In the Beginning...

MTG Cardsmith started as a simple way to make custom Magic cards online. Since 2011, it has steadily grown; featuring 5 different card generators, member accounts, forums and custom card favorites. Our small team working nights and weekends on the site can only accomplish so much, and the community deserves much more. We're seeking pledges to help us get a design that matches the growing size and community of the site and assist in funding the development of new, exciting features.

What We Need & Why

We're seeking $9,000 in funds to split across the following three major areas:

• Find a designer to assist with a new site design and style guide, to build a responsive layout that will play nice on mobile devices, and give MTG Cardsmith a more professional look. This will require the majority of the funds.
  
• Finish development on Custom Sets per account, no more multiple accounts necessary to organize your cards. Funds will be used to pay for more development hours so we can launch this feature quickly. If funded, expected delivery: Summer 2015.
• Purchase an upgraded web server and additional hosting. This will allow us to focus our energy on the areas above, and allow for greater system stability for all members and guests.

With your donation, we are one step closer in delivering the absolute best online MTG card generator available. A new design will greatly improve the site's standing in the Magic community and be reflected within each member's account. Our ultimate goal is to have the site be completely self-sustaining financially, and if we can make improvements in the areas above, we are well on our way. Personally, this has been the result of hundreds of hours of work. I love what the site and the community have become - and I want to see it continue to flourish.

Risks & Challenges

Unfunded: If we are unable to raise the total goal, this campaign will have failed, and we will not receive any proceeds. In that case, we will do our best to continue bootstrapping the project. Ultimately this means slower turn around on new features, cutting out some of the more challenging features, and a much longer time-span on delivering a new site design.

Funded: Now the real work begins! Our first priority is going to be wrapping up and releasing Custom Sets for all members.

Simultaneously, we need to find a designer and begin scoping the new design. Risks involve finding the right person/team in the correct amount of time, and hiring someone who will follow through on the work. Then we need to take all of those assets and re-wrap the site's existing code and card-generators with the new face. We are estimating this process to take months, but hope to have everything ready to launch (including new features) by the end of 2015 / early 2016. Challenges will be finding the time to do so, and may involve hiring additional help to hit each milestone.

Shipping the playmats comes with its own set of risks, including production time, final artwork, and shipping costs. We've done the best we can to prepare for these things ahead of time, but realize there are other factors out of our control.

Other Ways You Can Help

In addition to pledging any amount, you can really help us spread the word about the campaign, to find as many backers as possible. Use the sharing tools to send this campaign to other magic players or card creators you know - help get the word out on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. 

Thank you for your support, we could never have made it this far without our growing community of Magic players and custom card makers. We look forward to delivering the next tier of custom card generators!