How to Build a Calculator in Unity Part 5

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How to Build a Calculator in Unity

Part 5 – Deploying an Application

Introduction

This is part 5 of a multi-part tutorial focused on designing, building, and deploying a basic calculator in Unity. If you missed the previous parts you can check them out here.

How to Build a Calculator in Unity Part 1

How to Build a Calculator in Unity Part 2

How to Build a Calculator in Unity Part 3

How to Build a Calculator in Unity Part 4

This is the final tutorial in this series. Here we will go through how to build and deploy your calculator using Unity so that you can pass it out to friends to use on their pc or mobile device.

About

  • Subjects: Unity, and Software Development
  • Objective: The purpose of this tutorial is to walk you through how to build and publish your application.
  • Time Allotment: 20 – 45 min

Getting Started

Adding the scene

We have our application built, features have been added, milestones met, and now it is ready to be shipped. But before we throw the launch party, we have to build and deploy our app.

First thing we need to do is edit our build settings inside of Unity. To do this you will have to go to File > Build Settings, or CTRL + SHIFT + B. This will open up the build settings window. In here we need to tell Unity which scenes to build and for what platform.

Make sure your calculator scene is still open in the Hierarchy and select Add Open Scenes to add it to the build.

Selecting a Platform

Once you have your scene added, you can then select a platform to build from. Unity is preloaded with these options.

The currently selected platform is highlighted by the Unity logo. To switch platforms, select the platform you want to build for and click Switch Platform in the bottom right.

If you do not have the required modules downloaded for the selected platform you will be greeted by a link to download instead.

Player Settings

Once you have selected the preferred platform, here we are going with Android, select Player Settings.

You will have yet another window opens up for player settings.

If you are wanting to build for multiple platforms you can switch between platform specific settings by changing selecting the platform tab. Here we have standalone PC, Mac & Linux as well as Android to choose from.

We will want to update the company name, product name, and version number to reflect what we are building. I have also created a quick icon by taking a screen shot of the application running and saving it as a jpeg in the assets folder, which allows me to select it as an icon. If you want a more professional looking icon you can create one using your preferred software and save it to the assets folder to import it. I usually save these Icons at 512px x 512px.

For Android we can then use the same icon in our icon settings.

We do not want our calculator to be used in landscape so let us disable the ability to rotate it. To do so uncheck the portrait upside down, landscape right, and landscape left settings under resolution and presentation.

Depending on your subscription to Unity you may want to turn off the Unity splash screen so that the calculator appears as soon as it is launched. You could also choose to add a custom splash screen as well. For now, we will just turn it off.

Under other settings, we want to turn on Auto Graphics API to allow Unity to select which graphics to use based on the device the app is running on.

We also want to change the scripting backend to IL2CPP and enable ARM64 to target the most devices.

Finally, in publishing settings we want to set up our KeyStore. Select KeyStore Manager…

You will get your fourth Unity window which contains your KeyStore settings. So many windows…

Create New > In Dedicated Location…

Here I normally select the root of the Unity project I am working on.

Fill out the information for passwords, alias and organization and select Add Key and yes when prompted to add.

Your key will automatically fill out in the project. It is important to remember the password you set because you will need to enter them again if you close the project and open it back up.

Building the Project

You can now close the player settings window and go back to the build settings. Now select Build to prompt for a build location. Create a folder in your project directory with the name Build and select it. Enter a name for your apk and select save.

It may take some time to complete the build depending on your machine. Once it is done a window should open up showing you the newly created apk. You can take this file and upload it to the google play store, amazon Appstore, load it on your personal phone, or just email it to your friends.

And that is it. Time to start the launch party. Send out emails to your email list, post to all your social media accounts, create a trailer for YouTube, and sit back and enjoy the show. You earned it.

Thank you for sticking with us for this 5-part tutorial on creating a calculator from design to deployment. Stick around and check out more of our tutorials or posts like How to Set Up Unity Teams. Also, leave a comment telling us what you liked or did not like about the tutorial. Was it easy to follow along? What do you want to learn next? As always check out some of our published apps below.