Create very simple non-game app with Unity?

Unity Engine
1

Hi,

I’m still at a very beginner’s level with Unity but already very impressed of all the capabilities and functions Unity provides.

I’d like to create my first mobile app now (not directly a “game”), but I’m not sure wheater Unity is the right software and a good solution for my purposes.

Basically, I’m intending to create an app with the following functions:

  • Main menu

  • Possibility to rate a picture.

  • Feedback at the end (e.g. “You rated 3/10 with thumbs up.”)

Can any experienced user here tell me, if Unity is appropriate / efficient enough for my purposes?

Or would you reccomend me another software for creating such an app (if yes, which software)?

Thank you for helping me!

2

Can nobody here answer the question?

Thanks in advance!

3

It seems like pretty big overkill to use a 3D engine just for that.

–Eric

4

Way too big of an overhead for what you need it to do. Take a look at stuff like Xamarin or write it natively for the platform(s).

5

Does the overhead actually matter in a case like this? Or is it just about the download size?

6

Unity is primarily a game engine designed to run as fast as possible, and the display is constantly being refreshed even if nothing visibly changes on-screen. So using it for a mostly static app would drain battery unnecessarily. (Which didn’t stop me from using it for a mostly static mobile app, because it was the fastest/easiest way for me to make it, but it’s for my own use and I’m not inflicting it on others. :wink: )

–Eric

1 Like
7

Overhead always matters on mobile. Even the background color matters - did you know that having a white background will drain battery faster than black? Every time you play a sound, show an image, load a file - you’re eating up battery. As Eric5h5 said, your running a program that’s made to render 3d graphics to print text. The physics engine is still running, the game is still doing all the normal checks and background work that it normally does.

For a very simple app, I wouldn’t use it. If you’re going to do it anyway, at least invest some time learning a good GUI system and make it look really flashy. Otherwise, yeah, it’s a generic app that uses 10x the battery power. Probably more.

1 Like
8

Thanks for your answers!

So how about Unity’s new 2D functionality?
Or is it still too resource-consuming?

Thank you also for your advice concerning Xamarin!
I already googled it and watched a few videos.
Are there any other softwares you can recommend?

Best regards

9

The 2D features don’t change the way Unity works at all; the “2D” sprites are still actually 3D objects.

–Eric

10

Okay, then I’ll try Xamarin or something like that.
If anyone knows a good alternative, please let me know.

Eric and all the others, thank you very much for your kind supprt!