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Is developing for tablets the same as developing for Android?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Gaia447, May 11, 2020.

  1. Gaia447

    Gaia447

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2020
    Posts:
    6
    I am considering purchasing a Samsung Galaxy tab A 10.1" tablet for developing games, meaning I will develop the game on my PC and then download it onto my tablet to play.

    My questions are:

    1. Is developing for tablets the same as developing for android? or do I need to use some API to be able to develop mobile games and run them on my tablet as well?

    Here are the specs, would this be enough to run 2.5D RPG on?

    10.1" touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200.
    2 GB of RAM
    Octa-Core processor
    This Galaxy Tab A runs on the Android P operating system.

    Thanks for any help.
     
  2. Murgilod

    Murgilod

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2013
    Posts:
    10,083
    You have answered your own question.
     
  3. Gaia447

    Gaia447

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2020
    Posts:
    6
    Not every tablet runs the same operating system, which is why I am not sure, I don't know the capabilities of the different OS's. I don't know if games built for android in Unity are interoperable across the different OS's, which is why I asked.
     
  4. sxa

    sxa

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2014
    Posts:
    741
    What do you mean by 'interoperable' here? If you build a game for a specific target OS it will not run on a different target OS.

    Android is one of the two different operating systems you'll find on tablets and phones. The other is iOS. And games built for Android in Unity wont run on iOS. However they will run on some devices running Android.

    However, there are different versions of Android and iOS. And Unity can target some of those specific versions, depending on which version of Unity you're using, and maybe what OS your development system is (OSX or Windows) and the version of that OS.

    The basic assumption would be that when you build for a specific version of Android or iOS, it'll very probably run on that version and 'near' later versions, but not earlier versions and maybe not 'distant' later versions either. So if you build for Android 7, expect it to run on Android 8, but not Android 6, and in the future it may not work on Android 12.

    Unity supports building for versions of Android from 4.4 upwards.
     
    Kiwasi likes this.
  5. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Jan 27, 2013
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    13,553
    They run android or iOS. I've not heard of a tablet running anything else. Although in theory you could find windows tablets.
     
  6. Ryiah

    Ryiah

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2012
    Posts:
    20,951
    In theory Ubuntu can be found too.

    https://www.ubuntu.org.cn/tablet
     
  7. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Jan 27, 2013
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    13,553