Blog of art & tech stuff.

I'm happy to share that my piece “Do Demons Play Doom Too?” won the graphics competition at Instanssi 2026.

This year's overall quality of the Demo and Intro entries was noticeably higher than in previous years. Seeing that level of ambition and technical execution made the win feel especially rewarding.

My piece explores a playful but slightly philosophical question: what if the demon isn't the boss fight - but the player?

Visually, I wanted to combine gothic atmosphere, retro gaming and the color language of classic DOOM into a single cinematic frame. The goal was to create something that feels both epic and oddly intimate. A late night ritual that probably continues until the wee hours of the morning.

What I appreciate most about demoparties is the combination of technical skill, artistic risk-taking, community spirit and unrelenting creative stubbornness.

You build something because you have to see it exist. You put it on a big screen and let it stand on its own.

Grateful to everyone involved in organizing Instanssi and to the audience for the votes.

What started out as singular experiment to see if the original Earthling ship design could be adapted into 3D got slightly out of hand. In the end I had created 3D versions of all 25 ships available in the Star Control 2 Super-Melee using Blender. Music made by me in Reason.

Behold: Star Control in early 90's flat shaded, low poly, untextured glory.

List of ships in the video: Androsynth Guardian, Arilou Skiff, Chenjesu Broodhome, Chmmr Avatar, Druuge Mauler, Earthling Cruiser, Ilwrath Avenger, Kohr-Ah Marauder, Melnorme Trader, Mmrnmhrm X-Form, Mycon Podship, Orz Nemesis, Pkunk Fury, Shofixti Scout, Slylandro Probe, Spathi Eluder, Supox Blade, Syreen Penetrator, Thraddash Torch, Umgah Drone, Ur-Quan Dreadnought, Utwig Jugger, VUX Intruder, Yehat Terminator, Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger.

Watch on YouTube

This is getting suspiciously routine... but yes, I have 2 more demoscene results to report (🥉+ 🥇).

My C64 multicolor image “Sanctuary” placed 🥉 3rd in the Pixeled Graphics (8-bit) competition at Syntax '25 held in Melbourne Australia. What really made my day was the warm and enthusiastic feedback from the Commodore 64 community online. That crowd knows its craft inside out, so it feels like a real milestone. Working inside the tight limits of the C64 continues to sharpen how I think about shape, palette and visual storytelling.

I also submitted a modern digital illustration and ended up taking 🥇 1st place in the Modern Graphics competition. Even though I unexpectedly ended up the only participant, I'm proud of the piece and of continuing to bring new work.

Every event challenges me to adapt, experiment and design with different constraints in mind. That mindset translates directly into my work in game development and technical art.

Looking forward to bringing these lessons into future projects.

My art won 🥈 2nd place! This was my entry for the Graphics competition at Comparade '25, a very small event held in Germany. The idea was to combine something disgusting and absurd with a familiar human activity: a grotesque creature enjoying a moment of self-care. It's not "safe art". It evokes discomfort and laughter at the same time and when you look past the slime and the eyes, it's just... someone trying to get clean! 🧼

From a technical side, the piece was a fun one and a half day project in Blender and Photoshop. Sculpting organic forms, layering subsurface materials, lighting for soft translucency, and making the soap bubbles interact convincingly with the skin. 🫧

While it didn't win, it definitely sparked reactions and for me, that's the real goal. Art that surprises and makes people feel something, whether it's laughter, unease or curiosity, always wins in the long run.

Praise Tubthulhu! 🦑

I'm happy to share that I won yet another digital graphics competition this year! This time I participated in the Freestyle Graphics competition at Demosplash 2025 held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is presented by the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club.

The classic Macintosh is instantly recognized in the US as a cultural symbol that represents creativity, education and design. Over the years the old beige boxes have become objects for collectors and restorers. My "Frankenmac" is a humorous warning of "what can happen if you mod your Mac too much".

I approach my art with clear goals and intention: understanding what resonates in the audience's mind, translating that into design and style choices that communicate emotion and story. The process from concept to completion is what makes my work connect with people.

Demosplash is one of the largest and longest running demoparties in North America, catering both to newcomers as well as established artists.

I had fun with this mock up of a screenshot of two games that are very well known in the Finnish Commodore community: Last Ninja 2 - Back With a Vengeance and Uuno Turhapuro muuttaa maalle. The latter is a notoriously difficult game based on an old series of comedy movies starring a bumbling character.

I replaced the New York City landscape and Statue of Liberty with landmarks from Helsinki, Finland and translated the English on-screen texts. The title of imaginary game is also a combination of the two games, in English it means "The Last Uuno 2: Returning From The Countryside".

I posted it to a Finnish online C64 community page on Facebook and it got a ton of likes.

Update: I made a quick mockup of the Central Railway Station in Helsinki as a playable area.

The event's theme, "Fables for Robots", inspired me to build a dark yet poetic scene: a biomechanical mother snake in her swamp, surrounded by hatchlings. It is a picture about protection and tenderness on the inside, and menace to all who draw too close.

Being chosen to close the competition show and then taking the audience's top vote was a moment of both recognition and validation. Each success this year in international graphics competitions has been a reminder that atmosphere and storytelling matter as much as technical execution.

My goal was to tell a simple and clear, emotionally driven story in a photo that anyone can relate to. The piece was made using practical props: a VHS tape, a floppy disk and a cassette tape. I brought them to life with 3D printed arms and legs I designed in Blender 3D.

Out of 265 total competition entries across all categories, this image received the 21st highest score overall. The image was captured using a Sony NEX-3 camera and a film-era Pentax 1:1.4 50mm lens.

The piece was a tongue-in-cheek take on the tradition of melting beads. I used Blender's Geometry Nodes tool to distribute beads, replacing the skull's volume. "Bead Uprising" depicts a sentient form rebelling against its conventional use.

It was a project that took about one working day to complete, and I am happy with the result. A huge thank you to the Nordlicht organizers for hosting such a fantastic event.

This was my first time creating a full-resolution C64 artwork using McDraw, which exports both image and executable formats for the real hardware. Working under the constraints of the Commodore 64 was creatively rewarding and humbling.

I am especially happy about how readable and expressive it turned out despite the limitations. The final image was a playful take on the undead theme and was received with cheers and applause by the audience.

The piece was created for the event's theme, "The demoscene is undead!" I drew inspiration from the party's website and branding, which featured bold colors and a distinctive retro-horror tone.

The entire image was made in Blender and Photoshop in roughly one day, from an idea in my head to the finished picture. The audience reception made the creative alignment feel especially rewarding.

In total I spent approximately one working day on it and had less than two hours left before the deadline. I submitted the piece as a remote entry and followed the event via livestream.

The official count is now three: Human Earthling, Umgah Drone and Slylandro Probe.

Watch on YouTube

The floppy drive is fake, as is the key lock, but the new power button does work.

The brown material is "mukha" PLA. I had a reproduction power badge from Etsy, so I made it part of this project. The red LED lights up when the power is on, just like the real thing.

It houses a Raspberry Pi 4, active stereo speakers, an SSD drive for storage and a tenkeyless keyboard. I used Blender for modeling the 3D printed parts, drawing inspiration from Sony MSX2 computers of the 1980s.

It is already being used for some retro gaming, and the game F-1 Spirit from 1987 is running in demo mode on the screen.

I put together a quick low-poly version that looks like it came straight from early 1990s gaming hardware. I wanted to see what the ship might have looked like if Star Control had been released somewhere around 1993-1996.

I also tweaked the GUI so the ship could have more room to breathe. Except for the background, the 2D elements were cut, pasted and modified from an original in-game screenshot.

Assembly brings together talented digital artists in the demoscene, and standing on stage to briefly talk about my creative process was an incredible experience. I focused on dynamic composition, material work, humor and storytelling.

I took some color cues from Wing Commander and added storytelling elements such as biological breeding tubes, aiming to add more depth to the original game's story. The fire extinguishers could also be used as game-mechanical devices to incapacitate or distract robots.

I used Blender 3D and Photoshop.

For the children!

To see the full animation, visit my X post.

Because why not. The badge was bought from an Etsy seller, and I had it laying around doing nothing.

Made in Blender 3D.

The computer is a Wyse CX0/C10LE with a 1GHz VIA C7 processor, 128 MB RAM and a 2 GB DOM solid-state drive for storage. It is completely silent and very low power, needing only a 12V power supply.

Since it has USB ports, transferring files to it is easy by booting into FreeDOS. CuteMouse works nicely with a PS/2 mouse, and the lack of a natively compatible sound card is remedied by SBEMU Sound Blaster emulation.

A USB floppy drive was used to install MS-DOS. Those disks are getting so old that I kept getting many read errors, but somehow I got through it.

Assembly Summer is a huge LAN and demoparty held annually in Helsinki, Finland. A prompt of "It was working when you bought it" and 1.5 hours of time was given to create a picture.

The picture I made at the event.

Imagine drinking the C64 premium lager while typing away some BASIC. This went viral on a few Commodore-related online communities. The label design is visually very close to the original C64 User's Manual. Made in Blender 3D and Photoshop.

Not MS-DOS, but FreeDOS. Not Intel or AMD CPU, but Transmeta. Not Sound Blaster, but SB Pro compatibility on VIA chipset. No HDD, but Flash Disk on Module. No floppy or CD drive, but files can be transferred to the local hard drive from a USB drive with retro USB 1.1 speeds. Wolfenstein 3D seen in the back runs just fine.

It is a vacuum cleaner that can take elements from the environment and use them as ammunition in creative and non-lethal ways. In addition to vacuuming, it can also blow whatever material is stored and mixed inside.