Over the latter half of 2004, interest in the framework put together for this demo escalated, and the advantages of maintaining a framework upon which VAE development could be carried out became readily apparent. Instead of weeks to build a stable VAE demo application, results could be achieved in hours. The extensible structure of the proto-Illusionist meant that applications completely unlike the original aLife demo were being supported with relative ease. In the Autumn of 2004, it was decided that the framework was more useful and important than any given implementation of a demo on that framework - and also that an opportunity presented itself to begin the push to get augmented desktops out of research labs, and into circulation with the general public. The demo framework became an entity in its own right - the Illusionist - and was published as open source software.