Frontier Decks - KS campaign question...

[Will Pitney]

Hey everybody,
So, after the last round of feedback, I went back and made a second deck to go with the first. (there were just TOO many cool animals that would have been left out) for more info about the decks, you can visit its Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontierdeck?n ... _new_likes

SO, my question is, how have others set their KS goals?
From looking at a lot of projects, they set their initial goal to just cover the cost of the cards... with no taxes, fees or shipping included (thousand$ of dollars).
My CPA buddy who's overseeing the numbers side of the deck wants to play it safe and have a starting goal for what everything costs at all stages.
Is there an unwritten rule that designers have to set their goal at a loss?

as always, thanks for the help

[volantangel]

Simple, almost everyone (who knows what they are doing) sets their goal at a level where they would cover the cost of the minimum run + the various other fees (shipping, taxes, KS, Amazon, etc) to ensure they do not make a loss. And that should be what you do as well, anything over the goal becomes profit =)

[Eoghann]

I would say to make sure you set the goal to cover printing the decks and shipping them out all over the world. You never know if the deck is gonna scratch by with just enough to print and leave you shipping out of your pocket. Best cover your bases from the get go. Others start at a lost because theve cultivated a fan base or promoted extensively. Or had endorsement.

[rjtomlinson1977]

You should always over esitmate your costs. With Civil Unrest I had to cover the costs of shipping which was several thousand. Luckily the after KS market sales for Civil were extremely strong and was able to pay myself back within a month. With Global Unrest I set the goal higher which helped (plus USPCC made me drop the Bicycle logo) which also helped because it's a high cost for what it is. In the end just plan and plan for the worst case senario. Many projects fail after the funding was successful because of poor planning.

[Will Pitney]

Thanks for the advise. With the launch of the kickstarter getting closer, I really appreciate all the help and advise y'all give.
So, we're setting up the kickstarter page soon. I'll look into what it takes to send a preview link so y'all can proofread it.
At this stage, its just a lot of little things left

[Eoghann]

Can't wait for this to launch!

[volantangel]

Will I hate to say this again but I really think the king and jack of spades should be swapped as kings are typically depicted as older and the jacks younger.

Another peeve I have would be the queen of diamonds in the new deck, I would like to see a more zoomed out snake due to consistency.

But overall very nice

[MagikFingerz]

Will I hate to say this again but I really think the king and jack of spades should be swapped as kings are typically depicted as older and the jacks younger.

Have to agree with this. I may have said it before as well, but where I come from the Moose is the king of the forest, just like the Lion is the king of the jungle.

[ecNate]

I agree with the J, Q, K hierarchy order. That should change.

I'm also pasting in here what I said over on PCF, just to allow people here to play off my thoughts:

I'm in for a deck, great artwork and I like the style and theme.The only suggestion I have is to do something with the snakes. I'm not a snake fan, but understand they serve a purpose in the history and thus likely belong in this deck. Beyond that though, the snakes don't look polished enough. That may have to do with the nature of their appearance and the detail can only be in the scales, but they don't look like they were cleaned up enough digitally. At first glance they look like somebody just did a sketch, scanned it in and slapped it on the card. Obviously you did do work on it, but they just don't 'pop'. Perhaps experiment with sharpening or darkening slightly, maybe adding some background detail? In looking at them closer I think the eyes and nose need to be brought out more to bring out those features more so they look as professional as the other animals.

So the suits are large mammals, small mammals, birds and snakes? That's pretty cool and I really like the footprints on the tuck, but a bit disappointed that theme didn't carry over to the cards. It would be neat to replace them as suits, but that would impact play-ability and would not be received well. I would like to see them incorporated if possible, perhaps as a crest/shield on the cards instead of the uniformly used antlers or elsewhere.

Overall I still really like it though, nice work so far.

[Will Pitney]

Thanks for the feedback you guys. I went back, changed a few things (including the moose) and have set up a preview link for the kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/21 ... n=9fd738ff" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

hope ya'll like it

[Jock1971]

Hi Will,
The Preview page looks awesome,can`t wait till Launch.
I noticed you`ve put the project in the Tabletop Game Category, you should change that to the new Playing card category.

[Mike Ratledge]

Already looks very good, Will - and quite professional!

[Will Pitney]

Hi Will,
The Preview page looks awesome,can`t wait till Launch.
I noticed you`ve put the project in the Tabletop Game Category, you should change that to the new Playing card category.

Thanks! Can't wait ether. Great catch, I just changed it - wonder how I missed that

[daveEdgerly]

Hi Will,
great looking deck. My only advice/input would be : have you submitted the tuck case design to USPCC yet? They have gotten very strict with their branded deck standards and I'm not sure if your use of the Bicycle logo will be acceptable to them. I think you have everything else in order as far as your campaign page goes. Looking forward to the launch!

[Will Pitney]

Hi Will,
great looking deck. My only advice/input would be : have you submitted the tuck case design to USPCC yet? They have gotten very strict with their branded deck standards and I'm not sure if your use of the Bicycle logo will be acceptable to them. I think you have everything else in order as far as your campaign page goes. Looking forward to the launch!

Thanks Dave, yes, it has been approved. I actually had to hound them about getting the vector template for the old style - but the whole approval process when really fast.

[Eoghann]

Campaign preview is looking great Will! Has a launch date been confirmed?

[Will Pitney]

thanks! Okay, we just got the last thing in place and are launching tomorrow 6/5 at 11am CST!

[rjtomlinson1977]

Looking good! I can't wait!