Building a basic free tool for marching bands. Not sure what to use (Unity/React??)

[PalkiaRock484]

Hey all. I just graduated college with a CS degree, but I've never actually built my own or contributed to a significant software project outside of school assignments and one React/Django project.

Here's what I want to build: a free piece of software that lets designers put dots (the marchers) on the field for each set and have the dots animate between each page. This would just be a top-down 2D view with a grid on the football field, nothing crazy. It should also have the ability to print out coordinate sheets for each individual marcher so that they can learn. I want this to be an app people can install, but I also think it would be cool to have a web app version so students with chromebooks could use it.

Overall, this doesn't seem like that complicated of a project, but I'm having a lot of trouble choosing what to use. Originally I was going to do it in java because that's what I'm most familiar with, but then I thought that would be ugly and I would love to give this the ability to run in a web browser. So, then I was on React for the front and Rails for the back, but then I wasn't sure if React was really built for this kind of thing? Then I thought I could use the Unity 2D editor (which I have never used) to do a lot of the grunt UI work rather than trying to code it manually in react, but then I wasn't sure if Unity is really built to make tools rather than games?

Really, I'm just intimidated by all of the options for developing in the real world outside of the university environment. I know how to code, but I don't know how to develop. Am I better off just sticking to React for the UI, is there something better? Is Unity a completely inappropriate tool for this sort of application? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

[mMontana]

Everytime you scr3w big time on a software project, you learn so much. And believe some skilled developers (not me, i'm not a developer).

When you created a working prototype and bugfixed at first... throw away your code than start from scratch.

Seem unsensed... but has its points.

 

When you start the prototype, you have some angles of the issue. After the first round of tests and debug, you get so much deeper in the problem (the goal of the software) than redesign from scratch will be cleaner, better structured, more modular, more focused.

[Bruceleet]

I'd use p5 js. 

 

but the first thing you do is just look at github lol.

https://github.com/topics/marching-band

 

 

you do not need to reinvent the wheel, seems others have done it so just see how they did it and make your own with whatever software or language you prefer. 

 

[codesidian]

It's true that value is in the journey and not the destination. Build your minimal viable product, assess it, grow it, scrap it, rebuild it. Do not worry about the tools you're using when it's a passion piece. Use what you know, love, or learn what you're passionate about. 

 

Personally i'd say a web app is best fitting option to cover your required use cases, which'll work with what you've already been exposed to. You can build it to run on any screen. I wouldn't worry too much about your backend given what you're describing can be pretty much be built on the FE. As for installing, web apps can be installed on mobile devices which you can prompt the user to do - but don't worry too much about that yet.  

 

That being said, just try and do it however and whatever you feel happy with. I've found more often that not a lot of personal projects end at the point of choice paralysis or the never-ending scope I assign to them.