Would Unity be appropriate for a simple quiz game?

Hello guys. I'm a student on my last year in college about to begin my graduation project. I always wanted to make games, so I decided to take this opportunity to start. I still know very little about Unity or any other kind of game development engine or framework though, so I'm planning on starting small.

I want to make a simple educational game that teaches about astronomy. I want the interface to be like a "map" of the solar system (not 3D necessarily), that will have the planets spinning around the sun. The player will be able to select a planet, read about it on a few topics, and answer a quiz about it. Once the player gets the quiz right, he will "conquer" that planet.

So, the most complicated part of this will be developing this solar system map. But I'm thinking that the gameplay might be too simple for the Unity engine? I'm sure I could do something very similar with other tools, but I just really wanted to get started with Unity.

I'd like hear your opinion. Is this too small for a Unity project? Would you say that there are other frameworks that would accomplish this in a better way?

 

Can you do it? Sure. But you may find the amount of work required to get something running is more than you may have spent going with a simpler solution.

Does it have to be an app? Running this as a mobile-optimized website may be worth looking into.

 

I'm not good at web development (CSS, Html, jquery), so there would be a long learning curve for me (although unity also has a learning curve).
I can't imagine how I would manage to make a map like I explained and then manage to put it into a website. I'd have to reformulate the project, so I would prefer it to be an app.

Do you think developing it on Unity would require more work?

 

As someone who does both, I'd say they're both a lot of work, each with pros and cons. The main point I want to make though is that since you don't necessarily need the 3D capability and multiple frames per second loop that Unity provides, it's important to consider other options, as in anything, the simplest solution is always the best.

 

I understand. I made a research, and right now I'm looking into the libGdx framework and Phaser. Do you have any other suggestions?

 

I mean, without going crazy with it, you could do everything you needed in straight up HTML, CSS, and Javascript. There are some amazing examples of solar system animation available Example 1, Example 2, Example 3 and rigging up some question/answer functionality is a cake walk.

Is the focus of the project on creating the app / quiz itself, or is it part of a larger presentation you're doing?

 

Thank you for showing me these examples. The thing is, all of these codepen guys are pros and I'm just a beginner; I have no idea how they managed to achieve these results, and I belive it would require surpassing a long learning curve, which is sadly not something I can afford due to the lack of time, I would need to study the project while I study and do internship (I know, this is something everyone goes through and I'll just have to get used to it). The focus on my course is not game or web development, that's why I'm sort of clueless.

I wanted to learn a game framework instead because it seemed more straightfoward to me.

The focus would be on the app itself. Thank you for your help btw

 

Honestly, I just don't see how you're going to get around the learning curve thing if you're trying to make some form of game. Whether you're using straight up HTML/CSS/Javascript, some type of HTML5 canvas framework, Cocos2D, Unreal, or Unity. Being familiar with all of them, I find HTML/CSS/JS to be the lowest barrier to entry option, but there's admittedly a lot to learn still.

I don't know what kind of time constraint you're dealing with and what your availability is like, so even the easiest option may not be doable. Or maybe even the most difficult one is. You're going to have to be the judge of that. If it were me, and I were actually a good student instead of the crap one I really was, I'd put together a passable PowerPoint version of the quiz first. Make sure it's content complete and represents everything it needs to. This is your backup. Then pursue whatever option excites you the most, and if you don't complete it in time, you have your PowerPoint to fall back on.

I wish I had a better option for you. Working under a project deadline is never an ideal way to learn a brand new unrelated subject.

 

Well, the deadline would be 8 months, approximately. I bought an Unity online course from Ben Tristem which I was following. I also have access to some books about those other frameworks (corona, libgdx etc).

I guess I'd be better off changing the subject of my proposal and going with a more conservative project, but I still wanted to work this out xD

 

There are lots of ways of making this. Making this in Unity would be relatively easy especially with the new UI, and if you have no experience in using any other tools then Unity is a good tool for getting stuff going quickly. You could even use the asset store to get the solar system:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/24810
$2 (I don't have anything to do with these guys but seems ok for what you need)

But it is all about time, how much do you have, how much do you want to learn Unity (it's probably a good starting project IMHO).....

Maybe have a quick play with Unity and have look at the new-ish UI tools within and see how you get along with it.

Good Luck,

 

Plus you could make it look really cool!!!!!