You Are Now Earthbound Backpack

Donated by Fangamer

From Fangamer’s You Are Now Earthbound Kickstarter, we have a special pack of awesome Earthbound goodies! This backpack and its handy adventuring contents were exclusively available through a high-level support tier for the Kickstarter. This is a special sneak peak at what’s inside these packs…

The set centers around a cheerful yellow backpack, which is filled with ephemera from an Eagleland vacation (hotel slippers, postcard, trading cards…). Of especially beautiful and critical world-saving note is the blue Sound Stone! Take this backpack with you on your own Eagleland adventures and continue filling it with mementos.

The backpack, originally exclusive to Kickstarter backers, will be available at Fangamer.com in the future – they are still working on some further items to be added to the final product. In the meantime though, if you missed out on the Kickstarter this is your one place to get a backpack and start filling it with your own Eagleland treasures, so don’t hesitate to try and get your hands on it!

About the Sponsor:
Fangamer offers wonderful geeky clothing, art, and household goods of high quality and beautiful design. They are longtime supporters of Desert Bus for Hope, and are the skillful creative force behind the annual Desert Bus t-shirts and the Desert Bus Documentary Kickstarter shirts.

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. =)

Let’s keep this ball rolling folks, James has another Donation Drive headed your way. As we creep past the halfway mark of James’ shift, we’re hoping to explode with excitement on this Minecraft Kickstarter lot. 

This entire lot can be yours for donations of only $7.77 or multiples thereof. We will run this donation drive until 3:30 PM PST.

Oh Minecraft, that amazing thing that happens when you take out almost all the elements of a game except for gathering materials and then putting it together to make some really cool stuff. Who knew it would be so addictive, those darned Creepers ensnaring adult and child alike in their green, pixelated grasp? So, in days of yore, when Minecraft was on Kickstarter, Notch and his crew put together some really spectacular backer rewards like a Wind-up creeper toy, perfect for tormenting cats, and a Pig Bank, for all your spare change since you aren’t leaving the house anymore to spend money, because you just need a bit more wood…

contains (from this campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2pp/minecraft-the-story-of-mojang/description): 
– DVD signed by 2 Player Productions – $60 tier prize
– wind-up Creeper toy – $60 tier prize
– Poster signed by Notch – $250 tier prize
– Pig Bank – $500 tier prize

Tim Schafer will be calling into Desert Bus at 9pm PST on Wednesday, November 19th.

His career started at LucasArts in 1989, where he would become known for his work on Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango.

In July 2000, Tim founded Double Fine Productions and would become known for Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and Broken Age. Broken Age (originally under the working title Double Fine Adventure) garnered a lot of attention with it’s kickstarter campaign crowd funding over $3.3 million in 2012.

Most recently Costume Quest 2 was released, a beta for Massive Chalice was released (for kickstarter backers with the beta access pledge level) and Double Fine is working on a remastered version of Grim Fandango for the PS4 and PS Vita.

Double Fine Productions is located in San Francisco and strives for a commitment of making high-quality games that emphasis on originality, story, characters, and fun.

Have a question for Tim? Leave them in the comments below!

Paul and Storm will be calling into Desert Bus at 6pm PST Tuesday, November 18th.

“Borrowed”: from the Official Website:

Paul and Storm (Paul Sabourin and Greg “Storm” DiCostanzo) are known internationally and across the Internet for their original comedy music (often with a “nerd-ish” bent).

In addition to their own live performances, they are co-founders of the geek-oriented variety show w00tstock, along with Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage, and co-produce JoCo Cruise Crazy.

The duo’s original webseries musical, “Learning Town“, debuted on Youtube’s Geek & Sundry channel in January 2013. Also in 2013, their song “Another Irish Drinking Song” was featured in the hit movie Despicable Me 2, and in July had their guitar smashed on stage by George R. R. Martin (and deserved it). Their fifth full-length CD, Ball Pit, came out in 2014, and was the central item of the duo’s wildly successful Kickstarter campaign.

Have a question for Paul and Storm? Leave it in the comments below!

The Doubleclicks will be calling into Desert Bus at 3pm PST on Monday, November 17th.

Angela and Aubrey Webber are sisters who started their Youtube channel in 2011 with a song-a-week project that went on for 6 months. Since then the duo has continued releasing songs on Youtube and CD with songs such as “Nothing to Prove“, “Cats and Netflix“, and “Love You Like A Burrito“.

Just before the Doubleclicks were guests on the show TableTop in Feb 2014, they challenged themselves to write a song about TableTop in which they named all the games that had been played up until that point. They also wrote and performed a song for a LoadingReadyRun video called “Four PS4s“.

Angela plays the guitar, ukulele, and keyboard cat. Aubrey plays the cello. Known for writing songs that emphasize geeky topics they are found performing at conventions, events such as W00tstock, comic shops, game stores, and online.

In 2014 they ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for their latest album, Dimetrodon and 5 weeks of weekly songs. The campaign was funded by more than 4 times what they asked for. This overfunding unlocked additional weeks of weekly songs, the ability for them to purchase new video gear and gave Aubrey the chance to quit her day job so she could work on music full time!

Have a question for The Doubleclicks? Leave them in the comments below!