Field-FX 2026 - A demoparty in an tent at EMF Camp 2026
16th July - 19th 2026, Eastnor Park, Ledbury, UK
demoscene, a digital
frontier arts subculture. And EMF Camp, a festival
for hackers and creative people to gather, party, and share knowledge.
We're throwing a demoparty, and everyone at EMF Camp is invited to
watch, to make entries, and to have a great time. There's a saying on
the scene, "the real party is outside." Well it doesn't get any more
outside than this!
Our goal is to bring the spirit of the demoscene to more people, and
to encourage creativity. We hope you will join us!
Anyone who has a ticket to EMF Camp can join us on site. If you want
to watch remotely, we will be streaming the event on
Twitch. To
submit entries (please submit entries!) we will be announcing our
partynet nearer the event. We are not charging for anything, but
EMF tickets
are sold separately.
Competitions
Demo
The central focus of the demoscene, an extravaganza of executable animation and audio, it's the demo compo.
We accept entries for newschool platforms (that is, desktop computers, web, etc.) as well as oldschool (8 and 16-bit home computers and consoles), and fantasy consoles such as TIC-80 and Pico-8.
Sizecoded entries are welcome too.
Badge / Microcontroller
This is a hacker camp, so let's do something with a hacker camp vibe!
Anyone who's seen an EMF Camp badge knows its potential. But maybe you
have an Arduino, or a MicroBIT, sitting around waiting to be used
creatively? Now is your chance to make a demo for a new platform!
A festival special, to celebrate the fabulous tent-art onsite! Decorate
your tent with signs, lights, glitter or plushies, or whatever you think
looks most epic, and submit a photo or video to the competition!
Wild
And then there is everything else. What could we possibly have missed?
These competitions are quite broad because this is only a small party,
but if a particular sub-category is very popular, we may (with the
consent of the entrants) split the competition to make it fairer. For
instance oldschool vs newschool or sizecoded vs full-size. All entries
will be loved, respected, and cheered!
Competition Rules
General
Only submit your own work, solo or as part of a collaboration.
Compo entries must not have been released before. Previously released
content is fine so long as the work as a whole is substantially new.
Runtime for any executable, wild or badge entry must not exceed ten
minutes. If it does, it may be cut off after that time.
Play time for any music entry must not exceed five minutes. If it does, it
had better be a banger.
No generative AI content in all compos.
No AI generated or inspired (e.g. prototyping or base artwork for tracing) entries in graphics and music compos.
We reserve the right to omit any entry for any reason, but we will do what we can to avoid that situation.
Demoparties take a lot of preparation, and helping you with your issues is contingent on one of the crew
having enough spare time to do so, which is not guaranteed.
Adults are welcome to collaborate with young sceners, but for fairness
please tell us who did what on the comments when you submit your entry
Technical
All executable entries need to provide the binaries required to run it on
the target platform, short instructions (or a link) how to do so, and also
a video capture of the production. We will check, within reason, that
demos run as expected, but a video capture will ensure that your prod is
shown on the screen at the party in the way that you expect it to be. If
you need help with this, get in touch.
For anything more complex than a simple image or audio file, we recommend
you include a text file (sceners still use the .nfo file extension for
some bizarre reason) containing any additional information or licensing.
Rights and Responsibilities
Read and follow the code of conduct. You know it makes sense.
We can refuse to show any entry for any reason. But we do want to show
your entry, so read and follow the code of conduct.
You give us permission to play your entry at the party.
You give us permission to upload your entry to scene.org. If you wish for
any additional information to be included alongside your upload, put it in
the zip.
Timetable
Coming soon!
Code of conduct
We are committed to making Field FX an inclusive and welcoming event.
Unfortunately, sometimes harassment happens. While we are present on
site at EMF Camp we are all subject to the
EMF Camp Code of Conduct
and our organisers are invested in supporting it.
We will also be extending the same Code of Conduct to our party
stream. Moderators will be present in online channels operated by
Field FX and their identity will be established by a group message at
regular intervals throughout the stream. Tagging them in your message
will elicit a response. During a stream we aim to reach a decision on
all conduct issues within 10 minutes. Outside of channels operated by
us we cannot guarantee support. All reports will be taken seriously
and will be considered in confidence by our team.
