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And the best thing is the author shared it as a shader toy: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/WsSBzh

And he's also the co-creator of the website.

Great, was not aware of that at all. Was quite flabbergasted at how so little (albeit very dense) code could generate such a lively scene without any use of textures etc.

Then you should definitely look into the "Demoscene". It's basically a subculture built around writing impressive little graphics demos.

What exactly makes them impressive depends on the category, e.g. a limited hardware platform like some 80s computer, or limited space. A popular category is "4k", meaning that the program has to fit into 4096 bytes. 4k demos can actually get quite visually complex and even feature music.

Many modern games that let you explore gigantic, seemingly infinite spaces (e.g. Minecraft, No Man's Sky) owe a lot to the ideas that originated in the Demoscene.

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