[mjn]

Interactive demo-like things have been taking off lately, but mostly under the label "games" (which sells more), even in the case where the game-ness is pretty minimal. Not sure if they're explicitly inspired by the demoscene or not, but interactive-procedural-graphics-and-sound stuff like Proteus feels very much like a demoscene production to me (http://www.visitproteus.com/). Main difference imo is more focus on the procedural interactivity from an experiential perspective, and less focus on technical virtuosity.

[rollypolly]

Indeed, many people went from the demoscene to the game industry. Case in point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedy_Entertainment

[forza]

..and a lot of other northen european games companies.

http://www.4players.de/4sceners.php/dispbericht/-/5157/0/ind...

[Cushman]

But strictly demos are non-interactive, right? That's the question I have: Is there a market for a pure-digital multimedia art form beside games?

[Impossible]

There was a commercial demo released for the PS3 on PSN called Linger in Shadows(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linger_in_Shadows), sold for $3. Farbrausch also released a commercial PSN demo called .detuned. I'm surprised the demo scene hasn't released more productions for iOS or Android. It seems like impressive non-interactive or semi-interactive demos with no game play would do alright either ad supported or at the $0.99 price point. I'm not sure if the average person would really get the difference between a real time non-interactive demo and a video playing on their phone, though.

[scoopr]

Funny thing, someone tried to submit a demo to appstore. It got insta-failed approval for the use of the word “demo” in the description, because don't allow “demo versions” of applications in the store. He tried to explain the nature of the application, and in the end still didn't get through approval, exactly because it didn't have any interactivity, so there was no perceived use for users.

So the issue is distribution, if you can't put it to friends device without jumping through hoops, it gains less interest. I haven't followed android-scene that much, but I believe there are at least some ports of demos available. There the hoops are in supporting different kind of devices.

But asking for money? Not in the spirit of scene, how are you gonna ‘show off’ your mad skills if you are gonna ask for money? :)

[mjn]

Some demos have interactive components I believe, though I'm having trouble digging up a prominent example at the moment. Not as games per se, but in the sense that the graphics/audio can change procedurally in response to keystrokes.

As far as non-interactive demo-style stuff, markets pop up occasionally for procedural/generative art, which is related, though again with less focus on compactness (except when necessary). There was a market for screensavers in the 90s, for example, and some had pretty involved procedural stuff going on. Today there are a handful of mobile apps doing generative graphics, e.g. http://superfiretruck.com/iteration/. I think you could probably sell a demoscene production or demo-pack on Android.

[Jare]

Our Heartquake back in '94 had a flyby sequence over a voxel landscape. The path was predesigned, but you could take control at any moment by pressing keys or the mouse. I thought more demos would incorporate such optional interactivity in more subtle ways and more types of effects (ours was kind of obvious), but it didn't happen.

[pheon]

market absolutely, look at the amount of scene stuff on the web.

I think your question is, will someone pay money for a pure off the wall demo - short answer is no.

long answer is they kinda have for a while, futuremark was the classic commercialized demo. difference tho is, it had a utility besides the eye candy.

[leif]

Yes, there is, but the way to break in is to start with things incorporating programs in small ways within a larger piece, call it experimental, and slowly make the composition more computer-centric.