About

Join us in a celebration of the small things, with a dedicated sizecoding demoparty/event, held on the weekend of 15-16th February 2025 on Discord and Twitch.

This year, our theme is Blind Date
All competitions entries will be shown without their creators' names, so get ready to admire the anonymous!

We'll have intro competitions in different size categories, from 32 bytes to 1024 bytes.
Alongside our Tiny Executable Graphics and Music competitions to Tiny Graphics or Graphics (covering both executable and text graphics) and Bytebeat Music competitions.
Have an 8 or 16 byte intro, or a nanogame to show? We've got a Wild Showcase for you!

We'll have size-coded related seminars to get you started, a Bytejam, Introshows, DJ Sets and other goodies.

We welcome everyone from newcomers to veterans and are open to all platforms. From oldschool Atari, Commodore, Amstrad & ZX Spectrum to High-end and Fantasy Console platforms.

This is the one event where size does matter! Don't miss it!

Competitions

1k Intro Competitions

This is our largest size category of 1024 bytes. This is a interesting size category where hand-optimized assembler code and shadercoders will meet.

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

512 Byte/Bootsector intro competitions

Push the limits of your regular tiny intro with a whopping 512 bytes size limit.

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

256 Byte Intro Competitions

This is usually the most popular tiny intro category.

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

128 Byte Intro Competitions

Here is where things start to get interesting in terms of size restrictions - the beloved 128 byte intro competition.
Go all out with an astonishing effect or do something more stylised, the choice is yours!

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

64 Byte Intro Competitions

If you really like a challenge, try our seasoned 64 byte intro competition. Surprise us with your skills and show us your best effect!

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

32 Byte Intro Competitions

From practice we have learned that this category is where things slowly start to get interesting in terms of single effects that can be achieved. Can you create a killer effect in just 32 bytes?

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

Tiny Executable Graphics Competition

Create the best looking executable graphics in 256 bytes or less. Open to all platforms.

• One competition for Oldschool Platforms, and another for High-End (which includes Fantasy Console).

Text Graphics Competition

Dazzle with 256 characters of ASCII / PETSCII / ATASCII / ANSI / teletext.

• Your choice of dimensions and colours, as long as the display is 256 characters or fewer (e.g. 16x16, 8x32, 17x14, etc...).

Tiny Executable Music Competition

Pump your softsynth skills to the max in 256 bytes or less.

• No MIDI, but otherwise open to all platforms.

Bytebeat Music Competition

Create music with just simple logical formulas in 256 characters or less using this tool

New to the concept of bytebeats? Check out this page for a quick introduction.

New Talent Intro Competition

Our 256 Byte Intro competition that is dedicated to newcomers.

• Open to anyone that has not qualified in the top 3 of a coding competition at a major party.

Wild Showcase

Got anything sizecoding related you'd like to share with the world, but none of the competitions above really fit?

• Out of Compo.
• Nano Game - a playable game in 256 bytes or less (any platform).
• 8 Byte intro (any platform).
• 16 Byte intro (any platform).

After the event, each of the top 3 individual competition winners will receive a digital certificate by Sensenstahl

Events

Seminars

Various seminars about a range of topics related to sizecoding and demoscene.

Best of tiny intros Shows

We'll show you the very best tiny intros around for all platforms MS-DOS, Atari, Spectrum and more.

Bytejam

Join our participants as they livecode using the TIC-80 Fantasy Console. Check out this 30 second video to see what it is all about.

DJ sets

Enjoy fine music sets by various artists.

And much more...

Morning relaxation, Sizecoding tips and tricks and much much more

TimeTable

Friday, February 14th 2025

Saturday, February 15th 2025

Sunday, February 16th 2025

Byte-athlon

For those competing in multiple of the size coding competitions, we will have a special multi-category Byte-athlon event. Where we will determine who is the most skilled across 4 connected size categories between 16 and 1024 bytes.

• Join the Byte-athlon by submitting a prod in 4 connected categories, i.e. 32/64/128/256 bytes, 64/128/256/512 bytes or 128/256/512/1024 bytes
• You can enter with a maximum of 2 entries per competition. The highest ranked intro per size-category will receive points and will count towards total.
• Points are counted towards a total score depending on competition results (starting at 10 points and decreasing for each author/entry).
• So for between highest ranked entry in the 4 intro competitions you have submitted to, a maximum of 40 points can be gained.
• If you'd like to submit to more than 4 connected categories, please let us know which 4 categories you'd like to see counted for the Byte-athlon beforehand via the organizers comments field when uploading to our party system.
• Tiny Executable Graphics do not count towards the Byte-athlon.
• In a case of a draw between points. The person with the lowest sized entries will win..
• We'll be handing out 2 Byte-athlon awards and prize packages.

At the award ceremony the winners of the Byte-athlon will receive a special Byte-athlon award

General Rules

• You can enter as many competitions as you like, with a maximum of 2 entries per competition
• Please include a screenshot and video capture of your intro in 1280x720 MP4 format.
• Our definition of Oldschool platforms is: 8/16 bit home computers, 8/16 bit game consoles and handhelds and 8088/286 PC's (8 mhz/1000 cycles, MDA/CGA/EGA)
• Our definition of High-End platforms is: X86/DOS (386+, VGA), Linux, Windows, RISCOS, Motorola 68040+, Fantasy Consoles/Processing/VM.
• Fantasy Consoles: If there is no dedicated Fantasy Console competition mentioned, you are free to submit your production to our high-end competitions.
• Processing: We will accept processing sketch files (PDE fileformat, Java mode) of the proper target size in our high-end competitions.
• For executable entries in the 128 byte, 256 byte, 512 byte and 1024 byte categories, we will look at the binary filesize (including any headers).
• For Amiga and Atari ST entries of 128 byte, we will not count the header size.
• For executable entries of 64 bytes or less, we will not count the header size.
• All entries will have a running time of maximum 2 minutes, unless specifically requested by the author.
• Only original and unreleased works are allowed.
• Please include a FILE_ID.DIZ with a description of your prod.
• Obey the code of conduct.
• The organizers' decisions are final. We want to show off all your work to the standard it deserves, but we are doing this in our spare time and things can go wrong. Getting your entries in before the deadline is a good way to ensure that it gets shown!

Competition Specific Rules

• Fantasy Console entries need to be delivered as a TIC/P8.ROM/UW8 file of the target size (256b,128b,etc.) or less.
• Fantasy Console entries of 64 bytes and below are calculated without mandatory header (8 bytes for compressed P8.ROM, 4/5 bytes on TIC-80).
• DOS intros can be shown in Dosbox or Freedos (with optional SBEMU for sound), But we would appreciate it if you include a MSDOS/Freedos compatible version as well. Escape support is appreciated but not required.
• ZX Spectrum intros need to be delivered as a TAP/SNA file with minimum basic loader as well as a 256 binary file (to be executed from basic).
• Atari STe/Amiga entries of 128 byte and below are calculated without mandatory header (32 bytes)
• Atari 8bit entries of 64 bytes and below are calculated without mandatory header (6 bytes)
• Commodore 64 entries of 64 bytes and below are calculated without mandatory header (2 bytes) and don't require autorun in any size category (please supply starting address).
• Amstrad CPC entries need be supplied as raw binary with loading instructions and/or minimal basic loader on disk (MEMORY &startaddress-1 LOAD "myintro.bin",&startaddress CALL &startaddress).
• Oldschool gameconsole / handheld entries: Rom mirroring (i.e. duplicating exact binary data to sit at required rom-offset) is allowed.
• Tiny Executable Graphics A maximum of 3 minutes of precalculation and/or onscreen drawing is allowed. Interlacing and rasters are allowed, but no animation or scrolling is allowed.
• Tiny Executable Music A size limit of 256 bytes (including headers). No MIDI allowed, but otherwise open to all platforms. Maximum duration: 2 minutes. Also supply a WAV or MP3 recording.
• Bytebeat entries (bytebeat/floatbeat mode, infix/postfix, 8-44khz) will have a playing time of 1 minute and will be played using bytebeat.demozoo.org (greggman). Please provide a bytebeat.demozoo.org URL with your entry.
• Text Graphics can be any dimension, and must be 256 characters or fewer.

Getting started

This event is all about sharing the love for small sized demoscene productions. So if this event peeked your interest, but you don't know how to get started, let us help out with a number of starter packs that help to get you off your feet

Fantasy Console Sizecoding - We held a special event in Decembers 2024 called Tiny Code Christmas to help newcomers get started at https://tcc.lovebyte.party

DOS Sizecoding - (soon)

ZX Spectrum sizecoding - ZX Spectrum sizecoding seminar by Gasman and Starters guide

Atari 8bit sizecoding - Atari 8-bit sizecoding seminar by F#READY and Starters guide

Commodore 64 Sizecoding - Starters guide

Bytebeat music - A Bytebeat and RPN starters guide by Ravary (PDF)

We also have a dedicated playlist on our youtube channel called Lovebyte Seminars with all kinds of sizecoding related seminars. During the event we will have and add more seminars and tips to help you out, so stay tuned for those!

And don't forget to visit sizecoding.org for more information on all the above platforms and/or join the Sizecoding discord.

Contact

Contact us at [email protected], Youtube, Discord , Twitter/X, Mastodon BSky and on Twitch

Feel free to contact us if you want your promo slide (1280x720 PNG) to be included in our slide rotation segments