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Messages - Lukeout

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26
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Meeple Playing Cards
« on: January 27, 2014, 04:49:13 PM »
Quote from: Don Boyer on January 21, 2014, 02:10:44 AM
Look at what I found - an ingenious way to create a points counter using two playing cards...

http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/card-fabrique.html

This would be great to use your extra cards for, assuming they aren't spoken for yet!

Dan, those are crazy cool. Thanks for the tip! I was planning on publishing some game rules on the extra cards (a game I designed that's a twist on "chase the Ace") - but I think these may go over even better! Time for a backer poll....

27
Playing Card Plethora / What brings long term value?
« on: January 27, 2014, 04:44:31 PM »
I'm new to collecting, and I'm not interested in collecting for value so much as just enjoying all the decks. But I come from an industry of collectables and it seems each has it's own pattern for items that become valuable. The obvious ones are rarity (how many are made) and scarcity (how hard is it to get).

There seems to be a few additional ones in playing cards. Some seem to have built in tricks in the tuck boxes (I need to get some of those - would love some recommendations).

There does seem to be a a specific design aesthetic that seems popular for decks on release, but so many decks are released with that general aesthetic that it seems like it would be a minor factor in long term collecting.

I know in toys, some odd trends played out that fought against rarity - where super popular toys became very valuable later due to the high % of copies that were destroyed in play (early Smurf happy meal toys, etc...) That trend sort of started the "Mint In Box" collecting idea that seems to have taken hold with playing cards as well.

What feature do you think will make a specific deck of cards worth more in the future?

28
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Most Expensive Deck Opened
« on: January 27, 2014, 04:37:10 PM »
I'm new to collecting, but I open them all. My collection is more about using then storing in mint condition as I don't plan to ever sell any!

29
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Shards :: Playing Cards by System 6 and USPCC now live on Kickstarter
« on: January 23, 2014, 02:53:18 PM »
I think you cancel a project on KS when it's clear the project won't get funded. No reason to let it drag on - particularly if you are this far from making it. You can relaunch later (like we did with the Meeple deck), or just move on. I say this all the time on panels at gaming conventions, "The BEST thing you can do on Kickstarter is fail." You learn a bunch and sure you put your heart into it, but the real life damage isn't anything like it used to be in the pre-Kickstarter days where you also took tons of inventory risk.

Brush it off, try again and good luck to you next time System 6!

30
Design & Development / Re: Binary Deck - Early Development
« on: January 21, 2014, 10:15:53 PM »
Quote from: Justin O. on January 21, 2014, 07:19:52 PM
You could name one deck the 'True' deck or the 'I' deck and the other the 'False' deck or the 'O' deck..?

That cracks me up! Good idea. I like the I/O decks (and they I and O look like 1 and 0).

31
Design & Development / Re: Binary Deck - Early Development
« on: January 15, 2014, 12:12:51 PM »
Circuit boards is definitely something we might look at for texture, but I want to retain the flat design (that is all the rage in the tech world right now), so we'd have to concept it out.

The card backs actually say "Playing Cards" in binary in case you're curious...  :)

I really appreciate the feedback folks. Right now our focus is 85% on the Meeple thing and 15% on this, but I find that "slow cooking" stuff tends to work well for us as opposed to rushing to meet deadlines.

32
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Requiem Playing Cards
« on: January 14, 2014, 11:34:00 AM »
I love this deck for it's "all in" mentality and have tons of friends who will want it. I have kids in my house and it's a little too over-the-top for me personally, but full props for taking it "to 11" on these. I think he might have a small issue with the naked breast image on KS, but if he just doesn't put it in the campaign, he'll probably be fine.

33
Design & Development / Re: Binary Deck - Early Development
« on: January 14, 2014, 10:09:09 AM »
Quote from: Justin O. on January 13, 2014, 11:15:11 PM
Absolutely love this idea. I am your target market, I do magic, collect cards and love binary geekyness
They say there are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who get binary, and those who don't.

The solid color block isn't quite working for me, but I am so excited by the concept that it's a non-issue.
If you included the Unicode for each suit scrolling down under the pips that would add so much!!

Edit: added a picture of what I mean by the scrolling text. Similar aesthetically but if the numbers were the Unicode number for the suits I would really geek out for them. I originally thought that's what the text in the image was. Sorely disappointed to find out otherwise.

I like the scrolling unicode for each suit! We are using the unicode "font" for each suit as the pip...

We have a back design now that is essentially a binary code. It's early, but it leads itself to a 2-deck set as one would be the inverse of the other. After the Meeple went 1-back, I'm a little worried about launching a 2-back set again, but it just seems so right to have two "opposite" cards backs in a Binary themed deck... More thinking clearly needed. Here's the current back.


34
Playing Card Plethora / Re: 1 Color Relaunch of Meeples with Early Birds
« on: January 14, 2014, 10:02:30 AM »
Quote from: Don Boyer on January 14, 2014, 01:21:15 AM
You should tweak the home page a bit.  You mention two first names in the Challenges section of the page.  The average Joe Kickstarter won't have any idea who those two people are unless you tell them somewhere higher up, such as perhaps the first paragraph, "Hi, we're So-and-So and So-and-So, etc."  Because of some failed projects in the past, some people get wary when they see a company name and no individuals identifying themselves on a project.

Change made. I was hoping go keep it casual to first names as Geek Dynasty has done a KS project before and it shipped on time, and I am one of the owners of another company called Fun to 11 and that group has done 4 that all shipped on time or early. But there is no downside to putting our names earlier I guess!

35
Design & Development / Re: Binary Deck - Early Development
« on: January 13, 2014, 04:40:15 PM »
The target might not exist that's for sure. There are tons of tech geeks in the world, who would find using a deck of cards like this to be amusing as all get out. "Look, I've got a straight -  0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, 0110!" This will require me to point my marketing at totally different audiences (slashdot, think geek, etc...).

I'm not sure Kickstarter reaches that crowd at all, but I'm going to find out! One of the things that I really like about Kickstarter, is although marketing matters, the idea itself usually makes something work or not. I find it a really good place to try very different things.

I will say that one of the best parts about this target audience is that they are very very socially networked and viral, so IF an idea hits their fancy it tends to do really well.

Luke


36
Design & Development / Binary Deck - Early Development
« on: January 13, 2014, 01:49:28 PM »
Hey folks, I thought I'd share some early work on our next deck. Like the Meeple Deck, this is a mash-up of something we love and playing cards - this time to technology. Like the Meeple Deck, it's going to be pretty far outside the norm of collector decks. Much more of a concept/execution deck than a detailed/art deck. Our hope is to launch this deck in 4 months or so.

For those who don't know, binary is the language of computers - it's only 0's and 1's. It is also called "Base 2." That means that the "3 of hearts" is really the "11 of hearts". And when you get to letters, things go a little off the rails, as letters have 8-digits! Yea, I know it's geeky, but I'm a guy who wears that label proudly!

For a look, we wanted to go with something super clean - sort of like the more modern cel-phone design interfaces. We still have a lot of work to do on the royals (and probably the Aces...) to get them to fit into the theme, but here is some of our early cards. Would love some feedback! (which I expect to be highly polarized..)

Thanks!



37
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Meeple Deck Live on Kickstarter
« on: January 13, 2014, 11:32:41 AM »
Quote from: Don Boyer on January 10, 2014, 09:54:02 PM
Quote from: badpete69 on January 10, 2014, 08:39:42 PM
looks like a limited version of the deck is now live on kickstarter.  I did not start a different thread

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1590934883/meeple-playing-cards-super-limited-edition

I know - Luke did.  Hey, Luke - it's better to keep your deck to a single topic so it's easier to find info about it later one.

Sorry about that Don/folks, I hadn't picked up the one-thread-per-topic faux pas thing - my bad! Also, thanks for all the good advice, the new campaign is off to a much better start thanks to the advice I got here!

38
Playing Card Plethora / 1 Color Relaunch of Meeples with Early Birds
« on: January 10, 2014, 07:43:21 PM »
Hey Folks,
  Jordan and I pulled the trigger and cancelled the Meeple deck Kickstarter campaign that had two different colored backs. It was pretty clear we weren't going to make it to $12K. At the same time, we retooled the campaign as a single colored back and we just relaunched with a $6200 goal - something that we think we can reach. As everyone knows on this board, that number won't cover all of our expenses, but our plan is to sell the remainder of the decks at gaming conventions this Summer, so we're comfortable taking the financial risk.
  This also gave us a chance to take some advice from this forum and add early birds to the backing options - so if you didn't back before due to lack of Early Bird savings, then now would be a good time to check out the Meeple deck and save a few bucks.
  Thanks again to everyone on this forum for your excellent advice and feedback - it's been super helpful to Jordan and I as we take this journey!

new campaign link: http://kck.st/1dDIsxb

Luke

39
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Flamingo Playing Cards (KS)
« on: January 10, 2014, 01:11:03 PM »
Quote from: PurpleIce on January 08, 2014, 01:40:43 AM
I'm not too sure....but an hour skype session cost an additional $390.   :o

Oh...of course...it includes a T-shirt. That should balance things up a little

Zoinks! I don't think I pay my lawyer that much, and she's probably got $140K in law school debt...

40
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Different Deck - Playing Cards Reinvented now live on Kickstarter
« on: January 09, 2014, 11:19:27 AM »
Quote from: Don Boyer on January 08, 2014, 11:32:24 PM
I'm tired of typographical decks and I'm tired of faux aging.  How does faux aging fit this deck's theme at all, other than "hey, this looks cool, let's toss it in as well?"

Not to change topics, just a newb question. What is a "typographical deck"?

41
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Gold Seal Coterie Bee Deck now available for purchase; only 650 available
« on: January 09, 2014, 11:16:30 AM »
Quote from: Zenneth on January 03, 2014, 12:30:04 AM
Yeah, I feel sorry about that too...

Both Skull & Bones and Coterie Bee really proved the point that it's not a good idea to modernize or customize USPCC designs.

Their attitude has been fluctuating in the entire 2013, one point they said they won't print Coterie Bee and then later they said they have the permission to do it but need us to fulfill their requirement of the use of Brand and card back design, just when you finish the design according to their requirement and they said no again and released a version that's clearly based on what you have done.
 
We will resurrect the Coterie Bee in a different form, after all, it has taken me over a year to create different themes and different gaff cards for each deck in the entire series, can't afford wasting all these time and effort. Definitely not with USPCC though.

Do you know who you are going to use yet? It would be nice to see some non USPCC serious custom stuff done - particularly on the packaging side. Good luck with your resurrection of Coterie Bee!

42
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Different Deck - Playing Cards Reinvented now live on Kickstarter
« on: January 08, 2014, 03:37:04 PM »
I like these! Slick, different, and anything they give up in the way of across the table readability (or magic use), they more than gain back in clever and artistic in my book. Well done!

43
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Meeple Deck Live on Kickstarter
« on: January 07, 2014, 08:40:34 PM »
I actually have some ads running over there now!

44
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Legacy Deck - 4PM Designs
« on: January 07, 2014, 04:01:29 PM »
I agree that backers are not investors. I often say that backers take "investor risks without investor payout potential." Not so much for cancelled projects as there is little harm done to backers other than dashed hopes, but for projects that are funded and the creator goes AWOL.

Eventually, reputation will matter and we'll all get smarter. I can't imagine 4pm launching another deck project like this one with the same goal as no one will believe them. I know it feels like KS has been around for ever, but I still think the entire process is still having growing pains. I just wish folks wouldn't set underfund goals unless they are willing to take the risk all the way. On the game side, I've seen $50K goals for products that I KNOW need to raise at least $300K to make, but those creators are committed to putting the rest of the money in themselves if they have to.

45
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Legacy Deck - 4PM Designs
« on: January 07, 2014, 01:32:12 PM »
Quote from: BiggerDee on January 07, 2014, 12:43:19 PM
Exactly. While some projects go through the roof and can absorb some extra shipping costs (if they are small), most projects don't grab that much profit. 4PM thought it critical enough to use it as a critical reason to cancel the project. 20 cents on a deck isn't much, but bricks, uncuts, extras like poker sets, et cetera, would jack the cost in a hurry. Since most KS creators aren't saavy businesspersons, many are already on thin margins. Quite a few projects were emblazoned in controversy because the had money to print, but ran out before, or during, shipping. I can think of close to a dozen like this in the past couple of years alone.

Good point on the other "non-card" stuff too. I don't know what minimums are on things like chips, but T-shirts are almost zero margin on KS for most people.

46
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Legacy Deck - 4PM Designs
« on: January 07, 2014, 11:30:16 AM »
Quote from: BiggerDee on January 06, 2014, 02:37:36 PM
I'm currently backing 10 or so KS decks that haven't shipped yet. If they are hit with the new USPS rates like 4PM was anticipating being hit, they may be in trouble.

Shipping is such a big % of these projects, that an increase in deck price of $.10-$.20 really isn't a a big needle mover on the cost side.

As for stopping this campaign, it looks like the creator made an "underfund" goal as we call it in the KS biz. A goal that isn't enough to do what you want. Folks do them (all the time on the game side) on the belief that once you hit your goal, pledges pile on as stretch-goals are pretty exciting and attention grabbing. Folks like to back a winner. It's a dangerous way to do things, but business is risky.

Folks also keep forgetting with all their calculations on this forum, that KS projects have life after KS and that inventory has value. This creator might be worried about post KS sales if the deck isn't made at a more premium level.

47
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Meeple Deck Live on Kickstarter
« on: January 07, 2014, 09:48:31 AM »
Alrighty, so it looks like there is little/no chance of the Meeple deck hitting it's goal with two different card back designs unless something drastic happens. I'm thinking about canceling it and relaunching the concept quickly with a single back design so I can cut the goal in half. Has anyone done that before? If I go that way, I'll do a shorter campaign (hoping to get all the old backer to jump over quickly). I'd also relaunch with early birds both as a reward for folks who backed before when they come over and to allow a lower cost for folks who might be looking at getting in early to save a few dollars.

Thoughts?

48
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Seelie: Playing Cards with a Touch of Fairy Magic (KS)
« on: January 06, 2014, 08:38:09 PM »
Quote from: thecardcollector on January 06, 2014, 08:11:17 PM
They just posted an update making a bunch of excuses and offering 25% refunds which is bs and I doubt is even allowed by KS terms!

So the "backer only" update is "We are not shipping, how about we refund 25%"? - If that's true, then Wow... I mean Wow. That's crazy-bad. At $7,300 raised, I have it that they should lose about $1800 assuming they don't pay for art up front. That's bad I guess, but it's not terrible considering they should have tons of decks to sell afterwards. It's not like Faery stuff doesn't sell (even if it's not Froud or Jasmine Beckett-Grifith). Hell, even if they just remaindered all the rest of the decks to 3 or 4 on-line companies at print cost+shipping, they could have delivered. That's an epic fail.

Pre-KS times changed the way I think about these projects. I have no problem with setting a goal that doesn't break even upon delivery as long as I have confidence that I can move product afterwards. Before KS, I would take ALL the risk and print before getting any orders at all! I guess I've been lucky to have the cash-flow to make that work in the past or been able to raise the money, but it seems like this is just lazy. I have to think a few on-line shops would happily buy a few hundred of these decks for $2.50 a piece - if they sell 1000 that way, they are in the money (depending on art) and would have built up KS credibility.

49
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Kickstarter "Successful Failures"
« on: January 06, 2014, 08:22:28 PM »
I view KS like I view Ebay. It started for one reason (selling PEZ disposers over on Ebay), and then morphed into a tool that folks use lots of different ways. Ebay lets you do "non-auctions" even (buy it now). KS will have growing pains and sadly, they will never have the revenue of Ebay to invest in their tools and website. I've been to their offices and it still felt like a start-up when I was there about 18 months ago.

Some folks will run entire businesses through KS and I say "good for them!" Others will be normal people attempting to reach a life-goal, and super-famous folks will use it to skirt the "normal" way of doing things. Good for them all I say!

Eventually, the little folks will lose out on the % of eyeballs they can attract, but hopefully KS will grow the total number of eyeballs, allowing for the little guy to make it too.

As for rules, KS has frightening few of them, enforced in a less-than-consistent way. They do try to make sure that creators don't start a second campaign until they have proven they can deliver one. But once you prove yourself, they give you more room. Because I've always delivered on time or early, I can vouch for the fact that they give you more room to run.

50
Playing Card Plethora / Re: Meeple Deck Live on Kickstarter
« on: January 03, 2014, 10:09:07 AM »
Quote from: Don Boyer on January 02, 2014, 06:05:46 PM
Quote from: Lukeout on January 02, 2014, 03:47:23 PM

I'm actually working a game that uses the cards - printing the rules on the two extra cards. Can't announce anything yet as it's got an issue I need to figure out still.

Some folks over in the game space are creating early birds to give the feeling of a "deal that you have to act quickly on" then when it is about to get filled, they add a bunch more spaces to it. On the backer side, there are whole groups of folks who pounce on all early birds, and then 90% of them back out if the campaign doesn't hit a bunch of stretch goals. When spots open up on the "Early Bird" space it makes a campaign look really bad. That doesn't seem to happen on playing cards as much so I'm probably over reacting.

Seriously, whip up a game game - something with pieces and such, maybe a simple board.  It could even be printed on paper and rubberbanded to the deck or something, I dunno.  Just takin' some stabs in the dark here.

But I've never seen ADDITIONAL early birds get added after the first round runs out - they're early birds for a reason.

Game is designed now!, and I'll be play testing this weekend at a gaming/music convention called MagFest where I am a speaker (If I can get my car out from under all this snow..). The rules should fit on the two extra cards! The game right now is a twist on "Chase the Ace" - and if it's as fun as I think it will be, it'll be a nice addition.

As for the early bird trickery, they aren't setting up a new backer level, they are changing the limit. You can't alter backer level descriptions after one is taken, but you can alter the number available. So creators put up a "early bird" with 50 slots, then when 45 of them are taken, they raise the limit to 75 slots... I actually left a campaign that did this once I was so insulted. I don't think "marketing = trickery" when you have a product you believe in.

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