Have you ever spent the week of Desert Bus for Hope going, “Man, I just don’t have enough to do.” or “I wish I could spend more time looking at video games.”

Nope?

Us neither.

But there are people who did! In fact, they decided to get together and spend the week of Desert Bus for Hope 10 engrossed in a Desert Bus themed game jam and they would like to invite you to join.

So, if you’re feeling a hankering to discover the nuts and bolts of game design, or maybe you’re a seasoned game designer and want an excuse to create something Desert Bus related, or maybe you’re just watching Desert Bus for Hope and are *gasp* BORED?!?!? (We forgive you, it’s fine. We’re all friends here.) Consider joining the Desert Bus Game Jam.

Who:
You. And other members of the DB community. Everyone welcome.

This event is fan-organized, so it’s not directly affiliated with us, but we’re super happy to promote events organized by our awesome community, and particularly those that involve creating something.

What:
A game jam. You join a team and together you make a game in a very short period of time. In this case, 3 or 6 days.

Where:
Like all good things, the internet. Specifically, https://itch.io/jam/dbfh10jam.

When:
Saturday, November 12 at 5pm EST for the first round and Tuesday, November 15, 5pm EST for the second. You can join for one or both rounds.

How:
Join at: https://itch.io/jam/dbfh10jam. If you have questions or concerns, discussion and answers can be found here: https://discord.gg/wJb5pg5.

Happy jamming!

3D Printed Hedron

Created & Donated by Carasibana

http://carasibana.deviantart.com

This marvellous glowing object is a 3D printed LED light up Hedron based on the Hedrons from the plane of Zendikar in Magic: The Gathering!

Hedrons are ancient stone monoliths found throughout the plane of Zendikar. When properly aligned, hedrons become powerful tools of binding. When this 3D printed version is properly aligned, it may or may not be a powerful tool of binding (it probably isn’t) but when turned on it will light up with a nice blue glow throughout, powered by six LEDs. Possibly it will bind someone to itself through mesmerized admiration…

The designs of the patterns that make up the Hedron are accurate to the papercraft Hedron version that Wizards of the Coast released.

Materials:
This was made with PLA plastic using a 3D printer, and is approximately 22 centimeters tall by 8 centimeters across. It is powered by two AAA Batteries, and held together with rare earth magnets.

Please remember that as this is a hand crafted, 3D printed item, it doesn’t have the flawlessly clean finish that you would find on a commercial product. Every part of this was designed, built, and finished by one person.

About the Artist:
Cara McNab (Carasibana) is a maker, a tinkerer, a computer technician, an amateur electronics enthusiast, a magic player, an artist (sketches and digital drawings!), a sci-fi aficionado, a goof and a cat fancier. She especially enjoys creative projects that use both physical and digital tools and materials. She has made things like a ‘working’ miniature Stargate, a custom designed and built portable hand held emulation gaming console, countless drawings and sketches, a Predator mask made with papercraft, fiberglass, and electronics. And of course, she designed and built a 3D printed light up Hedron from Magic The Gathering’s Zendikar.

Targaryen Chainmail Wall Hanging

Created & Donated by Katherine Bagdasian

Take what is yours with fire and blood!

Er, wait, we meant donate! For the Children! This banner of House Targaryen is made by linking together over 13,800 individual rings in the traditional European chainmail weave, using only two pairs of jewelers’ pliers. It’s made of metal, but drapes and gathers like a very heavy curtain. (The crafter is very thankful that neither fire nor blood were invoked while making this item, although it did take nearly 150 hours to create.)

Materials:
Anodized aluminum and bright aluminum rings, solid oak dowel w/ polyurethane coating. Other hardware pictured not included. Pick your own drapery brackets, hooks, or rings to match your decor.

Measurements:
Banner by itself is 19.5” wide and 35” long (50 cm wide and 89 cm long). Dowel rod measures 1” diameter and 28.5” wide (2.5 cm diameter and 72 cm wide). The whole piece weighs 4.6 lbs (2.1kg).

About the Artist:
Katherine is a lifelong crafter, dabbling in a variety of crafts and mediums (sewing, sketching, underwater basket weaving…), but chainmail and chainmail jewelry has been her primary craft-of-choice for the past 13 years. She is very happy to be contributing to the craft-along once again, and thrilled her work is a part of the big 10-year anniversary!

DB Crew Playmat

Created & Donated by Rose Nightshade

www.RoseNightshade.com

Want to remember the enjoyment of watching Desert Bus every time you need to break out a playmat for some TCG or gaming action? Sure you do! Who wouldn’t?! With this playmat you’ll have nearly the whole Desert Bus crew help you out casting all the spells or rolling all the dice ya need! Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Card Fight Vanguard, Tarot, classic Solitaire? Want a rad mat to roll your dice for your next D&D session? Flunging? Beej will back you up. (Probably. Maybe? He’s still not sure on the mechanics of the game???) Need to roll a crit so your party doesn’t wipe? Jer will help you out…? Okay, uh, maybe don’t look to Jer for help on that. Need to crush your opponent so badly they’ll fear your wrath forever more? Kathleen has got your back. Whatever your game situation, these chibi-fied LRR and DB crew will inspire you!

Image is fabric printed with black poly-vinyl padded back. Measurements: 14” x 24” x 1/8” thick (Standard MtG playmat size.)

About the Artist:
This amazing playmat is printed with the artwork of the talented Rose Nightshade. She has been moonlighting as a freelance artist available for commission for nearly a decade, but has been an artist since the moment she was allowed to doodle with something that could make a mark. She has sold her artwork at multiple nerd centric conventions in central Florida including Megacon and many local anime conventions (when she wasn’t running around in cosplay hanging out with her friends). Most recently she has been focusing on creating furry art, but still loves rendering art of many subjects; anime, pop culture, and cartoons being a few of her favorites. She has previously donated her wand-making skills to Desert Bus, and this is her first time contributing 2D art.

Desert Bus for Hope 10 begins in 100 days.

OR

3.28767 months

OR

14.2857 weeks

OR

2400 hours

OR

144000 minutes from this very moment.

Consider yourself warned.

The Cards Against Desert Bus prize will be making a return for DBX!

This custom Desert Bus themed Cards Against Humanity set will be back, only bigger, better, and QWOPier than ever. As before, all of the cards have been crowd sourced from the amazing Desert Bus community.

Did you see something in Desert Bus 9 that would be a perfect card? Was your favourite Desert Bus reference not already included? Well you’re in luck! Submissions are now open for this year’s set. Head on down to www.cardsagainstdesertbus.com in order to submit your ideas for the newest version of Cards Against Desert Bus.

Submissions will be open until 12pm PDT on July 31^st.

And remember, you may not be able to see him, but his name is _________.

2016-05-20 UPDATE: The campaign has concluded with us raising $129,412 (140% of our $92,000 CAD goal) and with 1956 backers supporting us. We’re gonna make a documentary! THANK YOU!!!

2016-05-19 UPDATE: Poster update!

2016-05-11 UPDATE: We have reached our funding goal! The Desert Bus for Hope Documentary will be made and we couldn’t be more excited! Deepest thanks to all our amazing backers.

2016-05-10 UPDATE: Check out our teaser trailer!

Original Post:
With our 10th anniversary(!) approaching, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on where we’ve come from, how we got to this strange and wonderful place, and what actually goes into making this unique community fundraiser we call Desert Bus for Hope.

We want to make a documentary.

But we need your help.

Bionic Trousers Media, the company behind LoadingReadyRun, has agreed to fund the first $30,000 CAD, but the remaining $92,000 CAD of the production costs we are asking through a Kickstarter campaign that we launched today.

If you’d be interested in seeing a Desert Bus for Hope documentary, take a moment to look over the project. If it funds, we’ll make the documentary. If not, the people have spoken. =)

Are you a maker of things?

Want to show off your mad skillz AND raise money for a good cause?

The craft-along for Desert Bus 10 is open for submissions! This means that if you have an idea for a unique, fantastic, handmade item that you would like to donate to Desert Bus 10 now is the time to let us know!

Details on the submission process can be found here.

All submissions must be received by June 30, 2016. Please expect a 1-2 week response time.

Here are some examples from the Desert Bus 9 craft-along:

• Cheeseburger Backpack
• Desert Bus Map Leather Playmat
• Boo Diddly Blanket
• Mario ? Black Cat Bed

We can’t wait to see what your wildly creative geeky minds come up with!

Today we lost a dear friend and founding member of Desert Bus for Hope, Bill Watt. We mourn his passing deeply and wish strength to his family and friends as we navigate our shared grief.

LoadingReadyRun has posted a tribute on their website, which you can read here.

Personal tributes have also been written by Jer and Ash.

Words are insufficient in these moments so, please, hug someone you love. Find a way to celebrate the gift of life. In doing so you will also be celebrating our friend and a life lived loudly, authentically, and unmistakably, Bill.

Love,
The Desert Bus Team

THANK YOU

As of the end of bussing this morning, we had raised $676,883.57 and had achieved a lifetime total of $3,112,329.72. This is more than we had ever thought possible. Thank you, from the bottommost depths of our hearts. You are, indeed, the most generous community we know.

We did it.