📜 General Rules

All productions must be original releases of your own copyright, not previously made public. Sampling / remixing to create derivative work is accepted within reason, please list your sources and tools explicitly when submitting your entries, to be shown on the production slide during the compo.

Remote entries are welcome but they don't get any prize money or physical prizes. Might get licenses or other virtual things, depending on specific sponsors and competitions.

Compo machine will be an i7-9700K/16GB RAM/RTX 3080Ti.

For realtime entries please make sure to also include a recording (1080p60 preferred) sent via WeTransfer to compos@inercia.pt.

Maximum 3 entries per contestant on graphics and realtime competitions. Maximum 1 entry per contestant on music competitions.

Anything that is illegal or offensive will be disqualified and/or not shown at the competition. When in doubt if you're crossing a line ask a member of the compo team before submitting.

It's good form to do a zip package of your entry that also includes a file_id.diz infofile.txt or readme.md, something that textually contextualizes your entry with a minimum of information: author name, title, date of creation, contact, random creation notes you might feel relevant to share and more importantly any information that you believe might be required for a random person 10 years from now to correctly watch/replay your entry. Please take a moment to double check that rule when preparing your release for submission.

👾 Graphics Competitions

Freestyle Graphics

Graphics made in any platform, using any tool or technique. Maximum resolution: 3840x2160. Please provide working stages. Will be shown in 1080p using the latest version of IrfanView.

Oldschool Pixel Graphics (championed by Pandafox)

Pixel graphics made for any oldschool platform or limited resolution/palette. Maximum resolution: 640x480 with 256colors. Please provide working stages and a PNG capture of the entry. Will be shown using emulators or latest version of IrfanView.

3D Graphics (championed by Oni)

FBX file with maximum number of triangles 100k, maximum texture resolution 4k for each used texture. Will be shown using latest version of Foxotron. Zip file containing the model and textures must be below 50 Mb. Only use models you have created yourself.

Photo

Maximum resolution: 3840x2160. Deliver in high quality JPG. Retouching of photo is allowed, but please provide the original unmodified image as proof of the steps. Photos will be shown in 1080p using the latest version of IrfanView.

Textmode Graphics

You can use any tool you want to create a static image in text mode. ASCII, ANSI, PETSCII, Teletext, etc. Pictures will be shown with the latest version of Pablo Draw, IrfanView or emulator. Please provide a PNG screenshot of your entry to make sure we're displaying it properly. If you can submit steps of the creation process, they will be shown (also PNG format please).

JPEG XL Art (championed by _wb_)

No clue what JPEG XL art is? Check https://jpegxl.info/art/, this video interview and the #jxlart tag on twitter. Submissions for this competition should be a single jxl file of at most 512 bytes which decodes with djxl to an image with maximum dimensions 3840x2160. Still images only, no animations accepted. Entry will be displayed in 1080p. Please also include the PNG capture of the entry (to make sure we are displaying it properly)

4kb Executable Graphics (championed by P_Malin)

You should deliver a single file executable below 4kb in size that renders a static image for display. Maximum rendering time: 30 seconds (from starting the executable to the final image being displayed). Please also include a PNG capture of your entry in the zip file (to ensure we display it properly, not for cheating the rendering time rules). Entry will be displayed in 1080p. Our compo machine is Windows but we also accept submissions for other platforms (mac, linux, even oldschool platforms), we will show the PNG for entries in those platforms if we can't procure the real hardware.

🎶 Music Competitions

Freestyle Music

Any platform, tool and technique is allowed. Executable music or tracked music formats allowed but please also provide a 320kbps stereo mp3 version of your track. Maximum playtime is 4 minutes. If longer, it will be faded out. Will be played using Resonic.

❌ Tracked Music (championed by EviL)

Music made for any open access music tracker on any platform (not using VSTs). Maximum playtime is 4 minutes. If longer, it will be faded out. Will be played in pattern view using XMPlay unless otherwise specifically required to be played using another tracker.

Drone Music (championed by ps)

Only music of the drone genre allowed. Please submit your track in 320kbps stereo mp3 format. Maximum playing time: 10 minutes. Be aware the track will be played mixed with other tracks.

AY Music (championed by Jumperror)

Music using the AY sound chip. Tracks will be played using Vortex Tracker II. Maximum playing time: 4 minutes. If you never used Vortex Tracker 2, here is a beginners tutorial to help you get started.

✨ Realtime Competitions

Shader Royale

Using latest version of Bonzomatic we gather as many brave souls who know GLSL shader code as we can find (remote participation possible) and we get a DJ or liveset to play some music. They have 25 minutes to show the world what they can code (no copy paste allowed), at which point voting will open for the audience to decide who we kick out from participation first. We keep going with elimination rounds until only our champion is left coding. Confused? Check the video archive of previous Shader Royale editions to see for yourself what it's all about. Interested in participating? Send us an email.

Combined Intro/Demo

Demos or size limited entries for any plaform. Maximum filesize: 512 MB. Maximum playing time: 8 minutes. If demo requires non Windows platform please provide a recording to ensure we have a way to show it (H.264/MP4 1080p60 prefered).

Fantasy Console 512b intro (championed by ps)

Cart size must be 512b or less. Will be played using latest PICO-8 or TIC-80 version. Web browser entries also accepted. Maximum playing time: 5 minutes.

ZX Spectrum Intro/Demo (championed by Load ZX Spectrum Museum)

Demos or size limited entries for any version of the ZX Spectrum (maybe the ZX Spectrum platform should be subdivided?) Entries will be shown playing from real hardware when possible (we have 48k, western 128k and a ZX Next). Any other variant will either be shown using emulator or video you provide. Maximum playing time: 5 minutes. Want to make something but not sure where to get started learning Z80? Check Gasman's seminar and RMDA's Spectrum coding resources page.

128b intro (championed by lovebyte)

Size limited entries of 128b for any platform. Please also provide a recording (H.264/MP4 1080p60 preferably).