Last week, I was at WHY2025, a hacker camp I’ve been attending ever since HIP97. At these kinds of camps, it’s pretty much tradition that everyone pitches in as a volunteer. Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: cameraman, lead sound/light tech, retro village organizer, and more.
This year, I helped with the HSNL Village and the Demoscene Village. For those who don’t know, the demoscene is a creative coding subculture where people make impressive real-time computer graphics and music — often pushing old or limited hardware way beyond what it was designed for.
One thing I really noticed is how similar the hacker and demoscene mindsets are — both love to explore, create, and push boundaries, just with a different focus (more artistic on one side, more technical on the other).
This year I had almost every day something to do. It was a great thing, but it also meant that I had little time to walk around and talk to people. Note for myself 😉 : For the next edition, I have to see how to improve this.
Here’s what I worked on:
TIC-80 Workshop & Introduction to the Demoscene
A short introduction to the world of the demoscene: what it is, how demoparties work (categories, votekeys, etc.), and why it’s such a creative space.
After that, I introduced the TIC-80 fantasy console — a virtual retro-style computer for making, playing, and sharing tiny games and programs — and taught participants how to code on it, from zero to their first effect.
Slides can be found on me demoscene page.
Field-FX Demoparty
We ran our own small demoparty! Attendance was modest, but the energy was fantastic. Normally, voting is done online, but since the crowd was small enough, we just did it by raising hands — which turned out to be way more fun.
See video of WHY2025 demoparty
WHY2025 TIC-80 Demoparty
This was my personal highlight. Four coders took the stage to create live demo effects in real time. The setup and teardown were a bit stressful — we only had 10 minutes — but we pulled it off. Watching ideas come alive on the big screen was pure magic.
Final thought: WHY2025 wasn’t just another event — it was a chance to connect, create, and see the hacker/demoscene spirit in action. Already counting the days until the next one.