PicoVision Party #000

Competition starts: Tuesday 17th October
Entries submitted by: Friday 17th November
Results announced: Friday 24th November Thu 4 Jan 2024

Results!

After much nambling by the judges, we're happy to announce the following winners for the compo:

Insanely Great Demo Grand Prize: £500 Pimoroni Gift Card
MicroPython Mastery: £100 Pimoroni Gift Card

jtruk - Peak Ambition

This was a loving tribute to the demoscene, and we can only describe the joy of seeing 3D PICOVISION vector text, which then zooms into each letter in turn and shows a different demo. Before looping and doing it again with helptext. AND MUSIC?!

Mind. Blown.

Most Polished Demo: £250 Pimoroni Gift Card
C++ Cunning: £100 Pimoroni Gift Card

Daft_Freak - pv3d

Seems simple. Actually a lot going on here, so there was no contest for this one. A 30FPS spinning textured model of the PicoVision itself... running on a PicoVision!

Honorable Mentions

ahnlak - This took us back to our MSX/C64 days with a lovely combo of environmental cycles and sprites to create a retro scene.

Paul Clark - Port of the Adafruit Eyes Demo. Lovely to see this running on the PicoVison!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, and congrats to our two big winners who knocked it out of the park!

What is the Demoscene?

The demoscene is a vibrant subculture rooted in the world of computer art, where artists, musicians, and programmers come together to create "demos": real-time audiovisual presentations that showcase their technical and creative prowess.

Demos are often characterized by their impressive graphical effects, compelling soundtracks, and the intricate interplay between visuals and audio, all typically constrained within specific hardware or file size limits. This constraint-driven creativity pushes sceners to extract every ounce of potential from a given platform.

At its core, the demoscene is about pushing boundaries: of hardware, software, and artistic expression. It's a testament to what can be achieved when art and technology collide, and a celebration of the hacker and maker spirit.

Prizes

Boy are we giving away some HUGE gift cards for this one. You'll be doing a virtual trolley dash if you manage to come home in a podium position...!

• Insanely Great Demo Grand Prize: £500 Pimoroni Gift Card
• Most Polished Demo: £250 Pimoroni Gift Card
• MicroPython Mastery: £100 Pimoroni Gift Card
• C++ Cunning: £100 Pimoroni Gift Card
• Other sundry prizes may be offered at the whim of Pimoroni.

Please note: prizes will only be delivered as Pimoroni Shop gift cards and no cash or other alternative will be offered.

How do I enter?

Create something awesome then submit it to us on time! Your submission can either be in C++ or MicroPython but you must follow these simple rules:

• Submit your entry as a link to downloadable archive containing everything relating to your submission (a DropBox or Google Drive link or a straight URL to your file on a web server for example).
• No WiFi, Bluetooth, USB devices, GPIO pins, Qw/ST addons, or SD card use - entries must be entirely navel gazing.
• You can use the audio output and please don't go above 720x576 screen resolution.
• C++ specific:
• Source code must be provided!
• You must precompile a .uf2 image for us to load onto PicoVision for testing.
• We will not attempt to build your project or fix any bugs to get it running!
• MicroPython:
• Your archive must contain all of the source files and assets needed.
• We'll copy the entire archive contents onto the PicoVision filesystem and click "Run".
• We will not attempt to debug or fix any errors that may occur when running your code.

You need to submit your entry before midnight on Fri 17th November by filling out this form.

How will we judge?

All contents will be judged in a highly subjective manner by the Pimoroni Crew. We will look for:

• Novelty & Originality
• Aesthetics
• Excessive Friendliness of Code
• Excessive WTFness of Code
• Utility

Unfortunately if your submission won't run unmodified on standard hardware first attempt we cannot accept it.

Rules

• Standard Terms & Conditions and Privacy policy as published on the Pimoroni website apply. https://shop.pimoroni.com.
• Should you win, you agree that we may publish your name as such.
• Submissions are via submissions to the Google form located at https://forms.gle/ywYZTaHSgZkC6mb9A.
• You may submit up to five (5) entries.
• Members of the Pimoroni Crew and their partners or immediate family may not enter.
• Entries must successfully run on the Pimoroni PicoVision hardware without modification.
• Submissions may be delivered as source code and a compiled .uf2 file or as a collection of MicroPython files, using a current version of the PicoVision MicroPython firmware available during the contest.
• All files to run the entry should be contained in a zip file shared where the organisers can download it.
• Contestants retain copyright on their creations, but allow Pimoroni to store them, demonstrate their function, share them on a contest Github repository and otherwise use them appropriately to judge and operate the contest. They will be visible to everyone on the Github Repository.
• If this contest is not legal according to the laws of your country or territory, or we are not able to ship goods to your country, then the Pimoroni Gift Card prize will not be awarded, and no alternative will be offered to you. You can still enter for the bragging rights of winning though. We may award the prize to a runner-up in your category.
• Any drama or correspondence may not be entered into at the discretion of Pimoroni.
• Otherwise, Pimoroni will endeavour to run a ‘square’ contest for the fun and education of all.