We know that you, as loyal readers, probable gamers and inquisitive souls do most likely play demos of games before they hit the market, but we’re talking about a different kind of demo.  The kind in which programmers (and artists) use code to ‘procedurally generate’ visuals and sound to create a whole new style of art.

Well, we say new, it was popular as far back as the Amiga (if not before).  There are some staggering examples out there.  You can find demos which stretch over 10 minutes and feature the most stunning graphics – all generated in real-time, which is packed into four kilobyes of code.  It’s technically, aesthetically and geekily incredible.

One of our favourite Denki alumni (yes, we have a favourites list), Paul Grenfell, is a bit of an expert on the demo scene, contributing the odd column to the well-worth-reading GameSetWatch blog and running his own blog, Bite This and AteBit (as well as working for a game developer – phew!)

While demos are not games in any sense of the word, they use elements of the same technology and show what can done with some clever code.

Of course, the idea of procedurally generating environments is something which is actually used in a few games, such as Nethack and Spelunky (and, we believe, Introversion’s new title too).

All of the blogs have examples of demos which can be viewed (or downloaded). If you ever have five minutes to spare, we’d highly recommend you take a look.

- Brian (@flackboy)