Design. Quite a powerful word, isn't it?

Stonda/Extended Mind

I've seen quite many demos in this year which do lack design a lot. But what makes people do demos like this? Is making them just showing off with stunning effects? Or is it just for fun? Built to get fame fast? You should design demos FIRST, then implement them. Although demos are usually always quite hard just to implement...

And it IS boring to watch some weird-looking 3D-scenario with simple BASSBOOM BASSBOOM BASSBOOM bgmusic without any syncs or any kind of responding to events on screen. I've seen too many demos like this... I'm not mentioning any of these demos 'cause it might lead to some flamewars (which are fun... but still).

If the talents of the coders or graphicians aren't so good... design some things which they could implement. Quite often design is the most important thing in a demo. Effects, music and gfx are also important things in demos but you have to use them right.

A classical example to mention in articles like this is Future Crew's "Second Reality". 2nd Reality is still (IMHO) one of the greatest demos. Maybe perhaps 'cause of great sync w/music and having at least some kind of design. Pulse's Sunflower is another great example of good design. A little bit (or a lot of) of originality, a theme and a good design will make a good demo. So, get your group's coder(s), GFXer(s) and musician(s) to make the demo at one place and start designing (if it ain't gonna work, take some beers). It's time to create some demos with good design. And then watch them over and over again.

"Watching the scene from above is quite a hard job for somebody but not for me!"

Stonda/Extended Mind
Toni Saarikko
stonda85@hotmail.com