wild compo

A "wild compo" does not rate the extent to which something is undomesticated. Rather, it is the demoparty program equivalent of a "none of the above" bubble on a multiple choice survey. If you have something to bring to the party and want to present it for consideration (and appreciation) of the crowd and judges but it doesn't really quite belong in any of the formal competition categories they are offering, the wild compo is a "miscellaneous" catch-all category for "and everything else", sometimes including works that would defy eligibility requirements otherwise applicable to all entries. Not every party has a wild compo. Some wild compos (eg. [Crash '97], which Cthulu won with foam boffer combat) are wilder than others. Sometimes (as with Turn, Turn, Turn!) an entry intended for submission to the wild compo will be recategorized by the judges and entered into competition alongside other works it is similar to. But all in all, a wild compo ensures that nobody, not even the party organizers, necessarily know how things are going to unfold at their demoparty.

Some common rationales for entries being submitted to wild compos include their being made for custom or bespoke hardware or non-traditional platforms, or involving the creation of objects or the presentation of performances referencing or concerned with demoscene and technology culture rather than practice , like an analogue demake of a popular historical demo production.