Experience 2020 - 28 November

What is Experience?

A demoshow, where you can experience visually stunning computer animations, so-called demos (shortened from the word demostration). Demos are most similar to music videos, but contrary to a video, they're not pre-recorded animation files but executable programs, which - similarly to computer games - produce their output in real time. Demos vary wildly in style and mood, but one thing is common: they are amazing!

If you don't know demos, take a look

A demo by Musk, titled Searching through the Voids. Finished second place at Demobit 2019 party (Bratislava, Slovakia).

More about demos

Nowadays most demos are created for desktop PCs, and for Windows. Of course the faster the PC is, the better. Most demos require strong configurations with a decent CPU and GPU, similar to most AAA+ games. Another category of demos are called intros, these are limited in maximum size. Nowadays the most popular categories for intros are the 64K intro, where the size limit is 64 kilobytes, and the 4K intro where the size limit is 4 kilobytes, but a lot of coders find inspiration and challenge in creating an extremely small 256 byte intro. Of course the smaller the limit the bigger the challenge is, and it really shows the programmer's abilities when they can produce something visually stunning within these limits.

Eisenerz by LJ and Virgill, a 4KB intro placed 2nd at Evoke 2019 demoparty (Cologne, Germany).

What is the demoscene?

The demoscene is a community of people making demos and related productions and art. They mainly do this for the joy of creation, but some do it to learn new things, and at a few demoparties there are valuable prizes to win too. Not all demosceners are programmers. Some do graphics or animations, some are best at producing music. Usually demosceners team up in small demogroups to combine their talents.

Demogroups

Demogroups usually consist of 3-10 members, but the membership is not static, people join and leave groups all the time. The best demogroups are usually in friendly competition and rivaly with each other. Most long standing demogroups are famous and respected. They usually have their own logo and/or slogan, and they built up their "brand" in the community.

Demosceners

Demosceners are who create and enjoy demos, and visit demoparties and follow the events in the demoscene. It's a very diverse community with people from all kinds of age, gender, and profession, but most people work in IT or related fields. The demoscene is a great learning field, if you want to grow to be one of the best computer professionals, and find friends all across the globe at the same time.

The coder is the programmer, who'll prepare the backbone of the demo. To be a good coder, you need to have a deep understanding of some relatively advanced mathematics and a wide range of programming areas. In the early years - in the 80s and 90s - most demos were written in assembly, nowadays most demos are created in C or C++, but it's possible to write demos in almost any programming language. Some coders developed demotools, to allow people without programming skills to create demos.
Usually a graphician paints the pictures in the demo, creates 3D models and defines the design and general look, design, and theme of the demo.
The musician creates, well, the music and the sounds of a demo. Good music can elevate an otherwise average demo, while bad music can ruin an otherwise excellent one. Most demos have music from one of the electronic genres, but there are exceptions.
An organizer usually doesn't participate in demo creation. He's acting as kind of a manager - helps the communication between team members, puts some noise and PR up before a major release from the group, and last but not least, organizes a demoparty. As the internet usually solves communication problems these days, this position has shifted to focus more on party organizing during the last decade.

More information

Demoscene on Wikipedia
Watch some demos on YouTube
Download some demos on pouet.net
Find the nearest demoparty to you on demoparty.net
If you have questions, reach out to us!

The entries will be accepted on an online interface the week before the event. A link to this webinterface will be published here later.

The demoshow and the compo will be streamed online between 16:00 and 19:00 CET, Saturday, 28 November 2020. Check back here for stream availability before the event!

27/11/2020 23:59

Entry submission deadline

28/11/2020 15:30

Stream starts

16:00 - 18:00

Demoshow

18:00 - 19:00

Democompo

19:00 (est.)

Prizegiving, end of event

Democompo rules:

Only executables allowed. If you can, please attach a Full HD 60fps video of it.
Max. size 128 MB compressed, max. length 8 minutes.
Must run on the compo machine (i9, GTX 1080 Ti, Win10-64), if the entry is not running on Windows, you must send a video.

You can find the timetable (deadline, prizegiving) here!