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

This folks is what happens when you can't decide on a theme for your deck. The court cards aren't bad but the back design isn't good.

that deck is all over the damn place. I appreciate the ridiculousness.

Other than the runes confusing the hell out of me on the 10 o clubs, I like it a lot. And the back design. Hopefully that's just the first draft and it will be revamped.

Ninjas would obviously win.

Looks like a cheap version of Nat Iwata's work.

We have been waiting for this for a while, he just forgot the fifth suit - undead skull.

Oh look another deck you can download the image files and print yourself. No printer, artwork isnt too bad, but no thanks.

Hey, so I am the creator of this deck and I just wanted to let you all know the input you all have been giving is very helpful and appreciated. I do plan on listening to popular opinions and altering the deck/rewards etc. to fit them best I can, but the overall theme of the deck will remain the same…sorry I didn't want to just make another mono-themed deck that would most likely copy something that has already been done. You can check the kickstarter page for updates that I am posting to address comments, concerns etc. In a short summary I do plan on changing the back of the cards and am currently trying to figure out the best and most preferred way of producing/printing the deck as I have limited experience with this. Thanks!

Mike Ratledge wrote:We have been waiting for this for a while, he just forgot the fifth suit - undead skull.

That'll be part of v2, along with Steampunk folk, Cthulu guys and some fantasy barbarian type folk.

Hi Barley, welcome to the forum! I think you can get a lot of useful advice here, many of us are playing card collectors , and many others are deck designers who have successfully printed decks in the past. I like your artwork, and I think with some revisions here and there and research on your part about various printers, what it will cost you, etc, I think you'll be able to succeed. It may not work out the first or even 2nd time, but you have the talent, now you'll need some research and persistence to make your deck a reality. Good luck.

Damn - I was really hoping for this when I saw the topic!.

I need help with the back design...Ideas: I'm thinking of doing a 4 way mexican stand off or fight although this is going to be very tricky to make a mirrored image. Do the cards need to mirror exactly? (AB/BA) or can it have 1 of each theme in each corner like it is now? (AB/CD) another option is having 4 or 8 weapons from each theme or just a crazy intricate mirrored hodgepodge of the 4 themes.

Looks like a few updates on the KS page, so I'll be keeping an eye on this. What is really needed though is clarity on who the printer is and more changes to improve the tuckbox and back which apparently are planned. I like the art and variety and always appreciate having custom and non standard pips on the number cards. I would suggest going with MakePlayingCards for the printer and then using USPCC or Legends as a stretch goal, but in reality you may have to just keep MPC for your first deck.

PROJECT UPDATES:
3/4/15: Project Launch! It’s been a slow and rocky start but extremely helpful. With little to no experience in printing/shipping and card culture on my part this project has some holes. But the comments are being listened to! There have been a lot of negative reviews about the card back so it is going to change. Suggestions or example pics? The overall theme of the deck is a little scrambled but I wanted to make something different, something that makes people say things like "Ninjas would obviously win." Rather than just another uni-themed deck. I’m wondering if people like the unique individual “trinket” numbered cards or would you prefer traditional suits? My printing and pricing plan is still pretty ambiguous and I'm learning there are a lot of companies to go with and some are preferred for various reasons. So which should I go with? I set my prices high for this reason as a sort of safety net in case my lack of experience gets me in trouble. To clarify my early bird discount was my way of saying that when/if I can lower this safety net, the first backers who were willing to show support in its polishing stages will get an extra discount. I'm not sure kick starter has the tools for this which may lead to me restarting the project with it more polished (and yes I will notify if and when this will happen.) Thank you for all the help and input!

3/5/15 Need help with the back design...Ideas: I'm thinking of doing a 4 way mexican stand off although this is going to be very tricky to make a mirrored image. Do the cards need to mirror exactly? (AB/BA) or can it have 1 of each theme in each corner like it is now? (AB/CD) another option is having 4 or 8 weapons from each theme or just a crazy intricate mirrored hodgepodge of the 4 themes.

BArleyandHops wrote:I need help with the back design...Ideas: I'm thinking of doing a 4 way mexican stand off or fight although this is going to be very tricky to make a mirrored image. Do the cards need to mirror exactly? (AB/BA) or can it have 1 of each theme in each corner like it is now? (AB/CD) another option is having 4 or 8 weapons from each theme or just a crazy intricate mirrored hodgepodge of the 4 themes.

If you want to make a two-way back with all 4, try a box style mirrored. If it's not an exact mirror, someone will find it and point it out.

Cbkimble wrote:

BArleyandHops wrote:I need help with the back design...Ideas: I'm thinking of doing a 4 way mexican stand off or fight although this is going to be very tricky to make a mirrored image. Do the cards need to mirror exactly? (AB/BA) or can it have 1 of each theme in each corner like it is now? (AB/CD) another option is having 4 or 8 weapons from each theme or just a crazy intricate mirrored hodgepodge of the 4 themes.

If you want to make a two-way back with all 4, try a box style mirrored. If it's not an exact mirror, someone will find it and point it out.

So like (ABCD/ABCD)? With all of them on 1/2 of the card and then mirrored?

I think AB/CD could be acceptable if you can make the two halves as similar as possible, ie only difference being the outfit of the two people. Hard to say for sure without seeing a mock-up. I don't think ABCD/ABCD would work well though (if it'll look like what I'm picturing in my head), sounds like too much stuff in too little space.

Maybe if you simplify it by creating an icon for each "suit persona", then they'll just be circular elements on the back design (which works well, e.g. Tally Ho Fan Back).

MagikFingerz wrote:I think AB/CD could be acceptable if you can make the two halves as similar as possible, ie only difference being the outfit of the two people. Hard to say for sure without seeing a mock-up. I don't think ABCD/ABCD would work well though (if it'll look like what I'm picturing in my head), sounds like too much stuff in too little space.

Maybe if you simplify it by creating an icon for each "suit persona", then they'll just be circular elements on the back design (which works well, e.g. Tally Ho Fan Back).

That sounds alot like the current design I have with the compass rose and 4 heads. Which would save me a lot of work if I can still use the circular icons already made up. Is the problem with the back color or design? because color is pretty easy to change.

Seems like this guy doesn't even know who's going to print with the cards. Seems like he is going to use Printer Studio, which btw isn't that great in my experience, but he has a $10,000 goal which is enough to print much better cards.

I was thinking of something similar to the Bicycle Comic Playing Cards deck.

I like the idea, he maybe jumped the gun with the kickstart before really investigating where to print, but he's in the right place to ask for advice.

It's not just the color, the back lacks some excitement. I'm no card expert, but the design needs to look good in a fan. Without symmetry it's going to look weird. If you're going with borders, they should be thin enough to showcase the card artwork - but usually that artwork is a little "more". There are already decks on great cardstock that have a nice border and brown back fan.

Personally I would scrap the idea of having the back be a picture that makes sense, and just make it a stylistically cool. How? No idea - I'm a programmer not an artist.

Can be four not bad decks, actually.

BArleyandHops wrote:...I didn't want to just make another mono-themed deck that would most likely copy something that has already been done...

And you decided to quadruplicate that effect

BArleyandHops wrote:... currently trying to figure out the best and most preferred way of producing/printing the deck as I have limited experience with this...

The best part of this ACTIVE Kickstarter campaign with the specified $ goal.

Might as well cancel and restart once he figures out what he's doing in terms of back design and printing. It's not going to fund at this rate anyway.

BarleyAndHops wrote:... Thanks!

I fixed the name CaPiTaLiZaTiOn error and added you to the Deck Artist group.

Enjoy! (if I screwed up the name case, let me know...)

Artist needs better 'shrooms, more orange in his barrel, 'sploding puppies or something. Maybe all the above?

There are professionals in his field, be it left or right.

Personal opinion again but...

I don't know about the current general consensus. And even I when I first saw this thought Oh god where are the Zombies and the werewolves and the vampires.

But you know what. The idea has grown on me. Fair enough to say just pick one. But he has a point. There are zombie decks out the wazoo. There are pirate themed decks. But the idea seems silly initially so there are not decks like this. So that's one positive.

Second hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs. Wands, cups, swords, pentacles. These are all different. The Arcana deck Chris did was flawless, (Damn near sent me into bankruptcy too ) and although the theme was solid all the courts were different. As they should be. Everyone wants them to be new, different, custom. Yes they are different themes. But not really. They are only different because we don't generally see them together anywhere. But when people mix up genres you can get some pretty cool stuff. Without sci-fi/space mixed with cowboys we would not have firefly. And Kill Bill was a defined concept of east verse west (There's an idea for a deck, east Vs west. Cowboys and ninja) So I think the name is terrible but the idea behind it had definitely grown on me.

On another positive that artwork is pretty good as well. I quite like this, but I guess its my taste which is of course subjective.

Obviously this deck was launched too early though not knowing the printing costs, fulfillment costs etc. That scares me off no end. Its the no.1 reason projects fail to fulfill. Poor financial planning. But its a learning experience and no-one would be upset to see the cancelled and relaunched when the budget is in order. Although I think its safe to say that the goal would be enough to fulfill this so I don't actually think this would necessarily fail if it did fund. But the obvious organizational issues are still concerning.

All that aside there is a time it gets too crazy and the different pips on all cards is a massive turn off for me. On first look I actually thought oh look those fish are pretty what suit are they, wait wasn't the hearts something else??.... Oh...

So yes I think this deck needs a lot of attention. But it should definitely not just be written off as a stupid idea. The world was flat and flying was only for birds once upon a time. The fantastic is built on stupid ideas

Awesome response hudson and thank you, you nailed it on the head with where I was coming from with this project (firefly was an amazing concept/show and I wish there was more of it.) There are a lot of amazing artists out there and I wanted something about the theme of this deck that was different and unique so I could have some hope of standing out. This project will be relaunched with better printing/fulfillment plans and with the deck more polished. I'm a young winemaker who does graphic art in his free time and this is my first stab at a kickstarter project. I figured if my art was solid enough how hard could it be to figure out the rest? I'm going to take a bit of time and do my research, ask around and see what people think/want from the deck and then go again. You're the first person to be rather opposed to the pips on the number cards, most(4-5 people?) other people have liked them. Not doing them could save me a lot of work but I'd be worried about my theme (or hodgepodge of themes) getting lost without them, having only 3 cards per suit with art. But if it makes the deck too confusing then maybe they should go. I would like to get more opinions on this.