February is cram-packed with Breakthrough T1D Play goodness—from a Steam sale with deep discounts on 50+ games, to our sixth annual Raid for Research relay fundraiser, to an all-star Dev Diaries lineup. Plus, meet a T1D dad who has juggled his way into our hearts.
Game Over, T1D! Steam Sale: February 13–20
For the next week, you can support Breakthrough T1D while saving up to 85% on a bunch of hit games from Skybound, Atari, Cyan Worlds, Limited Run Games, and more. Following the sale, each participating company will make a donation to Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF). Last year this sale raised over $200K!
Not sure which game to buy? Members of our community will be streaming games from the sale throughout the week. See the lineup here.
Raid for Research: February 21
Now in its sixth year, our annual Raid for Research relay returns on Friday, February 21, with twenty hours of nonstop fun. Ten members of the Breakthrough T1D Play community will each stream for two hours before passing the baton to the next fundraiser, in a madcap attempt to raise $25K before the clock runs out.
Our Raid for Research sponsor, Abbott (maker of the FreeStyle Libre 2 and 3 systems), will match donations during a portion of each charity stream during the relay. The event kicks off at 4:00 a.m. PT / 7:00 a.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. GMT on Twitch—see you there!
Upcoming Dev Diaries: Hexarchy, Tetris Forever & realMyst
As a program founded by parents who work in games and have kids with T1D, Breakthrough T1D Play has deep connections to both the diabetes and game development communities. We celebrate these connections in our Twitch series Dev Diaries, where we go behind the scenes with people who worked on our favorite games.
Over the next week, we have three special Dev Diaries streams planned with people who worked on games in the Game Over, T1D! Steam sale:
- Hexarchy is an action-packed deckbuilding strategy game created by John White, whose daughter lives with type 1. Today at 1:00 p.m. PT / 4:00 p.m. ET / 9:00 p.m. GMT, he’ll join us to chat about life as an indie dev and T1D dad while we play Hexarchy multiplayer with the community.
- Tetris Forever is the latest interactive documentary from Digital Eclipse, a studio dedicated to preserving video game history. Friend of the Breakthrough T1D Play team Chris Kohler returns to Dev Diaries on Sunday, February 16, at 11:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. GMT to dish the dirt on Tetris in an interview that promises to be at least as much fun as last year’s.
- Myst is an old favorite of the Breakthrough T1D Play staff, but we only recently learned that Karl Johnson, lead programmer of 2014’s realMyst Masterpiece Edition, lives with type 1 diabetes. Join us Tuesday, February 18, at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. GMT to hear his war stories while Emily relives her childhood and Nukes explores Myst island for the very first time.
And in case you missed it, our recent Dev Diaries stream with Sims creator Will Wright is a must-watch! Check out the VOD here.
Streamer Spotlight: TheKoolEagle
TheKoolEagle’s son was just fourteen months old when he went into DKA on Valentine’s Day 2019. Though TheKoolEagle had a friend with T1D growing up, he knew nothing about its day-to-day management and was thrust into a stressful new reality of caring for a baby with type 1.
Later that year, looking to connect with other T1D parents on social media, TheKoolEagle stumbled onto Breakthrough T1D Play (then called JDRF Game2Give) after seeing a tweet from fellow streamer AverageSiege. He welcomed the chance to use his streaming hobby to help his son and signed up for our first-ever Twitch fundraiser during National Diabetes Awareness Month.
He’s been a valued community member ever since—offering advice and support to other T1D parents on our Discord server, entertaining us with us his silly antics on Twitch, and raising more than $16K for the T1D research and advocacy that helps give his son a more normal childhood.
“Fundraising for Breakthrough T1D is incredibly personal for me,” TheKoolEagle says of his involvement with our program. “Knowing about the medical advances that have occurred in the past decade took so much stress off of my family, but that is only the beginning and more work must be done.”
A natural performer who taught himself to juggle at age nine, TheKoolEagle started streaming in 2017 just hoping to have some fun and make people laugh. His charity streams are endlessly entertaining, with incentives that have included eating scorpions and tarantulas (hey, they’re zero carbs!), dressing up in full clown costume, sipping pickle soda (yum?), shaving his beard into mutton chops, and of course juggling… sometimes with fire!
Through it all, he’s shown his determination to create a better world for his child and millions of other people who live with T1D. “Raising money for diabetes research is possibly the most important thing I do,” he tells us. “I want my son to see a day where we cure diabetes for the masses, and I want to be part of that.”
We’re glad you are, Keagle! Hear more of this dedicated dad’s story in our recent T1D Tuesday interview.
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