Future plans

I came across this website while browsing the web recently and looking for something interesting to read. Mark Twain once said "he who is bored of the internet is bored of his own life" and true enough I've been feeling a bit fatigued recently. Maybe it is because I've just had 6 very intense (and enjoyable) weeks of concentration trying to start (and finish) our latest demo - for Assembly 2018!

Since Iconoclash (Happiness is around the bend, from 2010) you may already know that we've been to Assembly again twice to present Spin and Monolith. That last one was in 2015.
The new demo was surprisingly easy to write. It has been, by far, the most straightforward and painless experience among all our big demos (worst was Dreamchild and Lifeforce, the latter due to the sheer amount of work and collaboration with other team members, the former because I didn't know what I was doing).

At the moment I am very happy with the result and cannot wait to link with the music; and I will share some information with you, o loyal reader of this ancient blog:

• It's a long "megademo" with many vignettes/scenes, true to classic form and with a story to tell
• It is fairly fast paced, more so than Monolith or Spin in terms of scenes/min or action; which suits it very well   
• "0 polys" (but not 0 shaders!), there are no traditional triangle-based meshes but rather a combination of raymarching and particles. 
• I tried to make it colorful - there is a recent trend for grayscale demos which is very obvious and overused. Actually, grayscale vs color can be used as a story element itself
• No more SSAO !
• Lidar and other 3D scans mean that, despite my best efforts, the demo is very big in size, but still within the limits of Assembly open demo competition
• No idea about the music yet, but we'll try to disconnect it further from the visuals. Try not to have something happening with every cross fade and camera change. This should make our life easier when it comes to the fusion. And easier for your ears too. 

I will visit again, maybe post a work in progress or something. 

Other than that, all is good. If you come to DemoBit 2018 (a lovely party in Bratislava), be sure to catch another ASD and friends demo. And say hello. 

Still here?

Answer on comments. I may have something for you...

The end

I'm sitting here at Vantaa airport waiting for my flight back home, feeling very tired but also satisfied with my journey: it was probably my favourite visit to Assembly (although I wasn't there this time with any of my Greek friends). Many greetings to everyone I spoke to and the new people I met, especially Zden from Satori; man, I hope to see you again at a party!

I will remember our studio compos with Smash, Okkie and the other folks... it was a pity we didn't arm wrestle in the sauna, that would've been interesting. I bet I would win again hehe....

Now, the demo. Well, it is what it is. Love it, hate it, remember it, forget it... Iconoclash is done.


Nice talking to you through this blog. This is my last post! good night everyone.

2nd day at Assembly

Friday today and I had lots to do. On the field ground that is, throwing CDs and diskettes. My throws were ok, around the mark of my previous records but I'm not sure I'll get a prize... competition is getting stronger!

I've been involved in the 4k and 64k jury, which means that I have seen already all of these productions. I'm not going to spoil it for you, however:

• There is at least one production that will capture your imagination. Guaranteed.
• I was disappointed by the productions of two groups with famous names; one was going like slideshow, the other had very questionable design
• There are *a lot* of productions this year on both platforms. The session is going to take a long time to finish

Other than that, I had a very pleasant afternoon on the new boozembly hills. Spoke to many heros of the modern and not so modern scene and finally said a hello to Zden in person.

I gave my lecture which I thought was ok (the audience was probably a bit disinterested, or maybe they were just reserved or tired). Many thanks to my lovely wife for giving me her yoga mat... I had a lovely sleep!

Tomorrow is the big day. But now there is nothing else we can do, production already submitted.

Here at last

It is actually not that far from home; only 3 hours on the plane and another one on the bus.

First impressions: Assembly is always impressive. There is so much going on! I now have to relax a bit, and maybe try the showers/sauna.

Leviathan and amusic are still working on our production. Cool. I'll update this blog more often now that I'm in the dragon's den... come and say hello if you wish, I am at O3/3 ( but nobody knows what is the correct ordering of places up here, so... well, just come to the oldskool area, third floor 316 exit).


Oh and by the way: I'm made a clan called "oldskool demozz" (yeah, exactly) to play football tomorrow. Join if you have the proper shoes.... :-)

Stella's review of The wind under my wings and comparisons

I got Stella to do another interview after watching "The wind under my wings" (yes, she watched it without even twitching. Her attention span is, still, longer than us youtubers).

Notice:

• The total silence after my question "what was in this demo"
• Her making fun of my Greek accent (it was one of these rare occasions when I spoke to her in English, which she found quite amusing)
• What happens at the end of that demo? "Wow and colors"
• Her revealing that she likes both demos equally: wind and iconoclash

Here is the file.

Stella's review of Iconoclash

I asked Stella (my daughter, who is 3 years old) to watch "iconoclash" and tell us her opinion, in English.

Here is what I got out of her.