Making Tracks - Episode # 1
This is a project that I think has tremendous potential. It is also a project whose project page on Kickstarter is very colorful, and contains lots of visual energy.
So, why is this project only making tracks, instead of being Squatch Kicked?
Honestly, this is one project where the decision could have went either way. Ultimately, though, I opted to list this project under the making tracks category for a couple of different reasons.
Periodyx has some very colorful, dynamic, and visually energetic artwork associated with it. Yet, on the project page, itself, the artwork has been shrunk down, reduced in size. This isn't an uncommon with Kickstarter projects, by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, reducing the size of the art invariably also ends up reducing the amount of visual punch that the artwork contains.
Ironically enough, the website associated with the project has the individual cards depicted in images. Why some of these images at the larger size were not inter-spliced into the project page is anybody's guess, and they are well worth being included.
Take the example of the Plutonium card, for instance.
The character has a nice mushroom cloud exploding from his head. Visually, that translates into visual energy. hell, it's the personification of it. The character's facial expression, his over-sized teeth, his clenched fists, they all work in tandem to create visual impact. The cards are personalities in element form, and this lies at the very core of what imbues them with a charm and a personality all their own.
The cards are very colorful, and color translates into high doses of visual energy, where these cards are concerned. Plus, the various elements have been humanized - depicted with expressions and emotions and as active entities. So, why shrink them down in size? It seems elemental, to me, and one of the basic purposes of having this site and of authoring articles like this one is for others to learn, particularly people who are brand spanking new to creating crowd funding projects of their very own.
The cards, themselves, are educational. They are quint-essential learning devices. Also, they make learning fun. When I was younger and studying the elements, all that we had to draw from was that damned old boring ass periodic table. This stuff right here, these character-adorned game cards, these things have crowd funding juice.
I've included several different examples of the Periodyx cards to better underscore a point - that the game's creators grasped a central tenet of this game's design. Namely, that the stars of this game are the elements. The project video acknowledged as much.
What about that project video, though?
My, oh my, oh my!
The project video speaks of bringing "the elements to life, to give them some energy, to give them the attention they deserve." Yet, the video, itself, is lacking in energy in its advocacy of the product. The video is informative, certainly, but that is not the exact, same thing as possessing energy in the delivery of one's spiel for their project.
The video also states, "These lively elements have been locked away inside a boring periodic table chart, for far too long." The individual game cards, themselves, don't look boring. Indeed, the game as a whole doesn't look boring. But, the audio contained in the project video comes across to me as a rather boring delivery, all things considered.
Take this card game and a standard periodic table of the elements into a classroom, and which do you think that kids would gravitate toward? It would be a no-brainer!
So, in spite of the project page's current shortcomings, I definitely think that this Kickstarter project is both making tracks and is on the right track.
If you get a chance, drop by the project page and check it out for yourself. This project is off to a strong start in multiple different areas, to include the amount of pledges, the number of backers, and the number of shares. I think that this project will do very well, and it is a very strong contender to meet its funding goal.
Project: Periodyx: An Elemental Card Game!
Project Creators: Terry Miller and Sheri Robinette
Kicktraq Link
Kickspy Link
Periodyx discussion on KickstarterForum.Org
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