The demo scene is dying, but that's alright

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Is the demoscene really “dying”?

  • Many commenters say “the scene is dead” is a long‑running in‑joke; parties, releases, and even new sub‑awards for “new talent” continue.
  • Evidence cited: active parties (Revision, Assembly, Lovebyte, smaller local events), new platforms (PICO‑8, fantasy consoles), and people bringing their kids who also create demos.
  • Others argue it’s more like model railroading or stamp collecting: niche, aging, never mainstream, but still there.
  • Some strongly dispute the article’s “dying” framing, pointing to thousands of attendees and ongoing competitions; others think it has clearly shrunk in cultural relevance.

What the demoscene is (and how it shifted)

  • Several readers didn’t know what the demoscene was; others explain: real‑time audiovisual programs (“demos”) often made under tight constraints (size‑limited intros, single executable, no assets).
  • Early demoscene roots in cracktros and copy‑parties (game swapping) are described as hard to explain to younger people.
  • Historically, it focused on exploiting hardware to the limit (C64, Amiga, Atari ST), later PCs; now PCs are so powerful that sizecoding and artificial constraints are seen as the interesting part.

Evolution, offshoots, and modern analogues

  • Game jams and indie games are seen as spiritual successors for some; others mention live‑coding, shader shows, TouchDesigner/Notch, PICO‑8, TOPLAP, dwitter, and “HTML in the Park” as contemporary outlets.
  • Some feel much of the demoscene’s technical talent has been absorbed into commercial game engines, VFX, and AAA pipelines, where innovation shows up as SIGGRAPH papers rather than standalone demos.

Barriers, documentation, and generational issues

  • Complaints that retro platforms (especially Amiga) lack beginner‑friendly modern documentation compared to consoles; newcomers face scattered old manuals and lore.
  • Older sceners reminisce about the 80s/90s and acknowledge that today’s teens have different incentives and hardware expectations (gigabytes of RAM, no interest in being ultra‑lean).
  • Some argue cultural conformism and commercialization (big tech, AI, VC‑driven priorities) have weakened “dissenting” subcultures in general, including hacker/EFF‑style activism and the demoscene ethos.