Demoscene-Workshop at NYU Game Innovation Lab

I will be giving a demoscene-workshop at New York University at the game innovation lab next week, more than excited! I will use Intromaniac, though I know is isn´t the only way to go with demo editors, but since it´s a hands-on workshop with just three hours of time, it will hopefully foster the interest to dive deeper into the demoscene afterwards. Looking forward to how the experiences will be ?

Screenshot 2015-02-20 17.18.55

Quirky craft: an introduction into the demoscene in making Amiga style retro intros

Since the 80s the demoscene is constantly producing amazing realtime animations on all kinds of hardware platforms, from the Commodore C64 to Tamagotchis to the PS4. In this workshop, Tobias Kopka will introduce you into the culture and craft of demomaking,  show some of the demoscenes´ finest productions, discuss which background the demoscene has in the crackerscene and will dive with you into Intromaniac, one of the available freeware tools which can be used for intromaking slightly the quirky way. After the workshop you will be able to walk-away with your own Amiga retro style intro, without even having to know how to code.

Mandatory Requirements:

See some historical examples of cracktros on Commodore Amiga here:


Optional: If you like to prepare in advance you can bring the following with you:

  • a logo
  • one or two simple graphics in PNG-format
  • a bitmap font (only important if you care about design)
  • music in a tracker-format 
  • a simple 3D-object (Blender or 3D-Studio, max. 256kB of size)
  • and – if you are a coder – your own DirectX HLSL compatible vertex- and pixelshader

Don´t know what most of this that means? No worry, then you can work with the default files which are provided by Intromaniac, since we will keep it easy here!

And this is what the demoscene is nowadays doing (legally since more than 20 years)

Note: this workshop is not on the crackerszene, but it´s artifacts.

Example: Invitation-Intro for the workshop

Download the invitation-intro here (Windows executable. The virusscanner might complain since the executable is highly compressed – which is often a signature of viruses – but don´t worry, all is viruschecked and clean.) 

About Tobias

Tobias Kopka loves games since the 80s, is an active member of the demoscene since the early 90s, and curates game events since the mid 2000s. In his daytime he works with Germany´s largest gamerelated event agency Aruba Events as conference director for game developer conferences in Berlin and Cologne. He is a frequent traveller, always on the hunt for interesting trends, topics and speakers. Besides curating the program of two of Europes finest game developer conferences, the Quo Vadis in Berlin (http://qvconf.com) and Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers in Cologne (http://respawngathering.com) Tobias likes to exchange on the culture and craft of games and the demoscene in all regards, from production to critique.
Tobias works on talks, demoshows and exhibitions with Digitale Kultur e.V., the association spreading the culture of the demoscene, curates the seminar track at the demoscene party Evoke in Cologne (http://evoke.eu), and is a founding member of the demoscene group Haujobb (http://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=31).
Tobias holds a master in media studies and political science from the University of Cologne, likes the taste of beer and is always open for a conversation.