Samurai Punk is a small Melbourne, Australia based independent game developer focused on making games with love and care for the people that want to play them. Formed in 2013 they are most known from their extremely popular PC title Screencheat.

Screencheat is a split-screen first person shooter where everyone is invisible and you have to “Screencheat” in order to combat your opponents. With a mixture of local and online play and voice work from Desert Bus’ very own Graham Stark and Alex Steacy, Screencheat and Samurai Punk have become fixtures of the Penny Arcade Expo indie scene.

We’re extremely pleased and grateful to once again have Samurai Punk return as a sponsor for Desert Bus this year! Thank you for your support!

Desert Bus is so much fun as a video game, so let’s consider what Desert Bus would be like as a board game. Beej’s first art challenge of his run is to design your rendition of the box art for a Desert Bus (or Desert Bus for Hope, because, again, the game by itself is so much fun) board game. Up for grabs is a Portable Dance Party prize, so you can always party wherever you travel.

Kinda like this. Sort of.

Send your submissions to contests@desertbus.org with “Board Game Box Art” in the subject line. We’ll accept submissions until 5:48 AM PST. Be sure to include with your submission the name or handle you’d like us to use for you on air should your entry win.

Beej’s shift has begun! For our first donation drive, we’ll be giving away this Collector’s Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Donate $7.80 (or multiples thereof) for a chance to win. We’ll run this donation drive until shortly after 3:50 AM PST.

Update: To clarify questions on the chat, the lot doesn’t include a copy of the game. However, CaffeinatedLemur has pledged a copy of the game to the winner of this lot. Thanks CaffeinatedLemur!

During Jer’s shift, we challenged the community to come up with narrations for The Duck Army in the style of Werner Herzog. Here’s the top submission, from Adam:

As the last screams echo into the clinically clean chambers, the geese exhale a sigh of relief, finally thinking that at last, the torture is finally over and they can have sweet blessed relief from the nightmare they have suffered.

And yet, deep down, they know. They can see the sick grin on his face as he looms over them, the hand slowly descending down; ready to squeeze the life from them again, to elicit the inhumane screams from the torture he seems to derive some sick pleasure from.

But this time, this time after the squeeze, they see a new expression: Remorse. They see him walk away from the cage after this time, leaving them to suffer the agony without the callous observations of a maniacal visage looming over them, revelling in the screams.

Peace. Clarity. Joy. Emotions all felt for the first time as they finally accept that the monster has left, never to return to darken their lives, scar their children and destroy their families with his cruel nature.

If only they realised from the start, that the cage never had a roof.

Jer’s last giveaway of his shift is this lovely Pele’s Volcano and Lava Bear Fabric Art. Donate $7.77 (or multiples thereof) for a chance to win. We’ll run this donation drive until the end of Jer’s shift at 2 AM PST.

During the Temple of the Lava Bears D&D campaign, our heroes found many hymnals. Each cover had a beautiful picture of Pele, goddess of volcanoes and nature, on a volcano with a Lava Bear – a scene then illustrated by Devin “Featherweight” Harrigan. This fabric art replica of the original drawing was pain-stakingly re-created by cutting out the intricate design and carefully sewing the pieces onto a large piece of fabric. That larger fabric was then attached to an 11×14” canvas. The final appliqued piece will bring the spirit of the Pele and the Lava Bears to any wall in your gaming room with a unique and textured look.

Disclaimer: Not the actual duck army. But still hilarious.

It’s Jer shift, so we need something duck themed. A reprise of a challenge Jer ran a couple of years ago, we’re looking for the best narration of The Duck Army (as viewable on YouTube), as narrated by Werner Herzog. For inspiration, here’s a video of Where’s Waldo, as narrated.

Send your written narration (less than 250 words) to contests@desertbus.org with “Duck Army Narration” in the subject line. You’ll have until 12:30 AM PST to submit your writing. Also, please be sure to include in your email the name or handle you’d like us to use for you on air should your entry win.

What’s the prize? Winner receives a Desert Bus 9 T-Shirt. So, get narrating!

Blinkbyte studios is the team behind the adorably devious title Dinorawr!

Take a trip through the tale of the Dinorawr and help our young hero conquer the menacing mean jelly beans which have conquered the land. Conquer the portals to gain score, collect lush loot and equip the finest of beards the land has to offer. This UK based team consists of James Sandford, Grace Tree, and Lewis Andrews and at the time of this post are actively pushing for a Steam Greenlight release of Dinorawr.

We welcome Blinkbyte as sponsors of Desert Bus and are extremely grateful for the support they have given us!

We’re running a donation drive for a set of five (FIVE!) brand new Magic: The Gathering 2015 Commander decks. If you’re new to Magic: The Gathering, Commander deck games are a great way to get into the fun!

Donate $5.23 (or multiples thereof) for a chance to win! We’ll run this drive until 12 AM PST.

During Jer’s shift, we challenged the community to create their artistic renderings of the Alpha Flight team as superheroes, inspired by the Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight. Here’s the winning illustration, submitted by BeachGnome:

Check out the rest of the entries after the jump.