fractured English. Not that I'm expecting perfection (I'm talking to you @JacksonRobinson :-), but this is pretty extensive and raises another red flag for me. I'm not sure which issues are typos, and which are real problems. He would do well to ask a friend to help out.

Great thanks for your reply!
I really pleased that you read our project's text so carefully. We will make everything possible to get rid of any ambiguity in our project's materials.

So, to the business:

You say: There are no pledge levels for Backer's Decks.(c)
We say: Check this out
-----------------
"SILVER FOX" – One Backer’s Edition Deck and one Winter Deck.
For Backer's Edition please add 25$ per deck to any reward shipped from Russia.(c) Project's text
-----------------

You say: I don't think he's really thought this through(c)
We say: Believe us, we did. We understand that it can be a short run, that it's a lot of work, but we knew it from the beginning of our project. If we couldn't manage this, we would never promise. The Backer's edition will be printed in full-plastic regardless of how many backers will pledge for it.

You say: It sounds like he hasn't even talked with USPCC yet.
We say: You can be sure, we did. It was a big and pleasant conversation.

We are sorry for any piece of unclearness in our materials as well as for making you think of us as of unprepared children.
But please, be sure that every detail of this project is critically judged and counted. We know what we can do and what we cannot do. And you can be sure that we will bo everything that we mentioned in our project.

Thank you.

I love this deck, I'm getting more of a last airbender vibe rather than game of thrones though! I would love this to extend into 4 elements.

LXandR wrote:-----------------
"SILVER FOX" – One Backer’s Edition Deck and one Winter Deck.
For Backer's Edition please add 25$ per deck to any reward shipped from Russia.(c) Project's text
-----------------

To be entirely fair that still isn't clear.

"For Backer's Edition please add 25$ per deck to any reward shipped from Russia" - This is taken from the part of hte page specifically talking about shipping for ADD ON decks.
"Silver Fox" is a pledge level rather than an add-on and states "Add $20 to ship outside the US", the implication being that shipping for US pledgers for the whole pledge (i.e. BOTH decks) is included in the price.

It's even less clear for international pledges - if decks are being produced in the US and Russia who qualifies as international? Would you expect internatinal pledgers to add on $20 as per the pledge level and another $25 for the russian deck? is $45 shipping for 2 decks really realistic for anyone? Do Russians get cheaper shipping for the Russian deck?

I dont want to be negative - but the organisation and pricing of shipping seems to be poorly thought out / explained on an awful lot of KS projects recently.

I cannot really catch what is confusing here.
1) Who is international. Kickstarter functionality tells us that international is outside the US, so why should we argue with that?
2) "Silver Fox" is a pledge level. "Add $20 to ship outside the US". And that's all. Shipping to US included. If you want one more backers deck - then add 25$ more.

I hope this will help to make it clear. Thank you! Every your update helps us a lot!

It was just that you quoted two different parts of your page talking about different things in a way that made it seem as though they were talking about the same thing...

Anyway - thanks for clearing it up.

I really like the 'hidden' character on the cards - it makes for a great theme!

Hello everyone!

We will update the project with our new artwork and materials as soon as we can. And this is a first update where we want to show you the new King of Diamonds design!
As we promised, it represents a traditional Russian king. You can see a Monomakh's Hat - a traditional Russian crown upon him.

The work with this deck does not stop even for a second!
Thank you!

Hello, everyone!
Unfortunately, our project's funding is going far worse than it was expected.
The only decision we can take is to cancel it for now. But don't be too upset. We are leaving to be back. We will continue working and come back to Kickstarter when our Winter Deck will be much closer to completion. It will happen in about 3 months.
Thank you everyone for your help.
If you want to stay in touch, you can follow our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ultramar ... 1758202825" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And be prepared to our comeback!

It looks bad when people cancel projects, you should have just let this one go til the end, wouldn't have made a difference and would potentially allowed more people to discover the deck and spread the word before the eventual relaunch.

vmagic wrote:It looks bad when people cancel projects, you should have just let this one go til the end, wouldn't have made a difference and would potentially allowed more people to discover the deck and spread the word before the eventual relaunch.

I agree. Many times I hit the "Remind me" button to notify me 48 hours before the end of a project, and even if the project doesn't look like it'll fund, I might pledge in order to hear about future projects from that creator. If you end it early, you miss out on all those people hearing about the relaunch.

Also, some decks have big come-backs in the last 2 days because of all those "Remind me" pledges. The Voyager deck looked like it wasn't going to fund, but instead on canceling it as he first wanted to do, the creator listened to all the people that said "Just let it run it's course, you may be surprised," In the end, it did fund.

gasp! I can't believe they just ended it! No warning!

ForTheSeekers wrote:gasp! I can't believe they just ended it! No warning!

Some people would rather quit than fail to fund, but unless there is some penalty in KS for failing to fund that I don't know about, I can't figure out why. Do they think a quit looks ok and a fail to fund is a bigger negative on their record? Personally, I think a fail to fund is less of a negative because it shows you stuck with it to the end. I don't much care either way if the project has been tried several times, but I do look for improvements and/or changes between iterations. If you do the same exact thing over and over there's little point to that. Listen to backers and others, improve the product, get more of it finished and presentable, then try again with a fresh perspective and more experience on where and how to market it!

The only reason to cancel funding is when the goal isnt set right, but then again not setting the goal right shows the lack of research and planning either way its a bad sign.