Demo Compo

Skip straight to the rules

Create an executable program that displays real-time rendered graphics and plays music. Show off the combined programming, musical and artistic skills of your team.

Screenshots from legendary demos released at TG through 17 years

Description (what is a demo?)

A demo can probably best be described as some sort of real-time generated music video. Usually a collaborative effort, a demo represents the combined skills of several people, featuring stunning graphics and amazing visual effects synchronized to a kicking soundtrack.

A demo is an executable program, coming in sizes from just a few single bytes up to tenfolds of megabytes when including all data files. Using technology like DirectX and OpenGL, making demos is both an art form and a technical display.

Intros

This compo is a combined demo and intro compo. Intros are in essence the same as demos, but written to comply with a file size limit. This introduces a whole new set of challenges for the creators, as sound waveforms, 3D model meshes and graphics usually take up a lot of the space in a normal demo.

Size-efficient code, microscopic software synthesizers and efficient compression algorithms are required to meet the strict size limits. Of course, the intro still has to be exciting, beautiful, and well designed.

Viewing tips

To fully understand the nature of demos, the best thing to do is to actually download a demo and watch it. Here is a list of both former TG winners, with some international classics thrown in for good measure. Most of these demos are made for Windows, but there's video links for the Mac and Linux crew:

• Camden Town by PlayPsyCo and Kvasigen

  Winner of the TG08 demo competition.

• Konami / Raze by PlayPsyCo

  Winner of the TG08 intro competition.

• Gamma by Outracks

  Winner of the TG07 demo competition, and also awarded the Scene.org Award for best soundtrack in 2007.

• Mupé by PlayPsyCo

  Winner of the TG07 intro competition, and also awarded the Scene.org Award for best 64k intro in 2007.

• Animal Attraction by ASD

  Winner of the TG06 demo competition, and nominated for the Scene.org Awards for best soundtrack and public choice in 2006.

• Meet the biots by Portal Process

  Winner of the TG05 demo competition.

• Lifeforce by ASD

  Winner of the Assembly 2007 demo competition, awarded three Scene.org Awards and nominated for three more in 2007.

• Stargazer by Orb & Andromeda

  Oldskool heroes unite to create a definitive candidate for 2008's best demo.

• Panic Room by Fairlight

  Scene legends Fairlight wins at Assembly 2008 with the best 64k intro of 2008. Possibly best 64k ever.

• Invoke by Still & Conspiracy

  64k intro from Breakpoint 08 with some nice focus tricks and a seriously glitchy soundtrack.

Rules

1. Hand-in

   Entries in the demo competition must be delivered through the web-based compo system as a Zip or Rar archive containing the executable file and all necessary data files and dynamically linked libraries (DLLs).

2. Deciding a winner

   The winner will be chosen by combining the results from the popular vote with a jury vote. The popular vote will account for 67% of the total score, and the jury vote will account for 33%.

3. Allowed platforms

   • Windows (compo machine will run Windows Vista, with latest Service Pack, DirectX and drivers installed.)
   • Linux (compo machine will run Ubuntu)
   • Mac (compo machine will run OS X)
   • Amiga (emulated)
   • Atari (emulated - or could be run on a real ST if you tell us in advance)
   • Gameboy Advance (emulated)

   Configuration of emulators (Amiga/Atari/GBA)

   For entries showed using an emulator, you are allowed to bring your own configuration file for the emulator. However, the demo crew has the final say in what settings the demo will be used (to make sure that settings reflect actual hardware. We will not allow 8Ghz Amiga500s).

4. Compo machine specs

   The compo machine(s) final spec is not ready yet, but it will be something along these lines.

   • Dual or quad core CPU
   • SM4.0 graphics card
   • More than enough RAM

5. Size limit

   64 megabytes. All data files will count towards this limit, in addition to the executable itself and required libraries not supplied by the OS (ie. DirectX will be pre-installed, BASS will not be).

6. Maximum playing time

   8 minutes (.. but your demo should be very interesting to justify being that long.)

   Try to keep up a good level of entertainment value throughout your production - remember that hundreds of people will be watching your demo, and they get easily bored.

7. Forced escape

   It must be possible to stop execution of an entry by one of the following actions:

   • Press the Escape button (Windows/Mac/Linux)
   • Press left mouse button (Amiga/Atari)
   • GBA.. well, we'll just turn it off if we have to.

8. No-go limit

   The compo will be held if we receive 3 or more entries. If not this compo may be combined with Wild (into Combined Demo/Intro/Wild).

9. General rules

   The general rules for the Gathering 2009 creative competitions apply to this compo.

Additional information

• If the entry fits in the 64k or 4k category, this will be announced when the entry is shown.

• Platform will be displayed when the entry is shown.

Deadline

The deadline will be announced later.

Prizes

Place	Prize
1st	20 000 NOK
2nd	10 000 NOK
3rd	5 000 NOK
4th	2 500 NOK
5th	1 000

See the Prizes page for an overview of the prizes and awards for all compos.

Getting started

Starter kits and tutorials

• C++ Tutorial - An introduction to the basics of C++ programming
• Demomaking for dummies - Tutorial and examples from the TG06 seminar in (OpenGL/C++)
• nehe.gamedev.net - Comprehensive step-by-step OpenGL tutorial (OpenGL/C++)
• directxtutorial.com - Step-by-step Direct3D 9.0 Tutorial (Direct3D9/C++)
• Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Microsoft's hobbyist game development suite for C#. Can also be used for demos.
• Frontend - The framework used in the TG09 invitation demo (C++)
• Collection of articles on coding for 64k intros from the website of Conspiracy.
• Source code for setup dialogs by Gargaj^Conspiracy (C++)
• BASS audio library - API for sound playback on Windows and OS X.
• in4k.untergrund.net - resource portal for 4k coding

Demotools

• .werkkzeug - Free demo making tool from the famous german demo group Farbrausch
• demopaja - Demo authoring tool from the demo group Moppi Productions
• a.D.D.i.c.t. 2 - Conspiracy's old demotool. Can not save executables, but can load old Conspiracy intros to examine how they are made.

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