arts

PLAYA VISTA, Calif.--Electronic Arts is betting big that it can make more money by giving its games away.

The company plans to offer Real Racing 3, its marquee mobile racing game, for free to iOS and Android customers on February 28. That marks a dramatic shift for the franchise, which previously charged a hefty amount for the console-quality game. Real Racing 2 for the iPhone still costs $4.99.

The change underscores a move toward a business known in the mobile industry as "freemium," or games that are freely offered but have the option of in-game purchases … Read more

If you want the best Dead Space 3 experience, it's nearly necessary to turn off the lights and crank up the sound. Do you ever think about where those bloodcurdling noises originate, though?

To get a better understanding of the scary sounds in Dead Space 3, The Creators Project went behind the scenes at Visceral Games, developer of DS3. It's a fascinating glimpse into the hard work that goes into creating those heart-pumping noises that many people may take for granted (or not really think about at all) when they're busy wiping out a pack of Necromorphs. … Read more

It's a challenge for anybody selling a wide range of anything online: how do you get the right products in front of the right customers?

Shutterstock, which sells stock-art photos and videos to customers such as ad agencies and PowerPoint presenters, has the matchmaking problem in spades. With 550,000 active customers and more than 23.7 million images, pairing the right buyer with the right photo isn't easy.

Which is why the New York-based company, which went public last October, is retooling how it presents its products to better compete with iStockphoto and other rivals.

Shutterstock has … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We may never be able to replace the splendor of painting on a real canvas with store-bought pigments, but the supreme accuracy of a modern touch-screen computer can offer an artistic experience that would even make Dali's head spin.

Deep within the maze-like setup of Sony's booth at CES 2013, I sat down with artist April Wong as she painted a woman using the ArtRage drawing program on a Sony Vaio Duo 11 hybrid tablet. Stroke by stroke, a realistic image emerged from Wong's stylus, and I couldn't help but find myself surprised that the visage appearing on the tablet looked as good, if not better, than a real painting. No mess, either!… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Vuforia is Qualcomm's new augmented reality development platform, and some of the early demos I saw at CES 2013 were very impressive.

In one section of the Qualcomm booth an exhibitor held a tablet and pointed it at a famous Leonardo da Vinci painting. The software was able to identify the painting (because it was already in the app's database) and the exhibitor was able to use her finger to "wipe away" the top layer of the painting to show the layers of art painted by da Vinci underneath.

Over the past few years, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--When you come to CES here, you expect to see computers and TVs galore. Mobile phones, sure. Printer and speakers? Check. But a 50-foot-long mechanical snake?

Though we're in an arid, desert-like Nevada environment (never mind all the cement and golf courses), this isn't Burning Man. But sure enough, just behind the CNET trailer here, Titanoboa is strutting its stuff. And indeed, Titanoboa is a 50-foot mechanical snake.

Created by EatArt, the Vancouver arts collective, Titanoboa seeks to invoke the promise -- or the threat -- of global climate change, and the kinds of things we might start to see happen on this wonderful planet of ours. According to the Titanoboa project page: … Read more

Even a stoic sci-fi bad guy like Darth Vader, with his menacing helmet, can be reborn into a fancy, smile-inducing art piece.

Indiana-based artist Gabriel Dishaw created an unusual twist on Darth Vader with an upcycled mask, which features a smorgasbord of old junk attached and integrated into the Sith Lord's helmet. The parts include various keys, circuit boards, and other appendages sourced from ancient adding machines, typewriters, and computers. Any of you out there with some extra holiday cash can pick up the one-of-a-kind Darth Vader junk art mask on Etsy for a crisp $800. … Read more

The pragmatic and the weak tend to believe that if you can't beat them, you should join them. However, a significant number of the world's humans would just as soon carry on beating them.

Please choose sides, then, on a subject that may divide the artistic community from here to eternity.

The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is the latest to offer something that might stick in a throat or two: tweet seats.

Yes, this is a specially cordoned-off pen in which digital obsessives whip out their iPhones and tweet: "Oh, look. The fat lady's dead!" … Read more

An avid player of Electronic Arts' "The Simpsons: Tapped Out" mobile game, David Lamb was disheartened when he logged into his account in October and found that all of the data from his game was gone.

The iOS game, which is essentially "Farmville" with Springfield buildings and Simpsons characters, rewards players who spend huge amounts of time completing tasks and collecting money in an effort to re-create their favorite animated city. Lamb, a 45-year-old video editor from La Canada, Calif., had accumulated $80,000 in game cash and 70 donuts (the game's premium currency) after … Read more