DB7 Hardcover Photo Book

Donated by Andrew Ferguson

The ultimate in Desert Bus memorabilia, this book is a professionally printed, full colour, hardcover treasure trove of Desert Bus 7 photos taken by official Desert Bus photographer Andrew Ferguson. Flip through the pages and re-visit Cam’s epic trip to the Gay Bar, Steve and Tally’s Star Trek-style shootout, Al Jazeera’s participation in internet silliness and a whole lot of dance breaks.

This book is one of only three hardcover copies that will ever be printed. It will look stunning on your coffee table or shelf, and provide a great opportunity to tell all your friends and houseguests about Desert Bus. With visuals!

Andrew Ferguson is the officially official photographer of Desert Bus for Hope, tirelessly documenting all the craziness, hilarity and feels that occur each year. During all those other weeks when Desert Bus isn’t happening, Andrew also does photography at conventions, concerts and other events, as well as portrait work. You can see examples of his other photoshoots on his website, www.goldengod.net.

We are pleased to announce that this year we will be partnering with VIATeC, the Victoria Advanced Technology Council, to broadcast Desert Bus for Hope 8 from their shiny, new facility, Fort Tectoria, in downtown Victoria. For our purposes, this space will be known as the Lunar Module.

Long have we lamented the smells, cold, and crampedness of the Moonbase come Desert Bus time, as we try to cram our small army of volunteers and mini-Everest of prizes into what is essentially a two bedroom apartment. While she has served us well, and though she continues to be an excellent home for LoadingReadyRun, she has grown weary of our presence and has thus birthed the Lunar Module. The Lunar Module comes equipped with such high class amenities as a fridge and heat. (This is actually a really big deal!)

No more will our Zeta shifters go hungry because we couldn’t store enough food in our tiny, tiny fridge.

No more will our beautiful songs be interrupted by the melodic flush from upstairs. (Though, I’m sure that will disappoint some of you. You people confuse me.)

No more will the sobs of our neighbours drown out the sounds of a 3am shout-fest with Toto.

Check out the Lunar Module!

This space will be our on-camera space, but expect it to look a lot different once we are done with it.

There is also a large off-camera work area for bloggers, Event Managers, and other desk-workers.

The downstairs also includes plenty of space for prizes, shipping, food storage and prep.

VIATeC serves as the one-stop hub that connects people, knowledge and resources to grow and promote the Greater Victoria technology sector. Fort Tectoria is VIATeC’s latest initiative to support the growth of the tech sector. It provides affordable space to local tech companies that require flexible terms and recognize the value of being close to other entrepreneurs and innovators on a daily basis.

We are very grateful for VIATeC’s generosity in opening up their Fort Tectoria space to us.

Yes, we will bring over costumes and props from the Moonbase.

Destiny Ghost Edition

Donated by Brittany Doran

Destiny! It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s the latest big addition to the universe-exploring, alien-fighting world of inter-galactic FPSs – a gorgeous game full of stunning scenery, blood-pumping firefights and Peter Dinklage’s sultry tones. This limited edition of the game comes with all kinds of great extras, and THIS particular limited edition box has also been signed by the Bungie team. Inside, you’ll find a treasure trove of goodies, including:

• Ghost Replica (with speakers to put yet more of Peter Dinklage’s voice in your ears)
• Limited Edition SteelBook™ case and game disc
• Guardian Folio
• “Arms and Armament” field guide
• Postcards from the Golden Age
• Antique Star Chart
• A unique Ghost casing
• An Exclusive Player Emblem
• An Exclusive Player Ship Skin

AND it includes the Destiny expansion pass. Everything you need to spend many more hours piping this gorgeous game into your eyeballs.

This item has been generously donated by Brittany Doran, who is herself a member of the Bungie team.

This year Desert Bus is changing our chat system. Instead of running our own IRC server, we will be using Twitch‘s larger and more stable chat network.

What does this mean for you?

• to participate in the chat you will need to register a Twitch account (reading the chat without participating will not require an account).
• If you wish to bid on live auctions, you must attach your Twitch account to your Desert Bus account so that BidBot can verify your bids as valid. To do this:
  1. Log in to your Desert Bus donor account
  2. Go to your Profile page
  3. Click the button to add your Twitch account.

  Otherwise, bidding works exactly the same as last year.

For those of you that prefer web chat over an IRC client, we will be using Twitch’s embedded chat on our site.

For those of you that prefer IRC clients over web chat, you can find instructions for connecting to Twitch’s chat here.

Subscriptions will NOT be required for anything.

We think this is a good move because:

• Twitch has a larger chat network which can handle load and attacks better than we can and should be more stable
• Twitch’s embedded web chat is more user-friendly
• Twitch can provide better access to the chat on mobile platforms
• We can utilize their team of engineers to help fix problems as they occur

As with any new venture, we understand that there may be some challenges, however, we feel that the benefits of the additional stability and ease of access that Twitch’s chat offers outweighs the risks. We will do everything we can to keep the Desert Bus chat that we all know and love running as smoothly as possible; it’s full of some of the most creative, inventive, and ridiculously silly people we know.

Desert Bus chat is the best chat, no matter who hosts it.

Raz Custom Figure

Created & Donated by Shaun Nakasone

This little guy really gets into your head. This custom 8″ figure is a physical representation (totally real, not a mental projection) of everyone’s favorite Psychonaut/circus performer Razputin from the Doublefine’s “Psychonauts”.

Disclaimer: will not enter your mind and sort out mental baggage.

The original 4″ munny vinyl figure was given additional hand sculpted elements made out of sculpey and Apoxie sculpt clay, the the whole figure was primed and beautifully custom painted with acrylic paints.

About the artist:
Shaun first started out making them as gifts for friends – mostly characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Team Fortress 2. He possesses a lifelong interest in video games, sculpting and customizing. Figure making is a blast but his least favorite aspect of figure-making? All the dust from sanding the figure – ick.

Castle Crashers Pink Knight Figurine

Donated by The Behemoth

From Alien Hominid to Battleblock Theater and more, The Behemoth is well known for great games with utterly adorable characters (they make you say d’awww even as they disembowel you). The delightfully darling, utterly deadly Castle Crashers Pink Knight is one such fellow. He wears his heart on his tunic and his enemies’ hearts on his sword. When he’s in the right mood, he might even ditch the traditional weapons and wind his foes’ intestines around a giant lollipop. This lot comes with a limited edition Pink Knight figurine and a stand that holds the knight and his assortment of weapons, including sword, shield, lollipop, fish, axe and mace. For added value and general awesomeness, the case has been signed & decorated by Dan Paladin.

UPDATED 2014-11-08: We’re still missing a few icons! Take a look at what we have left.

UPDATED 2014-10-27: We’ve crossed off the achievement icons that we have received submissions for. You can still submit for any cheevo; we won’t make any decisions until after the deadline, but we thought we’d let you know what which ones still need submissions. Thanks for all your awesome artwork! Keep ’em coming!

Use this image as a background to create your cheevo-specific image. Click above to see the full-sized image.

An example icon for the Banhammer achievement

Another example icon.
(It’s a tree.)

Cat-Panion Cube Cat Bed

Crafted & Donated by Lauren

Area and state regulations do not allow the Cat-panion Cubes to remain behind, alone and companionless, when you leave the house. You could just never leave the house, of course, but you’ve got to at least buy groceries occasionally. We have a solution though: you know who doesn’t need to leave the house? Your adorable cat! Your cat gets to sleep in the warmth of a Portal themed cat bed, and you get to add some geeky charm to your house – everyone wins! Don’t have a cat? Stuff a blanket inside, flip the cube over, and turn it into a footrest – all sides are decorated so it looks good no matter which way you flip it. Or wear it on your head as a sensory deprivation device (not recommended). Or get a cat (highly recommended)!

About the Crafter:
Lauren has been sewing since she was 7, and in the past she mostly used that training to make awesome Halloween costumes, but her crazy-cat-lady tendencies led her to pursue cat-based crafting. With the cat-panion cube finished, she’s hoping to find other geeky cube shaped references to turn into cat beds, and might even make one for her own two cats if she ever finds the time.

A note from Tally: Photos in memory of Idgie, who passed away in August 2014 at age 22. He gave the Cat-panion cube a thorough testing and was very pleased with its spaciousness and softness, and most displeased not to be allowed to remain in it.

Needle Felted Displacer Beast

Crafted & Donated by David Woehr

Adventurers got you down? Do you return from your nefarious exploits only to find your horde of ill-gotten gains plundered? Don’t despair, get yourself a displacer beast! Made from the finest wools and polymer clays, stabbed thousands of times into shape with felting needles over a foam base and semi-poseable wire frame, this extra dimensional monstrosity is ready for all your mauling needs! Perfect for the home, office, or your subterranean death maze, your troubles with noble-minded busy bodies will be gone before you know it.

About the Crafter:
David Woehr has been sculpting for the better part of the last 20 years, and has been felting for the last six. He is a graduate of the New York State College of Ceramics, and spends most of his time building monsters out of anything he can get his hands on; ranging from wool felt and polymer clay to feathers, bones, and fur.

So Long, Egon Print Signed by Dan Aykroyd

Created & Donated by Ash Vickers

Fans everywhere were saddened by the news of Harold Ramis’ passing earlier this year. Our friend Ash Vickers drew an exquisite piece of tribute art as a fond farewell, art that became incredibly popular and made large parts of the internet teary. The art was never available for purchase (and never will be, Ash has declared), but a handful of prints were made for charitable purposes. We have two of those here at Desert Bus, and this is one! Numbered 1 of 15 and signed by the artist, this print is a poignant reminder of fond movie-watching memories.

Due to Ash’s magical powers of awesomeness, this print is also signed by Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd.

About the Donor:
Ash Vickers is the exquisitely talented artist and half of the writing team (along with her brother Steve Dengler) behind the webcomic Megacynics. A longtime friend of the Desert Bus crew, Ash is often begged, cajoled and bribed into drawing all manner of crazy things, and her skills grow more and more impressive with each passing year. Ash has been doing comics and illustrations for a decade.