Yet another Bicycle Cthulhu on KS

[lameomaster]

Yup. All 4 Kings will be a variation of Cthulhu, custom courts, custom aces, a "big" and "little" joker, and custom Cthulhu themed pips.
$12/deck ($10/additional)
limited edition sepia tone decks (signed, numbered, KS exclusive): $25 ($20/additional)
Fluff: bookmarks, lapel pins, t-shirts, and hoodies!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tat2bito/cthulhu-bicycle-playing-cards-deck-hp-lovecraft?ref=recently_launched





EDIT: they do have some pretty funky looking T-shirts!

The great $25 deck.

[BastianBJ]

Meh... I don't mind another Cthulhu Deck, but I really don't like the design of the cards.. the pips looks good to me, but the court cards are way to cartoonish to me.. and I don't really think this cartoonish look of the court cards are good looking at all, I am kinda disappointed about this deck..

By the way, the back design looks kinda ugly.. I don't think it's done well at all 

[Don Boyer]

Meh... I don't mind another Cthulhu Deck, but I really don't like the design of the cards.. the pips looks good to me, but the court cards are way to cartoonish to me.. and I don't really think this cartoonish look of the court cards are good looking at all, I am kinda disappointed about this deck..

By the way, the back design looks kinda ugly.. I don't think it's done well at all 

I agree with much of what you stated and would add that the idea of switching the value and suit in the indices is impractical.  The best thing I can say about the deck is that the custom pips are sort of interesting.  But the Lovecraftian creatures aren't well-served by the cartoonesque art.

[MrMollusk]

WOAH NELLY
Think this theme's been used enough?

[Don Boyer]

WOAH NELLY
Think this theme's been used enough?

Hey, fourth time's the charm, right? 

Lovecraftian decks I've seen on KS so far:

• Bicycle Call of Cthulhu by Albino Dragon
• Bicycle Mythos: Necronomicon by 4PM Designs
• Bicycle Steampunk Cthulhu (I'm too lazy to look up who) - which scored a double-meh for also rehashing the concept of steampunk on playing cards in addition to Lovecraft
• and this hot mess...

I mean if it was something like another deck in 4PM Design's planned trilogy, that's one thing.  But this?  It really sounds like someone jumped on the bandwagon to try making a quick buck.

I'll grant you that his art background is in tattoos, but still - if he'd done this as serious Lovecraftian tattoo flash art a la the Alchemy 1977 decks, that would have been great.  But these images look better suited to a webcomic.

$25 for the rare sepia deck??  Not aftermarket, but MSRP??  I think he's smoking the good stuff, really...

[Pacis]

Started watching the first pics... terrible. Then I saw the pips.. great! If all was so good as the art on the pips, I would be definitely backing this up.

[MrMollusk]

WOAH NELLY
Think this theme's been used enough?

Hey, fourth time's the charm, right? 

Lovecraftian decks I've seen on KS so far:

• Bicycle Call of Cthulhu by Albino Dragon
• Bicycle Mythos: Necronomicon by 4PM Designs
• Bicycle Steampunk Cthulhu (I'm too lazy to look up who) - which scored a double-meh for also rehashing the concept of steampunk on playing cards in addition to Lovecraft
• and this hot mess...

I mean if it was something like another deck in 4PM Design's planned trilogy, that's one thing.  But this?  It really sounds like someone jumped on the bandwagon to try making a quick buck.

I'll grant you that his art background is in tattoos, but still - if he'd done this as serious Lovecraftian tattoo flash art a la the Alchemy 1977 decks, that would have been great.  But these images look better suited to a webcomic.

$25 for the rare sepia deck??  Not aftermarket, but MSRP??  I think he's smoking the good stuff, really...

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want a tattoo from this guy.
I don't know. His style seems a bit childish.

[Don Boyer]

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want a tattoo from this guy.
I don't know. His style seems a bit childish.

Some people go for the cartoony look in their ink.

[Xntrix]

I'm starting to think Kickstarter is the worst thing to happen to playing cards since... Karnival Dead Eyes? (Sorry - couldn't think of another deck that was a total design failure... unless you count Propaganda 'Turkey-Backs' in their baby-sick yellow...) Oh wait - I've got it...

I'm starting to think Kickstarter is the worst thing to happen to playing cards since Magic Makers started ripping off Ellusionist designs (Black Spider, anybody?)

You can cite T11's 'The Cream rises to the top' wire argument - but who the hell wants to deal with separating the cream off the other 90% of 'not-cream'. It only makes you realize that there is a heck of a lot of 'not-cream' out there, and it used to go straight down the drain, rather than peddled as 'I can't believe it's not Cream'.
You can buy cream pre-skimmed in a bottle you know - and that's how it used to be. Each release was Cream. Every now and again a 'Half'n'Half' would slip through - but you wouldn't get the fetid cheese that KS has been birthing of late.

I think I've labored that metaphor long enough - onto this 'hot mess' then.

Courts - Cartoony decks don't really do well, but I can see a sort of appeal to the Comic-Book crowd with these, so from that point of view - they're not too bad.

Aces, Backs, Box - No. Just No. Go away and do it again. My 7 week old son produces better artwork in his diaper than the atrocities that have occurred with this deck. In fact, if the Ace of Diamonds was orange and didn't have screaming mouths in it, I could have sworn the inspiration came from the half-assed bowel spray he did this morning.

I know that the deck designers drop in here from time to time, so I'm hoping the constructive criticism above assists them in what will no-doubt be the second or third funding effort for these... things.

It's a good concept - so good in fact, that it's been done numerous times - but at the moment - it's exactly that. A concept. When we design we take a concept, and hone it over a good 30 or so variations to come out with something polished. 

Maybe the designer should keep refining this concept, and for the time being stick to artwork that isn't going to be a permanent reminder of just how awful this art currently is - you know, like tattooing people.

-Jake.

[Don Boyer]

Jake!  Please, don't hold back - tell us how you REALLY feel... 

Your descriptions and comments - priceless.  Well spoken.

[sway]

I'm starting to think Kickstarter is the worst thing to happen to playing cards since...

I respectfully disagree with you, Xntrix.

Kickstarter may be one of the best things that ever happened to playing cards. Sure there are lots and lots of awful projects out there, but that is supposed to happen since everybody can take a chance. And that is the beauty of it. We're staring at a profusion of playing card projects and some of them are really really good - good enough to become personal favorites, I'd say.

KS is an awesome tool for consumers, who are now able to dictate which projects/decks they like and would like to see funded. And it's an awesome tool for designers, artists and indie companies as well. Kickstarter allows great visibility to projects and companies, and payments are secured by Amazon.

To try to keep it on topic: I like this Mythos thing and all, but this is perhaps the 4th lovecraftian-themed deck I've seen in less than a year. And yeah, the art sucks and it is very unlikely to get funded.

[Don Boyer]

I'm starting to think Kickstarter is the worst thing to happen to playing cards since...

I respectfully disagree with you, Xntrix.

Kickstarter may be one of the best things that ever happened to playing cards. Sure there are lots and lots of awful projects out there, but that is supposed to happen since everybody can take a chance. And that is the beauty of it. We're staring at a profusion of playing card projects and some of them are really really good - good enough to become personal favorites, I'd say.

KS is an awesome tool for consumers, who are now able to dictate which projects/decks they like and would like to see funded. And it's an awesome tool for designers, artists and indie companies as well. Kickstarter allows great visibility to projects and companies, and payments are secured by Amazon.

To try to keep it on topic: I like this Mythos thing and all, but this is perhaps the 4th lovecraftian-themed deck I've seen in less than a year. And yeah, the art sucks and it is very unlikely to get funded.

Yes, this deck is terrible.  And that's one of Jake's points.

If a design is great, his line of thinking is that a company somewhere will want to make it.  As with his description of T11's "The Wire" being a lot of not-cream being sold alongside the cream, KS deck projects consist of a LOT of chaff with a few kernels of wheat here and there, leaving the customer to sift through all that chaff.  I've been reporting on KS projects for a while now, and I've seen some amazingly "chaff-y" decks out there.  Worse, when a chaff deck actually succeeds in getting funded, they're often made by people with little to no experience with design or project management, putting it on shaky ground, often released behind schedule and sometimes even with compromises leaving the backer disappointed.  Simply put, they sometimes lack the polish of a professionally-produced deck.  If Ellusionist was being submitted all the KS projects for approval or rejection, for example, a number of decks would never have gotten made, and some of the ones that did get made would have a lot more work behind them and appear far more professionally made.

Not every KS deck is a steaming pile, but everyone here can find examples of ones that are.  Even ones that got funded that are.

This deck is a poor-quality version of a tired theme that had limited appeal to start with.  Some "designers" become too personally attached to their designs and are blinded to the deficiencies.  I have some background in film production, and one of the things I've learned as an editor and a cinematographer is that you have to occasionally "sacrifice your babies" - meaning give up the elements you really loved, like that oh-so-gorgeous shot of the sun rising over the skyline, if it doesn't truly add to the finished products (in the case of movies, doesn't move the story forward).  Inexperienced playing card designers are sometimes loathe to sacrifice the elements that don't work when they love them so much, and the end result suffers.

[Fanofyankees13]

I found Albino Dragon's Cthulhu deck to be significantly better than this one in every single aspect.

[Pacis]

Pips art is so unique. Too bad the rest is so terribly done.
And definitely concur with what Jake said.