pouët.net

Nice „Monty Python“-style.

at least before facet and critikill tried to hide their ai usage with fancy dithering, but after drama they just went "you know what fuck it we don't care" and smeared this lazily converted bullshit. not even that much of an ai hater, but this is just stupid and tasteless

A mashup of Amiga-themed AI generated imagery without an idea.

Flying Circus! Very fun demo.

Ignore the AI ​​haters because the day is not far off when they too will use it.

I divide demos into three categories, one, I want to watch again, two, it doesn't thrill but has moments, and three, I want it to end as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this is the third category, eminently tiresome

funny style, cool music too

Just a bunch of scaling, rotating and translating 2D clip-art images moving around the screen, no clear theme, but the music is great!

to present this before the last one...
Monty Python style not helps.
stupid AI art, ugly converted photos.
some FX is ok, but not saving the prod.

nice

Great demo, nice music and very funny!

Fuck you and your "AI" trash.

Not made by human hands.

Even when disregarding the ai slop it doesn't GO anywhere, it just keeps spinning and zooming stuff without any progression or connection to the music (which is fun for a while, before becoming tiresome).

I like a good collage demo, but this isn't it.
I suspect it'll eventually be a thumb-down due to the graphics, but I'll watch it on real hw first to see if there's anything there that'll save the piggy.

fuck off ai

I don't like thumbing down Amiga demos, but please stop the slop. I especially like how the octopus has three rows of suction cups on one tentacle and another tentacle with suction cups on alternating sides. At least pretend to care?

Should have been disqualified with extreme prejudice. If you want to insult the scene, please do it elsewhere. We don’t want your slop. Fuck off and don’t come back. People like you killed the Amiga scene, and we will never forget or forgive.

Also fuck you ham.

@grip: I'm shocked you didn't say anything about the mustache on that alien mollusk.

@uncle-x: Thank you for your kindness. This is what I love about the scene, the kindness and camaraderie.

I could forgive AI use for particular images, but the whole demo has a feel of being made by AI, as it doesn't seem to have a soul, idea or style to it. Just compare it to Smokebomb to feel the difference.

What they said. The tune by Soda7 suits the demo very nicely though.

AI trash for the trashcan. SoDa7s tune deserved better.

i hope this ai crap stops soon, it's an insult to the scene

Disgusting and disrespectful use of AI art. I feel a bit sorry for the tune which was really nice!

Slop.

N°1 The Larch

wow i really hate this ai slop. I was able to get some kind enjoyment out of the music but the shitty generative "art" just made me sad and did a disservice to the music :/ have some dignity for christs sake.

SoDa7 - very good track.
I'm not really a fan how AI was used there though.

dunno what's worse... the bucketloads of AI artwork or the naivete (i hope?) to even make and release something like this. at least not a lot of effort went to waste here ;)

I think that it is much better than a lot of 3d so popular nowadays

Not my fav, but it is funny anyway...

Thumbs down if you are against the use of AI in prods is ok. But as far as I know this prod hasn't broken any contest rules and I think there's no need for the viciousness of some comments either.
Otherwise I find it a cheerful and friendly demo. A pity.

i'm very sorry to thumb down a darkage demo - a group of which i have very fond memories -, and one that has an excellent soda7 soundtrack. but the AI randomness of the gfx is simply unbearable.

I feel so sorry for this prod'! Obviously lots of work was put into it, and it sweats love and sympathy for the demoscene. I enjoyed it on the big screen, a bit too long for my taste though, and it would have benefited from a story (e.g following one of the characters). At least, they took the risk to try something different, which is great.
I understand the AI frustration, and I partly share it because Facet and Critikill are so good at pushing pixels, they don't need AI. That being said, there's a huge amount of graphics, so it would have taken an insane amount of time to do everything by hand I guess.
Anyways, here's my thumb, keep on trying new stuff!

Amusing demo. AI gfx does not bother me at all. I'm sure a lot of work has been put into it anyway. Keep up the good work guys. Don't get discouraged.

Here you go. Just to keep the down/up thumb balance roughly where it belongs.

Fuck AI demos !

Awful! Im really surprised that this release gets positive comments at all. :-(

And I'm truly surprised that the love for the scene shown in this cheerful release has to be responded to by creating new accounts to spew vicious messages.

Yesterday:


Today:


Long live cowardice!

It seems we are entering a Dark Age. The Anti-AI Holy Inquisition will soon light bonfires.

But not to sit around drinking beer, no.

This was fun too watch, presentation really impressed me on the stream, although I smelled the use of AI as usually when there so much massive work I imagine how did the artist did that hell of a work? Now I can imagine how.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a good use of AI and I don’t care about demoscene socialism, but this demo is weak. Could have good execution if at least some experienced persons in the credits line used their time to show consistent direction. It was supposed to be a bit light and funky… but maybe this is not Darklight’s DNA… a compo filler with nice tune from Soda7… yeah, but you came back last years with a bomb so you’d failed to manage expectations properly.

But we’re cool, everybody makes a mistake, no fuck off from me, ignore Berliners, they like to queer the questions

@Renfield's Renfield:
Please step it down a notch dude. Just quit your faux zen pose. FYI Bernardo was scening back when you were still busy eating your boogers. And Quisling was not a freedom fighter, no matter what you think. Plus, this demo is cr*p regardless of AI usage. We've all already been there, seen all that. I wish you were only trolling for attention, but I fear the truth is way more sad.

What Rhino said

Normally I don't comment on productions, but after reading all the nonsense being said here, I felt I had to speak up.

First of all, @mod3m and Darkage team, congratulations on the demo because, even if it's a bit repetitive, it has style, it's entertaining, and visually beautiful. And most importantly... you released another production — and not everyone can say that.

Second, what kind of nonsense is this about not being allowed to use generated images in a cultural, non-commercial production? The whole AI controversy comes from unclear copyright issues, but that doesn't apply to a non-commercial demo where the goal is to create art — whether it's through code, music, or images.

Third, have you seen Smokebomb and Fetish2? I recommend them. Many of you admire those demos, for which I'm grateful, but do you realize that none of the graphics in them were pixelled? They're all photos or scanned images. And no one was making this kind of fuss about it back then. Don't be hypocrites. If you don't like this demo because the images weren't pixelled or drawn by a human artist, but by software, then you shouldn’t like Smokebomb or Fetish2 either (among many other productions that use scanned images).

Fourth, the demoscene is destroyed by comments and bullies like some of you here. The demoscene dies when no one has the guts to release anything — and with some of the toxic comments you’ve written, you’re contributing to that destruction. Also... how many of you who are criticizing have actually released a production in the last decade?

To the friends at Darkage — don’t pay attention to these toxic bullies. Thanks for your contribution and for this fresh design.

"The demoscene dies when no one has the guts to release anything."

No. The demoscene dies when slop drowns out handcraft. AI agents releasing slop to feed and train other AI agents is nothing.

fun & kickass tune!

@Toxic Mushroom: Take a deep breath and meditate before posting. Maybe you won't make a fool of yourself that way.

Just a friendly tip.



@DRAREG: Spot on! I think the only difference between this demo and Smokebomb or Fetish 2 is that your demos were more polish and this funny one was just a bit rushed.

There are graphicians here and there ranting against the use of AI even as a reference, who then have no qualms about using a frame of a character in a movie as a model for their pixelated graphics. Hypocrisy is patent.

@DRAREG Also I also believe what you see/read here is some kind of revenge for uncountable times of "copies/retouches" like http://www.kameli.net/nocopy/noc4.htm and many others when these artists took credits while other artists spent a lot of time to do things completely on their own....

@faux zen meditation poser:
Mental retardation does not manifest itself in lack of "arguments" for one's cause, but in failure to comprehend what's being said/written.

fresh look for a change

I don’t like the ai slop, music was nice though

Love the music (Inspector Gadget vibes!), and the carrying idea of collages in a Monty Phyton-esque show felt novel.

Using AI for the graphics can be ok for me - but not mentioning it, is suggesting you did it all yourself. Given the history of the discussion on this subject, I feel it’s disrespectful. Honesty is the least we can do to. Unfortunately, again you chose not to be honest. I can't respect that, sorry.

hatersg gonna hate, so here's an emotional support thumb :D i liked it in the compo, and if it was shown in the compo, then it was according to the rules, innit.

Had to login after many many years because the outrage about this nice production is so silly. Agreeing with wise words from ham, Drareg and others. As a graphician in my opinion AI is just a new tool that we can't escape even if we wanted to and I could see that it will eventually give us more and better demoscene products. The bar will be raised. And in my opinion the raising bar could already be seen in this years Revision amiga demo compo. Lots of good releases benefitting from the possibilities of AI-tools.

kinda fun to see this collage style come back, and the track fit it well, and there's a lot of content.. though stylistically this doesn't excite me at all. Not sure about the AI thing? I mean if the whole demo is a particular art style and then a significant portion of it is AI generated, then yeah there's not a lot to appreciate there. But I have to say when watching the compo it didn't even occur to me that the graphics could be AI generated; instead they felt ripped, which I thought was fitting for collage art :P

Nice demo.

@ferris I'd say it's mostly stock clipart used in collage style, which is perfectly fitting and alright for the particular aesthetic and has been used since 1910's when Picasso and guys invented it. And in the demoscene I guess at least from the 90's. This huge emotional debate about AI use is way beyond this particular demo and in my opinion it's a pity that such a nice production gets all the hate because of this silly AI war that is going on.

I want to say greetings to Darkage, Facet and Critikill keep up the good work!! 👌👏👍 But maybe next time include small disclaimer somewhere about the use of AI-tools, so the haters can't crucify you for "lying" and "cheating" 😉

I find it funny that Blood Sugar Rises (nice demo) did not get such hate. I mean it won Revision and uses mostly copyrighted material straight off. Which is a lot “worse” that using photos or images partly made by AI assisted tooling. A hint: AI don’t make anything by itself. It needs a direction and a wish and intent from the human who access it :D

I find most of the comments here ridiculous and most of all very inconsistent to what is stated about other demos.

A great FUN demo.
Also I wonder if this demo would had gotten as much complaints if it was made by less “famous” sceners… just a reflection.

@ham
Demos with collage-style graphics are fine (Deep - The Psilocybin Mix is one of my all time favourites). Even though I don't particularly enjoy AI graphics, I've upvoted several demos containing it since they've got other qualities. So does this demo: I love the fact that it's been coded on real hardware, and I think the tune is very nice.

But when the entire point of a demo is graphics-driven, and so much of the graphics is so obviously, in-your-face AI generated, and is included without even some basic sanity checks, I have a hard time staying enthusiastic.

This was a lot of fun. I've been boing pilled! 😁

So great to see Mod3m and Dip back in action.

@grip
I understand that everyone has their own tastes and that not everyone will enjoy this demo. But I'm surprised to see so many people willing to use words like "slop" or "crap" to describe the work of the graphic artists in this demo or others using AI, which is simply a new and legitimate technique to explore in art.

Let's remember that an AI model is not an artist. The artist is the person using this tool. There's a lot of "mass hysteria" around AI these days, and I really don't understand why.

Besides, there are many ways to use AI. You can be lazy and launch four prompts and be done. Or you can install open-source models on your own PC, iterate hundreds of times, and use img2img, LoRAs, etc., and that way you get more personalized results that don't look like the typical Midjourney style. But right now I wouldn't get too picky about this because it's a new technique, and artists should explore it as they see fit.

In this particular demo, as others have pointed out in their posts, the use of these funny, circus-like images fits very well with the theme, and I don't think anyone should apologize (putting disclaimers) for using an AI to obtain "stock photography" instead of just getting it from somewhere on the internet.

Cheers!

Thumbs for the sound. No comment to the rest.

Look, if stupid AI puts suction cups ON TOP of a tentacle, and the artist doesn't even care enough to fix that, that's not dedication, that's not the demoscene spirit, that's selling the audience short. That's slop. So much for the "artistry". All you have to do is look at the screenshot on top. Not hard at all. Although, as I discover again and again, you just can't sell some of the audience short enough. And that's perfectly OK, I just don't understand why these short guys want us all to walk on our knees pretending to be short (and blind) too.