It’s Just A Cool-Looking Racing Game Until Things Get… Weird

It’s Just A Cool-Looking Racing Game Until Things Get… Weird

The graphical insanity in the video above isn’t part of any game that coming out soon. But it’s an example of what accomplished coders can make on hardware that’s similar to what’s inside next-gen consoles.

“Apocalypse When” comes from a coder named “Smash”, aka Matt Swoboda, principal engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. It’s an example of demoscene creation, Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett describes like this:

The “demoscene” is a place where video games and music videos meet. It exists on the periphery of both mediums, but that doesn’t make it any less pretty to look at (and listen to).

Unlike the “demos” you’re generally used to — samples of commercial video games — the demoscene is a place where videos are made that combine computer graphics with an accompanying musical track, the latter often synced or closely related to the former.

PS3 owners might remember trippy interactive art piece Linger in Shadows as a previous example of demoscene. The folks who made that wound out creating the psychedelic dreamscape of Datura. There’s been some discussion as to whether demoscene creators can find a home on the PS4 and Xbox One but such a development will probably have to wait until the consoles come out. But, man, it certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea for either Sony or Microsoft to loan few units to demo creators if it resulted in eye candy like “Apocalypse When”.

Thanks Lars!


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