Sure they have. ;) You might want to visit scene.org or demoscene.tv to learn something about the Demoscene if you don't know what it is. Wikipedia has a nice description, too.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing, hopefully anyone else who stops by this piece has a chance to read the comments you posted.
For example. In a few words, people united and unite into groups and show how well they can code, draw, make music and render 3-D models. These "demos", as the one on the link posted earlier, show what the demogroup people are capable of, and boost the self-esteem of each demomaker involved in a very good and creative way. =)
Some game makers and modern musicians started off making demos - graphics, code and soundtrack.
hahaha that is awesome. i assure you i have never seen this, but its funny how similar it is. what was this for?
Something from Ra or Lazur, I think.
Here is one by Lazur:
For some reason, this also reminds me of this.
http://www.exotica.org.uk/mirrors/gfxzone/gallery_personal.html
what kind of old school stuff does it remind you of? mind if i take a look?
O-o-oh, oldskool. Would be worth showing this on a demoparty for sure.
@ TheInquisitor - Great crits...and I have an answer for both things you mentioned. ---- As far as the shadow and the moon, the first position I had the shadow cast was exactly like you said, "downward"...or toward the viewer more or less.. It looked bad, it just really took away from how vast the desert area looked. I really tried my hardest to follow the rules of lighting on this, I think maybe certain situations can allow for a little alteration. I do agree with you though, I wish I had the skill/ability to make it more realistic, follow all the rules of gravity/light/UNIVERSE! and still have it look nice. haha..I'll leave that to you pros.
As far as the border, I was going to go with the leaf being the very end of this piece, when I went back to look at the rules of this challenge, it didn't allow for transparency! Damn it! I was pretty pissed, so I just tried to come up with something that would look good on any persons background, but look a little better than just a plain color. I didn't want to have to much going on outside the leaf though. My point was to keep it all inside there.
Do you want some jerky, not really necessary criticism? Of course you do! Allow me to oblige. :) Perhaps I am wrong, but based on the positioning of the moon, should the shadow he is casting be going in a more vertical angle? Of course, this probably wouldn't look as good stylistically, but if you want to consider it, I'm just putting it out there!
Further personal criticism would be that I don't like the outer area around the life. Another person has talked it up, but I'm not in agreement. I'd think it better if you ditched the dithered-pillow shading area and replace it with flat plain transparency! (so it would be the same as the website's grey). I personally think that would be better.
As for the piece in general, well there's some fabulous pixel work and a great mood. I see a dytopic "Beneath a Steel Sky" look to the piece. I really like the clouds and the idea of the leaf shape around the piece. I always prefer these well thought out "borders" as they make a piece look more polished than just a square box.
Hey man, I really appreciate that..but I think you should still enter! there is no reason to not practice. But aside from that, you can still win!
Whaaaaaat. This palette is maybe the best I've ever seen. A brilliantly atmospheric piece. I was going to enter the challenge but now I feel ashamed.
really like what you did with the area around the leaf. Sometimes less is more ;-)
Look who finally decided to post. I'm in awe of the mood within the piece, very cool.
@Christoballs - Yea I know it is a bit confusing. I saw the challenge and jumped on it after being away for some time. And I drew the guy alone outside of the city at first..and felt it was really plain so I just went for something a little off the wall
Beautiful, well done and early too that is a good one so farr u have my vote on this 
very beautiful scene. I loved how you did the landscape. I'll wait for other entries, but you're certainly one of my favorites.
great work! i wouldnt mind some explanation on this though.
Pretty.