Is the unity engine only for games?

Getting Started
1

This is likely a very stupid question but I’m looking to develop a cloud based app on iOS as well as Android and a friend pointed me to the unity engine as it is compatible with many different interfaces. However, from everything I see, it definitely looks like it’s 100% for games and wouldn’t be of use for a standard app. However, if I’m wrong about that, it would definitely be an easier way to develop an app as I would only have to learn one development system and it would be able to be deployed to both android and iOS (as well as many other potential platforms).

So yeah, is this usable for anything besides games? Or am I asking the wrong question entirely?

2

It’s usable for any sort of app, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s optimized for games.

So, for example, you can’t readily get the native look & feel on each platform. If you want a totally custom UI anyway, that may not matter.

Also, games tend to be power-hungry; you might not want to use it for apps intended to be left running for a long time (though there are ways you can reduce the power usage if you try).

I’m using Unity to make an LCARS-style home automation app. It can work fine for that sort of thing.

3

Are Motors only for Cars?

4

“Not a game” is not the same as “a standard app”. That is, I would still use Unity for lots of things of than games (eg. interactive art installations) but not to do standard “scrollable list UI” mobile apps. Look into xamarin as a way to use C# (ie. the programming language used by Unity) to develop cross-platform mobile apps.

5

Thanks for the replies, jhocking and JoeStrout!

It sounds like xamarin is probably a better approach for what I’m trying to do (since there is unlikely to be any need for animations in my application). Thanks for the recommendation!

6

The unity engine is only for game technology use. So if an application will make use of game technology, it’s a great choice.

If you’re not making much use of the features of a game engine, there is no point. For example military simulators and arch vis both use game technology, but a personal calendar does not much.