Android/iPhone Development

Questions & Answers
1

I am currently still at school and this is going to be my last year before school is over. I am also making games etc and things to see what I can do and how experienced I can get before school is over. I really want to make apps for both android and iphone, but I don’t want to buy a new computer until school is over(because I’m gonna need a mac). I am however at school working on unity on a mac (just the normal free version).

Just a few questions that would make things a bit more clear:

  1. From looking at other questions I think that it is possible to transfer a game made on unity free to a unity version that supports iPhone and Android development. How easy will this be? Because I feel like some scripts wouldn’t work 100% the same or I’m gonna need to change some scripts to C# and possibly screen resolution differences aswell as overall perfomance on mobile devices compared to computers with “dedicated graphics cards”.
  2. Is it possible to test games on unity free in an iphone or android kind of window with similar commands before so I can see what the game will look like, or so that I can have some progress or modules that I can use after I buy a Mac?
  3. Are there any more benefits for Android development on Macs than PCs? (I know I will need a Mac for iPhone development)
  4. Is it as simple to code for tapping, tilting, and touch controls as it is to code for keyboard input or will it be harder? (This isn’t so necessary because I would probaby figure it out in the end)
  5. Does Unity for mobile devices come with a built in way to put ads and links to facebook(and Other Social Media) in applications or will I need to search for plugins and add ons
  6. Is multiplayer (not online, but with friends with iphones or devices around you) easy to do or will it again need plugins or other extra things
  7. I don’t think I’ll ever make an online game but just for the sake of it, is online development on android/iphone as hard as it is to make multiplayer online on standalone (PC/Mac)? Because I’ve managed to get very simple multiplayer working on the free version of unity with smart fox server or something else (i did it like a year ago, so its vaguely in my head). From memory i eventually gave up because I’d spent hours and hours and there was a limited amount of resources for multiplayer development. I feel like online for android/iphone is easier because unity has this spaceship iphone multiplayer tutorial in its resources section.
  8. Will I only be limited to using the ios/android unity licenses (the $400 ones) on one Mac( or other computer etc)?
  9. Is uploading a game to the app store/google play store relatively fast (less than an hour with a decent internet) and quick to do all the publishing verificant details?

Thanks in advanced and i will take into account any suggestions or questions if you don’t understand one of the questions I am asking.

2

one - no problem at all transferring. note that you constantly, continually, have to do intense engineering regarding things like “screen resolution” and “performance”

two - not really, it’s largely impossible. there is an emulator for android but it’s largely useless (note it runs only on pc, not mac). you should already be familiar with using xcode for mac/ios.

three - for android: i would not say it’s “better” on a mac, but it is “no worse” on a mac. you are perfectly ok with only a mac

four - all programming is extremely difficult

five - things like that are not built in. many people use the Prime31 plugins which do all you say. you may prefer other brands of plugin. simply search on the Asset Store. click now to open the asset store, and go ahead and search.

six - what you mean is “local multiplayer”. that is done entirely in Unity. you need no plugins. be aware it is very difficult programming. search on here for many questions on it. Unity’s networking is beautiful and amazing and superb. (but again, all network programming - even Unity - is hard) search now for questions on here about it

seven - it is just as hard if not harder. you mention something taking “hours and hours”. note that game development takes years and years. it is very possible you may be better in some other career. (there are a million things you could do to help people - start a pizza franchise, learn to cut diamonds . whatever)

eight - you are allowed to use two of your own computers, search on here for a hundred questions about it

nine - don’t even bother doing anything with computers unless you have a serious internet connection. regarding “publishing details” (becoming a registered developer etc) it is a huge hassle on both platforms