Competitions

Demo: realtime animation without sizelimit is where your production will go if it's an executable and produces visuals, music and a lot of breathtaking effects. All platforms go into this category and we'll tell the audience about the platform background of your entry.

• Your entry has to be a realtime animation, no pure animation-players allowed
• Sizelimit: none
• Max duration: 10 minutes
• Platform: any. Please bring your own hardware if your entry doesn't run on our hardware
• Voting categories: technical difficulty, implementation of music and graphics and atmosphere/creativity

Just like demos, but with size limitation, this category features all your awesome 4k and 64k intros. It your passion to squeeze the most out of a few bytes? Go ahead and show us how you break the limits of what we've seen before.

• Your entry has to be a realtime animation, no pure animation-players allowed
• Sizelimit: 4k/64k (please specify in Entry Infos)
• Max duration: 10 Minutes
• Platform: any. Please bring your own hardware if your entry doesn't run on our hardware
• Please try to hide the mouse cursor in your entry using the techniques described here.
• Voting categories: technical difficulty, implementation of music and graphics and atmosphere/creativity

Animation movies have been a part of the demoscene since a long time. You might have a whole story line for a demo in your mind, but you're no programmer? Get your animation software started and create that production anyway. In this category, we show everything that pre-rendered and non-interactive.

• Allowed Formats: DVD, DIVX, MPEG, AVI or MOV
• Max duration: 10 minutes
• Voting categories: technical difficulty and creativity

The Overhead Projector competion is a long time Demodays tradition. We've seen everything that can be done with an OHP except for what you have in your mind! As long as you're not using OHP-LCP screens, you can let your creativity flow and show off with your life performing of your best analouge demo.

• We provide an OHP and you do the production for it
• Max duration: 6 minutes
• You're allowed to do whatever you want, except using OHP-LCD screens (or similar techniques)
• Take care with liquid - the OHP must be dry after your entry was shown.
• There will be material available at Buenzli to create an entry, but you're asked to prepare everything at home.
• Bring the music you want being played during your performance with you as an MP3 or OGG file. Don't use commercial music!
• Voting categories: quality and creativity

Anything goes - as long as it's interactive! Enter this competition with the computer game you've been working on since you started programming. Beside games, everything that involves human interaction is extremely welcome.

• Size limit: none
• Anything that is in any way interactive
• Pure mods for commercial games are not allowed
• Platform: any. Please bring your own hardware if your entry doesn't run on our hardware
• You may choose if you want to play your game/interactive demo by yourself or with/against an organizer :-)
• Voting categories: technical realization, implementation of graphics and sound and creativity

Demoscene graphics get created with a very wide range of techniques. No matter if you're into pixel graphics, photoshop painting or raytracing - this category is for you. As a graphics artists, you want to show the demoscene what you can do by changing the color of pixels, don't you?

• Allowed Formats: JPG, GIF or PNG
• Max. 1280x720 (beamer limit)
• Please provide at least 3 work steps
• Pure scans/photographs are not allowed!
• The entries will be shown with the latest version of IrfanView
• Note that raytraced, photoshopped and pixelated pictures are in the same competition.
• Voting categories: quality and creativity

Originally invented by Pro/Nuance, a long time Demodays organizer, this category had a good impact to the demoscene. Show the audience what awesome still graphics you can render just out of a 4k executable. Where are the Shader wizards? This competition is also known as 4k Procedural Graphics Competition.

• Show one impressive still image, solely generated by your application
• Display the image in fullscreen
• Size Limit: 4Kb (4096 Byte) executable.
• The precalculation will be done live, so try to optimize your code.
• All platforms allowed.
• Resolution: 1280x720 (projector resolution)
• A screenshot of your still image has to be provided.

Note: If you are not sure about the precalculation length please contact us in advance. If possible, provide a status bar (not enforced) and a "write-to-disk" option (for example TGA, not enforced).

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Music has a long history in the demoscene and there's no proper demo without a soundtrack. Tracked music is traditionally made in a tracker using a lot of samples while for streamed music, you can go and use any technique or tool you want. Chipmusic speaks for itself, and while we have dedicated support for SID tunes, we also accept every other chip tune format as long as it's supplied as an MP3 for us to playback.

Streamed, tracked and chip entries will be in ONE compo - if there are too many entries, we will preselect them.

Rules for Tracked/Chip Music:

• Allowed Formats: MOD, S3M, XM, SKM, IT, MT2, MTM, RNS & XRNS (Renoise), SID
• No external VST-Plugins allowed (for Renoise: Standard player will be used)

Rules for Streamed Music:

• Your tune has to be MP3/OGG-encoded

General Rules for the Music Compo:

• Players: XMPlay, MadTracker, Renoise, Winamp (free available players)
• Your audience wants to be able to dance to your music, so make it rock!
• Max duration: 4 minutes
• The tunes will be played on a standard soundcard, SID will be played on a C64
• The format will be clearly shown on the big screen
• Voting categories: quality and creativity

You are a passionate photographer? We want to see your retouched photo in this competition. Why retouched? We want our audience to recognize what you are able to produce with your camera and your mad Photoshop skills.

• Take a picture and retouch it
• You may only use the image-material of the source image, no other material
• Provide the original photo and some steps
• Voting categories: quality and creativity

This competition is there for all those animation artists in time troubles. Contribute if you do not have time to create a full fledged non realtime production, or if you have a stunning or funny idea for a 10 second animation loop.

• Max duration: 10 seconds
• Allowed format: GIF, DIVX, MPEG, AVI, MOV, Flash
• Your entry will be looped for 60 seconds
• Animation only, no music! (background music will be played during the compo)
• Voting categories: quality and creativity

Surprise, surprise - this competition's topic will be announced during the party (usually on Friday, early evening). What you create is solely up to you - be it a demo, music, graphics, animation or a stage performance, everything is allowed as long as it's related to the topic.

• The topic will be announced at the party.
• You'll have enough time (about 24 hours) to contribute with your own fast made entry.
• Voting categories: quality and creativity