pouët.net

Assembly Summer 2026 - July 30 - August 2, Messukeskus Helsinki, Finland

category: general [glöplog]
Competitions and rules are out - and entry submissions are already open!

19 compos: Demo, 4K Intro, Oldskool Demo, Beginner Demo, One Minute Demo, Fantasy Console, AI Coding (Vibe Demo), Real Wild, Short Film, Game Development, Listening Music, Dance Music, Tracked Music, Oldskool Music, Fast Music, Digital Graphics, Pixel & Oldskool Graphics, 3D Graphics and Fast Graphics.

Remote entries are allowed in most competitions.

Rules and info: https://assembly.org/en/events/summer26/program/demoscene-competitions
Submit your entries at https://scene.assembly.org
Deadlines and jury times: https://scene.assembly.org/event/timetable/

Note: Game Development deadline is already on Friday July 24!

See you at the party!
added on the 2026-07-20 10:46:05 by dipe dipe
See you at the boozembly hills!
added on the 2026-07-20 11:19:48 by leGend leGend
Quote:
See you at the boozembly hills!

I can't make it to Assembly this year, but there's a CHANCE I could go next year, if I do I need to dap you up. :)
No 1K compo anymore? That's a real pity!

I assume this is due to the limited number of entries last year, same as the demise of the 64K category... Still, I had hoped it was just a slow year. I'll miss it.
added on the 2026-07-21 00:09:21 by Seven Seven
Minebrandon: nice, do tell if
added on the 2026-07-21 10:43:00 by leGend leGend
leGend: :D
Seven: you guessed right, the entry count was the reason, same as with the 64k category. Nothing against the formats themselves. We also had to condense the compo programme into two days instead of the traditional three, so the slots went to the compos with the most entries.

The good news: size categories are upper limits, so the hardcore route is still open. Enter your 1k in the 4k compo and win it, or your 64k in the demo compo and win that. A tiny prod beating full-size entries is the ultimate flex :D
added on the 2026-07-22 14:47:40 by dipe dipe
For everyone's convenience:

Rules and info: https://assembly.org/en/events/summer26/program/demoscene-competitions
Submit your entries at: https://scene.assembly.org
Deadlines and jury times: https://scene.assembly.org/event/timetable
added on the 2026-07-22 16:31:44 by magic magic
You can check out the deadlines from this address: https://scene.assembly.org/event/timetable/

Most compos accept remote entries, so start your toolchain, trackers, daws and engines.

We will also stream the demoscene events on our twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/assemblytv

Less than one week to go!
added on the 2026-07-26 11:20:44 by mayor mayor
Ok.. I'll bite..

Schedule

There are some compos showing on Friday, but it looks like the focus is basically on one compo blocks on Saturday that run from 14:30 to 19:00 with a couple of 15 mins breaks scheduled in. So... one super long compo block and all main compos finished by 19:00 on Saturday?

All of the compos in that big block are on the main stage, except for the Oldskool which is, weirdly, on a different stage. If the Oldskool compo is longer than the 45 mins (and it's only scheduled for 30 mins) then it'll clash with the main demo compo.

And.. only one 45 minute compo studio, at 19:00, right after the main demo compo ends? The real joy of compo studios is having domain experts talking about small (mostly) related groups of compos. This often means the actual authors talking in some detail about their prods. That is some of the good shit, right there! I can't see how that magic can happen with just the one sitting.

ARTTech seminars seem uninteresting (to me at least) this year too :(

I know the demoscene orgas at Assembly are working within limitations (and maybe there are new curfews?) and the main orgas seem to care less and less about the demoscene each year.. but.. ugh :(
added on the 2026-07-27 11:48:37 by evilpaul evilpaul
Evilpaul <3, I can only agree with your comments on the schedule.

At least couple of compo studio would be needed - one gathering all on Saturday is plainly just too much to digest and produce of all those great compos.. each should have their own reasonably scheduled session right after each specific compo (music, gfx, intros, oldschool, modern demos, disk throwing and so on ..).

And on the length of the compo slots they are all too short. Really, one hour for the main demo compo finals, hmm. Add five ASD-FC-name your favorite group here level ambitious 5+ minute demos and 10 other shorted but good and still 3 minute'ish demos + all other demos done with hard work to contribute, +30 s between the prods to show the title slides and it easily slips to about 1.5h of a good demo show.

On seminars - I guess what is needed there is more proactivity from everyone who could tell others about interesting topics.. eg "how we make demos", "how you shouldnt make demos", "optimizations of a modern gou rendering engine", "how to AI with demos in a cool way" and hehe so on :D..

Still, the Assembly 2026 is coming and happening soon and with the restrictions of its current shape. Perhaps we are listened and next year is gonna be better <3 from our demoscene point of view there.
added on the 2026-07-28 03:30:46 by deepr deepr
Quote:
the focus is basically on one compo blocks on Saturday that run from 14:30 to 19:00 with a couple of 15 mins breaks scheduled in.


Many probably skip one minute and beginner demo compos to get a longer break but then they may also miss 4K intro at the end of the same block.

Quote:
And.. only one 45 minute compo studio, at 19:00, right after the main demo compo ends?


Hopefully they tell people to leave comments on Demozoo to compensate the loss (for Pouët covered products at least some feedback is received).

Quote:
ARTTech seminars seem uninteresting (to me at least) this year too :(


It reflects how the demoscene is seen as an animal pen of the game industry there.

Quote:
Still, the Assembly 2026 is coming and happening soon and with the restrictions of its current shape. Perhaps we are listened and next year is gonna be better <3 from our demoscene point of view there.


One can only hope this perpetual humiliation of Finnish demoscene ends one day so that the most important compos in the country would take place on a real demoparty.
Weather looks nice for some hill action
added on the 2026-07-28 12:30:29 by leGend leGend
Quote:
One can only hope this perpetual humiliation of Finnish demoscene ends one day so that the most important compos in the country would take place on a real demoparty.

It is hard to express how disrespectful I find this sentence.
added on the 2026-07-29 11:23:32 by Sesse Sesse
we'll work with the constraints we have. oldskool is on different stage because that stage has 50hz (which is a common complaint that it has not been) - there is some other stuff on main stage at that time.
added on the 2026-07-30 11:33:59 by dipe dipe
Quote:
One can only hope this perpetual humiliation of Finnish demoscene ends one day so that the most important compos in the country would take place on a real demoparty.


Well you can lead by example by getting the fuck out here then. Literally no one will miss you in this "perpetual humiliation"
added on the 2026-07-30 12:18:14 by T-101 T-101
How is it now again with this twich thingy. If you for some reason missed the compos on saturday and come home in the dead of night and want to watch the re-run wizzAUS spoilers....can you rewind that live-stream and watch from start?
If JASS, how long is that stream available for rewinding?

(Experienced other times that the live stream recording dissapears after a certain time.)
added on the 2026-07-30 13:43:49 by tFt tFt
@tFt: yes! Rewind is enabled on the AssemblyTV Twitch stream, so you can scroll back to the start while the stream is still live. The VODs also stay up on Twitch afterwards, and since Assembly is a Twitch partner they remain watchable for about 60 days.

On top of that, individual entries are uploaded to Assembly's YouTube right after each compo has been shown on the big screen (music compos as one block), so that is another spoiler-safe way to catch the Saturday compos late at night.
added on the 2026-07-31 09:58:06 by dipe dipe
Quote:
One can only hope this perpetual humiliation of Finnish demoscene ends one day so that the most important compos in the country would take place on a real demoparty.


Assembly is one of the very few demoparties on the planet where you can actually bring your kids - there is literally an Assembly Kids area, and sceners do exactly that, year after year. Some of them entered their first compo there before they could legally buy the beverages that apparently make a party "real".

Kids watch the compos, adults have their refreshments under the open sky, and everybody is back in their seat for the Demo compo. Best of both worlds.

The demoscene shares the stage with other family friendly program here. Every year the compos run in front of thousands of people who did not come for the demoscene, and every year some of them stay. Just yesterday a ten-year-old came over to ask if they could make sure his entry really works on the CompoPC before the deadline.

30+ years of history, the biggest compos in the country, and new sceners literally growing up in the hall. The perpetual humiliation seems to be doing just fine.
added on the 2026-07-31 10:15:10 by dipe dipe
Weather is horrible for some hill action :YTHO:
added on the 2026-07-31 15:45:26 by leGend leGend
Quote:
It is hard to express how disrespectful I find this sentence.


Second that. Assembly has it's problems, but compocrew ain't one of them.
Quote:
Second that. Assembly has it's problems, but compocrew ain't one of them.


Of course respect is due to people organizing compos at Assembly. I didn't want to disparage them. I don't know to whom we can causally and/or morally attribute the current state of affairs, is it the Finnish demoscene at large or what... (no need to discuss this further for my behalf if this is too thorny topic for Pouët!)

Quote:
Well you can lead by example by getting the fuck out here then.


No relaa nyt hei...

(take it easy, man)

---

It was very thoughtful to put AI compo to the end of its block. I'm positively surprised about this.
How is ASM 2026 so far?
added on the 2026-08-01 07:15:09 by AntDude AntDude
I repeat my plea from many years ago that Assembly begin to write the time zone on their schedule again. :-) I see stuff starts at 16, but is it Helsinki time? Is it my local browser time? Who knows :-)
added on the 2026-08-01 08:32:45 by Sesse Sesse
@Sesse:

https://scene.assembly.org/event/timetable/
added on the 2026-08-01 09:19:30 by bonefish bonefish

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