Demoscene Compo? A Good Way Of Showing The Hardware Potential

[timofonic]

Hello.

I think one of the things Pandora needs is showing to the rest of the world how interesting the hardware features are. I think the best way of showing this in the practice, and I think nothing is better than demoscene productions in my opinion.

Are there any plans of making some interesting demoscene competition? If yes, will there be a few example demoscene productions with source code as example so others will be able to inspire on them?

I think GP2X and GP32 had some demoscene productions, but most of them were SDL ports of multiplatform versions of certain productions. It could be nice something exclusive using the DSP and the PowerVR inside

Regards.

 

[magicman5421]

That would be a nice idea, but it was brought up once before and the conclusion was that we needed someone to set it up and fund it. however, now with that new developer's fund, it is looking like a greater possibility. we'd need craigix&co to set it up though.

 

[fusion_power]

I like these Scene Demos, there are good ones for the GP2X, but I'm sceptical to. I can't remember that a good Tech-Demo ever turned into a Game or something like this. All these High Tech Demos usualy stay Demos and somehow nobody seems to use these effective and often high optimized techniques behind the Demos to make a impressive Game. Demos show us what a System can do....but I wish all this stuff, all the Coding Power would lead into a great game.
(I'm still waiting for a "KKrieger" Game based on these impressive 96K PC Demo years ago.)

 

[Snu]

sounds sweet, i absolutely love demos, and i bet some really amazing stuff could be accomplished by making full use of pandora's shaders.
im not much of a programmer, but i could definitely write some tunes (presumably in a module format, but mp3 would be easy too), and maybe help with graphics.

 

[imbored]

I like the idea, and think it would be great to split it up into categories as well, such as best use of graphics, sound, touchscreen, wifi, and so on, as well as best original idea, best port, best app, etc.

Just thinking of things that would really show off the features this device will have.

 

[socket]

I think this is a great idea. I think showing off different aspects of the hardware would be awesome. I'm talking like old school demo scene. Nothing that would remotely be a game. Like stated above, maybe broken into sections. Distributing with code would be awesome, too. I don't see any reason for "funding" as the demos would most likely be released by hobbyist devs who are learning the system anyway.

 

[cb88]

don't these compos sometimes have a theme ... or something that the programs should be written about (i know povray competitions do...(ima povray n()()b X.x ))... it could be a game compo... ie instead of just getting a few nice demos (which i do like btw) we would get a couple really nice games and the winner gets a prize...

I think fretsonfire was in a demo scene competition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frets_on_Fire ...yep that is right

so good games can come from these competitions and what could be more fun for a bunch of programmers than a programming party LOL

oh and guess what i just ran .kkrieger on my computer which would not run it when it had windows installed so wine (wine 1.1 dev) actually runs it better than windows LOL! I'm thinking that the reason it works it that X.org can basically swap video ram into system ram transparently.... since .kkriger REQUIRES 128mb graphics card and mine is only 64mb of course it ran slow (and the graphics were degraded) but it was fast enough to play it

 

[CyruzDraxs]

oh and guess what i just ran .kkrieger on my computer which would not run it when it had windows installed so wine (wine 1.1 dev) actually runs it better than windows LOL! I'm thinking that the reason it works it that X.org can basically swap video ram into system ram transparently.... since .kkriger REQUIRES 128mb graphics card and mine is only 64mb of course it ran slow (and the graphics were degraded) but it was fast enough to play it

lol, I remember a few years back I tried to run that on the crappy computer I had at the time--the loading screen took an hour and a half and then it went into a 3 second slide show before crashing. My new computer loaded it fast enough that I could miss the loading screen if I blinked too long!

 

[cb88]

lol too about a minute to load for me... and the fps was terible but it worked more than i could say on any windows Xp box i have tried it on with that little video ram

 

[barzoule]

fusion power: scene demos are NOT game demos or tech demos. the goal is not to grow further and become anything else. It can be seen as tech demos but it is also a demonstreation of creativity, artistic knowledge and musical abilities.. (ie, code art/design music)

some competition have grown big enough as to include indie game competitions (frets on fire) and some ppl had fun taking their 64k tools and engine to create a game (.kkrieger) but the demoscene is not about making games at all. (even if there is some overlaps and that some former sceners are now making games as a living)

anyway most uber-optimized scenes are usually big hacks and stuf you just can't do in a video game (either cuz it's interactive or because it so flashy and abstract you couldn't understand what goes on)

that said, i love demos and plan to do some. but i also planned to do it on gp2x and never got the time.

 

[cb88]

well even though i mentioned fretsonfire i surely didn't mean anything as bloated as it... I meant more like http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=12116

has decent music graphics and is also a pretty neat game in 50Kb ... they coder deserves a cookie

 

[cb88]

@batzoule what fusion_power was getting at is that few games incorporate the level of coding art that scene demos do... not that demos should necessarily become more but that games should become more demo like which is what most people would like anyway (from the fact that huge download = bad bad graphics = bad and thoughtless haphazard design (if you can call it that ) =bad )

for me most of the KDE games are pretty low on the quality charts... but that is what most people see in linux

some games inspire a scene of nostalgia or curiosity even amazement... take rubix a pretty small game but one of the favorites to demostrate... and it doesn't even need 3d hardware

lots of people don't even care what a game looks like what they care about it how fun or engageing it is.... ie most card games or mahjongg which i happen to like

what makes a truely great game would be a melding of all these qualities that make a game interesting impressive and a piece of art all at the same time. can i say that i have ever played such a great game? well... that is hard to say but they are indeed few and far between

I think that demoscene compo (by batzoule's deffinition) would be great but i don't see any reason to restrict it in any manner to just scene demos since many devs might only want to make game demos

perhaps the if compo went well a general camaraderie would develop among the devs artists musicians (where are you guys i know your out there with your trackers ;-) ) and just people with good ideas enough that they would feel good about working together on some awesome game titles.... now that would be cool

well i was gonna end my rant there.... BUT i have to say that i am appalled at how little is being utilized of modern hardware in making demos... for crying out loud the comodore only had 64kb ram and look at what it could do... we have a 600mhz overclockable cpu a DSP (is that overclockable?) and 128mb ram ... so one would thing that we could get 600 times more impressive demos ;-) than the C64 at the very least LOL

 

[PSyMastR]

I'm willing to host a competition if there is serious interest in it.

I don't know if anyone remembers it, but I hosted the community game contest for the gp2x. (Site still on my server here: http://www.psymastr.com/oldsites/gp2x/ )

 

[Sphinxter]

I'm guessing some pretty demos would not help fill the massive void of software for the pandora much. Could the effort be more constructively spent?

 

[cb88]

...well we might pull in more than we lose

 

[Snu]

I'm guessing some pretty demos would not help fill the massive void of software for the pandora much. Could the effort be more constructively spent?

this isnt necessarily about 'filling the void', but having some fun and learning some things about the hardware... and dont both of those things embody the very point of pandora?
and i would love to have a few demos to show off what the pandora is really capable of to my friends - getting something like Dreamchild running on pandora would probably open a couple eyes wide (i know its a bit old, but its still my favorite demo!).

 

[jaycee900]

What a great idea, i used to buy loads of Amiga PD disks of the best demo's around, i think its perfect to just limit it to demos to begin with, a games/other app could be done later on due to time needed on those, a demo comp is the best to show off a new system and really get the coders working hard to push the new hardware to see what it can do....great idea please make it happen!

 

[Guyfawkes]

The GBAX 2008 coding compo should be starting in a few months time (september/october) as Craig and myself briefly talked about it a couple of weeks ago and arranged a rough date.

One of the things I have been thinking about for this year is to change the prizes slightly so that less popular categories such as applications and demos get a fair chance of winning against a game or emulator. I have not spoke to craig about this yet, he supplies the prizes so its ultimately up to him.

What I am thinking is in addition to the top 3 prizes is to have one or more prizes for best application and demo if say games and emulators take the main top 3 prizes (which is likely). This way it seems fairer to me as we get a couple of apps and demos each year but it is very hard to judge against games and emulators, and I think this reflects in how many apps and demo entries we receive. Hopefully guaranteeing a prize for these categories will entice more entries.

Like I said I haven't spoke to Craig about this yet but I would like to hear any suggestions or feedback on how we can help improve the compo so if the original poster doesn't mind you can reply back here or PM me and I will start a new topic.

 

[efegea]

About the GBAX 2008, I would like to know if you can make an entry that is targeted for the Pandora but runs on PC Linux (better if it runs using the OpenGL ES emulator, if it's an opengl app)

Although I'm working on a GP2X game that can run ATM on my linux pc on both software rendering (Trenki's rasterizer) and OpenGL, perhaps I'll release it as multiplatform, but I have yet to decide if it is going to be the game I'll send to the GBAX2008 or if I'll work on another game, because I don't know if I'll have it finished for september/october..


Is it possible to know what platforms can we develop for?

 

[Guyfawkes]

The list is not definite yet but will mostly likely be GP32, GP2X, GBA, DS, PSP and Pandora. Possible platforms are iPhone and JXD series, depending if the judges have access to an iPhone (for me its unlikely) and if JXD gets working homebrew .

We can only judge the actual entry on the above platforms, so if you did submit say a game for Pandora and PC we can only judge based on the Pandora version as the PC wouldnt be a valid platform.

If we do start in September I would expect the compo to last at least 2 months so to give time for everyone to work on their entries (especially with the Pandora being new) so you would be looking towards November or December for the deadline.