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Re: interview with Madwizards-
Posted by: Marss Jun,28.2013-15:11 

Part 2 (and sorry again)

9- What is the normal process when you all start working on a new demo?
What are the compromises? Are there any limits?
As we mostly release demos on Amiga, I could speak only about the limits of this system. Sure, there are a cap of speed and framerate which pushes you find more creative alternatives to express what you have in mind. Fortunately people stopped bitching about using a sampled mp3 track as the music or even are eager to accept part-animated effects as realtime, so life of the designer is quite easier and after all this years we could catch up with recent trends in design. Our usual development method is like a path - Rorque and I discuss the effects and exchange ideas of what's hot or not. 2-3 months before the party we are starting to collect a tune for the demo. Then I work on the effect ideas and breaking them into pieces, building a schedule. Each effect, which could be something complicated or just a simple static visual screen is the allocated to respective member of the demo team for development. During this we exchange more and more ideas between core team improving bits and pieces. After first assembly from the coder we look at this and vote - if something is ok or should be improved or even replaced. And that is the most time and effort consuming part of demo making - to beat the deadline, deliver as good demo as you want to and always confess some part of it because of unusual circumstances. It's like demomaking bingo - all of the time some shit happens and you have to react quickly to solve all of the problems :)

10- How different is Madwizards from the other groups?
To be honest I think we are associated with some kind of positive party hooliganism - enjoying party time a lot, drinking and having some wicked fun. It's mostly thing of the past nowadays as all of us gets older and had to slow down in life. But still we are trying to organize "Mawi hotel" at the parties, which is a area somewhere in the corner or outside the partyplace where the most fun are. Also most of the crazy party pictures and memories. But this is probably the thing each of the group could say, once its members gather together and start enjoying the atmosphere here and there :)

11- How did you come and who had the idea to port Kioea onto the Falcon060? Technically and philosophically, how is it to code the Falcon060 compared to the Amiga? (this question is answered by Britelite. I thank him for his time.)
The idea to port the demo was mine, as I had already for quite a while considered doing something on the Falcon060. I started by quickly porting one of my 64k-intros (I ported an intro called Quotation Marks, but didn't release it as it still has some small bugs), and when I had the essential stuff working on the Falcon060, I decided to take the challenge and port
Kieoa, which was my latest big demo. I will probably port most future AGA/060 demos for Falcon too, and I've been thinking of porting a few of my older demos.

The porting was pretty easy (the tools used were VBCC and VASM, the best crosscompilers for 68k), after having solved a few Falcon (and VBCC) specific problems. Fortunately I had Evil/DHS to help me with my stupid questions. The code itself was pretty clean already, without any hardware banging tricks, as I already wanted the Amiga-version to work on the AmigaOS-clones (AmigaOS4 and MorphOS).

Coding for the Falcon060 is quite a lot like coding for the Amiga060, so it was a pretty easy step to make. Only thing missing is a decent emulator, as WinUAE is a huge aid when coding for the Amiga.

12- Has Kioea any meaning?
I was looking for a catchy demo title in 2011 once we decided to deliver our come back to Amiga and ended with the idea of something short, one word preferably. I've ended pressing the 'random' button on Wikipedia and there it was - Kioea. A small bird, not existing any longer and by so, having no connection with any part of the demo at all. This is usual for most of our releases, so no surprise for the audience. But it's also a really nice letter formation from the typographic point of view. Four vowels, made it easy to pronounce in every language and combined together shaped into a brilliant logo designed by Rorque.

13- Was your art a direct port or did you improve it?
Britelite let me know few days before the party that the port is done in 98%. That was a really short notice so I've had to react fast. We did some minor changes to endscroll and few bits and pieces to update it with proper release notes. Apart from that it is a direct port from our final release at WeCan 2012. There are few things improved from the coders point of view, so the result is really impressive. We definitely have to do a Falcon port of something else, too.

14- I guess you are all Madwizards members busy with your next production?
Maybe you could share with us some info?
To be honest we work on something all the free time we have. There are currently few projects in development but I'd like to skip the details as we prefer to surprise the audience at one of the parties this year :)

15- What is the future/the trend of demos? In your opinion, why are people so interested in them?
Demoscene lost its potential as a trendsetter for today's Y-generation. There are plenty of other influences for hipsters and it seems like we have to make more kids to deliver new breed of demosceners and keep this freakshow going :) The success of the parties like Revision is a proof that there are still plenty of people interested in watching the competitions, even from their own comfy sofa. This is partially the nostalgia and remembrance of the good old times. As for the trends - whenever I'm going to the party I'm eager to see something which leaves me with my jaw on the floor. And, surprisingly even for me, this magic still happens and happens. Having few beers, sitting in front of the big screen with friends and clapping the hands off is a personal happy time. A break from everyday routine, a moment of magic when you could just sunk and enjoy. Watching the people around you just know - this show would go on for a long time.

16- Are Madwizards involved in apps and games?
Few of our members are working for the app and game development market, but there is no correlation between Madwizards as a brand with any mobile releases for now. I see no reason for even starting any projects for mobile as for me, personally, it is a dead end. Please note that this is just my personal opinion and has nothing to do with Madwizards whatsoever. I honestly do not believe in so called post-pc era. Call me a dinosaur, but after the initial hype I just simply do not like to waste time using my smartphone, downloading useless apps or simply pretend to enjoying the ave of new 'amazing', 'revolutionary' or 'groundbreaking' 1000th way of selling your privacy and being a target for the big data advertisers. Yes, it's an extreme hypocrisy, as I'm working from time to time as UI/UX designer cashing companies for designing the ways of how to drain poor people wallets and charge them for things they do not need. The power of evil appearance backed by good marketing, to be honest :)

17- Thanks again Tomasz for your precious time answering these few questions. We are all for sure waiting for your next demo and we hope a port of it onto the Falcon060. Maybe before singing off, would you like to add something to what we haven’t discussed?
I would like to take the opportunity to greet all of my friends around the globe. Keep the momentum going and see you on the bigscreen soon :)”









[All messages in this thread]    [Start new thread]

Topic Posted by  Date 
interview with Madwizards Marss Jun,27.2013-13:41
  Re: interview with Madwizards CiH Jun,27.2013-21:33
    Re: interview with Madwizards ggn Jun,27.2013-22:47
      Re: interview with Madwizards CiH Jun,27.2013-22:56
  Re: interview with Madwizards Marss Jun,28.2013-01:14
    Re: interview with Madwizards CiH Jun,28.2013-08:44
      Re: interview with Madwizards CiH Jun,28.2013-08:46
        Re: interview with Madwizards ggn Jun,28.2013-13:12
          Re: interview with Madwizards- Marss Jun,28.2013-15:11
            Re: interview with Madwizards- CiH Jun,28.2013-23:45
            Re: interview with Madwizards- mikro Jun,29.2013-01:53
              Re: interview with Madwizards- grey/msb Jul,01.2013-11:34


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