I agree that the playing card stock isnt the best, but itll take a few more pledges before I can upgrade it to a thicker paper stock and a better finish. The art is changing slowley for the better, as per my backers comments. Im interested in hearing your guys' opinions though. Also Im waiting on the samples from customizedplayingcards.com, if it turns out the cut is as bad as you guys say I have no problems switching.
The only way I can switch to uspcc however is if I get a pledge amount of around 5500$
So your complaints are of face card clutter, generall card stock quality, and the fact that its not exactly "steampunk"?
Also I dont know if youd give me this information but the reason why it has no "push" is because I dont know two thjings about marketing. I cant make a video either because I dont have the deck yet. Anyways other than social networking sites I stumped on how to market any advice on that would be great too..
No one wishes you bad luck in any way. I'm with Alex in that there were issues with the print quality and design aspects of the deck. As far as a "consensus", you're only hearing from those few of us interested in writing about the deck online - in other words, the minority. For all I know, your deck could be the most beloved thing to 90% of the members on this Discourse, but if they say nothing, nobody knows. I did notice a different deck back which was an improvement over the last one, but the whole "missing the theme" thing is still there.
This starts to scratch the surface:
http://www.steampunk.com/what-is-steampunk/This goes into greater depth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteampunkConsider this: why are the gears and practically everything else in your deck covered in rust? It reminds me of anachronistic depictions of the "Wild West" frontier town - it's supposed to have been built only recently, and yet looks like it's been standing for a hundred years or more. Who on earth would build a new town out of ancient planks? But they're often depicted that way because that how modern society over a century after the Wild West time period views those "ghost towns" - largely because that's what they look like today, not what they looked like back then.
What Victorian scientist would tolerate having rusted gears in his devices and inventions? They'd be polished steel and brass! Unless you're depicting what the Victorian era looks like from the 21st century, in which case, yeah, it would be rusted, but where's your theme then?
You need not ape Lance Miller's Actuators to make a steampunk design. Use gears, polished and new, and blasts of steam escaping from pressure valves, and various belt and chain drives - use those things you'd expect to see from that era. Not saying you are, but still. And forget the USPC/T11 Steam Punk deck. It's cute, but that's about it - it's not really steampunk.
By the way, cogs as jewelry is NOT something that would be thought of as steampunk in the sense that no Victorian character would wear them. They'd wear cameos, pocketwatches, monocles, pince-nez, gems with pearls - all those things we associate with the Victorian era/Wild West today. Now your mad scientist types would have some more complex hardware, like glasses with interchangeable lenses on hinges, heavy leather gloves, googles, a pocketwatch capable of predicting weather, things along those lines. Some of those might filter to the hoi polloi, but most people wouldn't be carrying them. Military officers might have complex prostheses to replace lost arms, legs, ears, what have you. The cogs-as-jewelry thing is a modern take on steampunk, just like century-old towns are a modern take on the Old West.
A few final notes: so you're aiming for more funds in order to increase the quality of the deck, and you're refining the deck's design elements to respond to the suggestions of your backers. This is good. But don't forget to take into account the IRS - they'll take money off the top before you see a dollar, and suddenly those dreamed-of upgrades are out the window. The associated fees imposed by the government, the manufacturer and other sources can cripple a project, and the smaller the budget you're working with, the less it takes financially to see it totally derailed.
Granted, this is your first project, but I suggest next time that you go big - make the project USPC-bound from the start. It would attract more buyers/investors. We have guys in this forum who only collect USPC decks, and some limit themselves to only the Bicycle brand.
