Graffathon has been around from the summer of 2013, when the first Graffathon was held at Open Innovation House in Otaniemi. Starting from the year 2013, Graffathon has been organized annually on some summer weekends somewhere in Otaniemi. Those were the good old times, but this year Graffathon is going to be even better than the Graffathons before it like we always promise to you.. and those promises are also always kept!
This year Graffathon will be held in the Urban Mill at Otaniemi in the second weekend of June from Friday 8.6. evening to Sunday 10.6. evening. Graffathon is mainly targeted for newbies in the demoscene and in demo making, but the event has also an advanced compo for more seasoned demo makers. Compo means competition in the demoscene context. Graffathon will have free food and drinks for the event participants.
When said eloquently, the word “demo” in the context of the demoscene refers most usually to an non-interactive audiovisual experience producing software. Demos can be thought as an art form and they can be made for any computer platform possible. In the event, there will be helpful tutorials about making demos and about demoscene in general.
The demoscene mostly refers to the “subculture” of the group of people, which produces demos and show them after they are good enough in the eyes of their creators in different demoparties and which just appreciates and enjoys watching demos and sometimes even attends demoparties. A demoparty is a party like event, where people have fun, socialize and watch demos, which were made just for the occasion. Demoparties are also demo competitions. Demos are also created in the hackathons such as Graffathon.
Graffathon has two compos: Beginner and advanced. Everyone can participate one or the other compo based on one's preferences, but if a person has released a demo before or done something similar, the person is strongly recommend to choose the advanced compo. Each participating person will be given a vote key, which can be used a) to register yourself to the party management system (pms) and then b) to upload your group's demo to the pms and finally c) to peer evaluate each created demo at the event after the screening of each demo. The peer evaluating will happen through pms by giving points to each demo on a certain range. The creator groups of the three most highly evaluated demos will be awarded on both compos.
Have Fun!
On Friday the doors to the site open at 5 pm. The event starts with an opening ceremony at 6 pm. After the opening ceremony there will be a inspirational presentation from a veteran demoscener. The days last presentation will be Rocket integrated Processing tutorial. Processing is an integrated development environment and a java-like programming language. Processing was designed to create “electronic art” in a more easier way. Rocket is a synch-tracker and it can be integrated with Processing with the Moonlander library. The synch-tracker refers to a program, which can be used to synchronize sound with graphics.
After the presentations will be forming of the groups. The participant will form demo groups, each consisting of one to four people. The group members decide name for their group and pseudonyms for themselves. At this point each participant will be given a vote key. Groups start to plan their demo, to write some code and to gather graphical and musical assets.
On Saturday there will be a lot of work to be done for participants. There will be one tech talk during the day.
The deadline for the demos to be uploaded to the pms is in the middle of Sunday. During Sunday morning before the deadline you can start testing your demos on the party machine and when you think your demo is working properly you can upload it to the pms. Soon after the deadline the barbeque starts. After the barbeque the third tech talk will begin. Finally the results of the hackathon will be shown on the big screen. Then is the peer evaluation of the demos and after that, there will be an ending ceremony where the creators of the best demos will be awarded. At the ending ceremony there will also be some knowledge on the next demo events to participate.
Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Haaga-Helia and Metropolia students will get one course credit for participating in some compo at the Graffathon. More information at the hackathon.