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I like the fact that the last sentence at the compo studio was "Who needs to piss?" \o/

and judging the quality of the compos all-in-all probably the best release at assembly too... :P

D.fox I liked that the compos were held first half of the evening ;-)

Nice indeed that the compos weren't like 3:00 AM. But Assembly needs to regain its magic - somehow - so that top prods start to get released there again. It was a positive surprise how many youngsters dropped games for a while and went to see the demos - although I kind of missed the Hartwall Areena shouting matches with "kuaket vittuun" etc. :)

Marq: i think the issue is more that, well, there aren't too many "top prods" being released anywhere, let alone assembly. The scene is the thing running low on magic.

Quantity and quality in the demo compo was a fair bit better than last year though. Probably the best since 2010 or so. I do feel that they might need to retire the oldskool compo for good. The lack of interest over the past couple of years is apparent. There's still the real wild demo compo anyway.

Killing the 64k compo in favor of a 1k compo (also known as "the compo filler compo", even if there is nice stuff... 1k is kind of boring to me) was one of the worst decisions they could make.

Also what smash said. Furthermore, some people prefer releasing at a real demoparty.

For next year, how about letting people compete in oldskool with oldskool hardware, instead of forcing them into the real wild compo? Then you might get some entries.

This is by far the biggest problem with Assembly right now. Clumping compos together because of a lack of entries, creating a scenario where people don't want to participate because they don't want to release a VIC-20 demo next to a led-array.

Oh and I consider showing recordings of entries in a compo as an insult to their creators.

Las: funny, i prefer that they show recordings. Adds an element of reassurance knowing it wont go down in the compo (doesn't stop the sound screwing up tho)

Nothing wrong with pre-recording. The Assembly compocrew has the proper high-end av equipment and the guys that work that end know what they are doing.

@smash: It should be said that prods are not really getting worse—they just are not getting all that much better. I'm sure you know more than anyone how much work it is to make a blockbuster prod these days, and how increased machine power doesn't reduce the amount of artist work needed at all :-)

There's this saying that “90% of everything is crud”, which refers to the point that once you've seen something really great, you can't appreciate the lower tiers as much.

More price giving in one hour http://www.assembly.org/summer14/#show-stream-assytv8

Sesse: I think people should acknowledge that what separates good stuff from bad these days is a concept that's managabe. "Random 3D scenes" is not a concept.

Well, point is: The stuff was meant to be created to run real-time on real hardware.

The element of reassurance is of course a clear thing, but sometimes things just have to go down - imho that makes things more interesting.
Plus: The compo organizers don't get bored during the compo (since, you know, things can happen. bad things.).

Additional plus (this one is for you smash ;)): Recordings will most probably enforce a pretty early hard deadline (especially if you have to record a lot of stuff), if you do the real thing instead of recordings, you are a bit more flexible regarding the deadlines.

Compo PC burns up during the compo? PURE FUN!

@las: The captures are not done with kkapture (they're recordings of real hardware), so if you don't run real-time, you won't show up as real-time in the compo either.

I talked about the oldskool compo situation quite a lot with various people here, including the organizers who make the decisions. What is needed is:
- announcing the compo specs well in advance. like TODAY would not be too early for Assembly 2015, because people need to have time to think about what they want to do, find people etc
- limiting the compo to just one machine, like Amiga OCS + 512 pseudo fast (hey why not Amiga because it's the 30th anniversary). So it will be possible to at least compare entries with each other even if you don't know that particular piece of old hardware. Comparing demos for totally different machines is extremely difficult and people don't like to make demos for a mishmash compo like that
- bets ... you sign up on a list somewhere and promise to make a demo. If don't have an entry, you'll have to bring a case of beer that will be shared with those who did bring an entry ;) ok this one has to be done outside the official organization

I think there are enough Amiga coders or potential Amiga coders even in Finland. People are blowing the dust off their Amigas or buying machines.

I' aware of that.
But let me make an example:
I think I could really enjoy watching smash while a fairlight demo crashes the compo machine LIVE. Another completely non demoscene one: soccer would be even more boring without humans making partially arguable decisions.

Last pricegiving coming up

wait what

Las: crashes are not the issue (hey I'm a pro:) ), its more the little glitches or timing issues i worry about. At least if you can check the recording you have a chance to fix things :)

A blue-screen due to a hardware failure on the compo machine would also do the job! :D

Agreed, glitching and "timing" issues can be a PITA :).

Sorry, but I don't think a demo compo gets more enjoyable by having more glitches (or a higher probability of glitches).

I'm perfectly happy with compos running realtime, but Assembly has chosen to record them, and it doesn't detract from my experience. You get some nice extra bonuses, too, like the ability to easily show subsegments of them during compostudio and pricegivings (something that we frequently get complaints about during TG).

There are pros and cons for both variants. I appreciate the more risky variant.