variant vs Elemental Forces
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
variant
Experience a unique, ever-evolving audiovisual artwork that generates new music and imagery with every touch. Designed for all ages, this generative art piece offers a dynamic and unpredictable sensory experience.
- Generative music and imagery
- Interactive touch controls
- Multi-touch support (up to 10 fingers)
- Visualizes audio engine
- Screenshot functionality
- Ever-changing, non-repeating experience
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variant:breaker is an audiovisual artwork that creates beautiful, ever-changing music and imagery. The app combines user input and built-in randomness to create images and music that will continually change, grow and evolve, offering a new and different experience every time. For users of all ages, variant:breaker is a chance to explore and experience a unique work of generative art. variant:breaker was created for an installation in New York City’s Times Square, and combines immediately responsive interactivity with aggressive visuals and sound designed to stand up to one of the most intense audiovisual environments in the world. To interact with variant:breaker, simply touch the screen. Each touch will play a new, randomly selected sound and alter the visuals. You can use up to 10 fingers at once to control the sounds and visuals. You can view the indeterminate audio engine by tapping the dot in the lower right. The display shows the different elements of the musical composition as they are loaded by the engine through a combination of chance and user input. The center button opens a menu of settings for the app, and the button to the right allows you to take screenshots of the visuals, automatically saving them to your photo library. The Variant apps are a new series of generative audiovisual artworks from Interval Studios featuring visuals by Joshue Ott and music by Kenneth Kirschner. Each Variant features a unique visual composition by Ott based on his superDraw visual performance software, as well as a new indeterminate musical composition by Kirschner. Each Variant app also offers a different set of interactive controls for the user, ranging from the ability to subtly influence the development of the piece to total interactive control over both visuals and sound. All of the Variants are generative artworks: through a varying combination of built-in randomness and user input, each Variant will continually grow and evolve over time without ever directly repeating itself either visually or musically, offering the user an ever-changing, ever-evolving audiovisual experience.
Elemental Forces
Experience a digital augmented reality art installation. Point your device at paintings or surfaces to trigger a dynamic sound and light show. Explore geometric shapes and interactive audio influenced by your touch and position.
- Augmented reality art display
- Interactive soundscapes
- Light effects
- Geometric shape visuals
- Touch and location-based interaction
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For the digital augmented reality experience, point your device at the paintings or a surface, and experience a sound and light experience. The program is structured around simple geometric shapes, with sounds affected by your location and touch. This series of digital art and oil paintings represents is a meditation on air, light, surfaces, sound and color.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: variant at weekly against Elemental Forces's every 3 months. variant also leads on ratings volume (6 vs 1) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). Elemental Forces's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Elemental Forces holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: variant has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
variant ships an update weekly, Elemental Forces every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on August 14, 2026 and July 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | variant | Elemental Forces |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 97 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Interval Studios | Bryan Leister |
Customer experience
variant
Elemental Forces
In-app purchases
variant
No in-app purchases
Elemental Forces
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is variant free?
Is Elemental Forces free?
Which has better reviews, variant or Elemental Forces?
Do variant or Elemental Forces have ads?
Which is updated more often, variant or Elemental Forces?
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