Unity, iOS, watchOS & macOS

App Development

Custom apps designed and engineered by a senior team, from AR experiences that track hands and faces to wellness apps that read live heart data from Apple Watch. We build in Unity and natively for iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac, and write the native code that connects them.

ImageCrush, our native macOS app, batch optimizing a folder of game screenshots
App development

What We Build

01

Custom Apps in Unity

Unity is our strongest lane. We use it for apps that need 3D, augmented reality, real-time effects or rich interaction, and for tools that run on custom hardware, with one codebase that can reach more than one platform.

02

Native iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac Apps

Swift and SwiftUI apps that look and behave the way Apple users expect, from watchOS companion apps to full Mac products sold on the App Store.

03

AR and Camera Tracking

Hand tracking with MediaPipe, face tracking with ARKit, people occlusion with Apple Vision and custom URP rendering, so effects respond to the person in front of the camera. See our AR and VR development work for more.

04

Health and Wellness Apps

Live heart data from Apple Watch through HealthKit, two-way Watch and iPhone communication, and the permissions and privacy descriptions a health app needs.

05

Native Plugins for Unity

When Unity cannot reach an iOS feature such as HealthKit, Vision or the audio session, we write the native bridge ourselves and ship it as a reusable Unity package that sets up Xcode on every build.

06

Real-Time Audio and Voice

On-device pitch and volume detection, audio routing for AirPods and Bluetooth headphones, and procedural music that responds to the user, with no server round trip.

07

App UI/UX Design

User flows, onboarding, interactive prototypes and reusable component libraries, with layouts that fit every screen size, so you can try the app before we build it.

08

App Store Submission

Builds, screenshots, listings and Apple's review process handled for you, plus direct distribution with licensing and automatic updates when the App Store is not enough.

09

Launch Website and SEO

An app has to be found. We build the website alongside it, with landing pages written to rank in Google and show up in AI assistants.

What our clients say

Christian Gainsley logo
Christian GainsleyOwner of Indie Darling / IDLE Press
“We hired Rocket 5 to build software infrastructure for our indie arcade cabinets—diagnostic utilities, Linux kiosk automation, and guides for operators and developers. The documentation is well-structured, the aesthetics were pitch-perfect, and the technical implementation has been bulletproof.”
Irene Cortes logo
Irene CortesFounder, Gata Games
“I've been working with Rocket 5 from the inception of my studio. Tim and Cathy have been an instrumental part of the team, from managing the execution of our projects, art direction, pipeline, getting hands-on with building, to design, to... everything. Tim's the first guy I go to when I have an idea I want to prototype. I'm massively grateful for all of the work we have done together.”
Adam Clare logo
Adam ClareLead Game Designer, Wero Creative
“It was great working with Tim. He was able to take our abstract ideas translate them into something that could actually happen inside of code and make it all function in a very short time. Tim is reliable efficient and a dependable game designer, programmer, and collaborator. Tim's experience and knowledge of the games industry is second to none.”
In development now

Inside Our Client Apps

In development · iPhone AR

AR Movement Experience

An unreleased iPhone AR experience where hand and face gestures bring visual effects to life around the player.

The app guides people through a series of expressive hand and face gestures and turns each one into a moment of visual magic. It watches how the player moves and gives feedback in real time, and when they get a move right, the world around them responds with effects built around their body. It brings together computer vision tools that are rarely combined in one app and makes them work as a single real-time system on a phone.

  • Hand tracking with MediaPipe

    Google's on-device machine learning reads 21 landmarks per hand from the front camera every frame. We packaged it as our own reusable hand gesture library that recognizes poses and movement.

  • Face tracking with ARKit

    We read ARKit's 52 facial blend shapes, plus head position and rotation, to detect expressions such as smiles along with head gestures.

  • Combined hand and face gestures

    MediaPipe's 2D hand data and ARKit's 3D face data are brought into a shared screen space, so the app can recognize gestures that need both, such as a hand held near the face.

  • People occlusion with Apple Vision

    A custom native iOS plugin feeds Vision's person masks into the render pipeline, so effects pass convincingly behind and around the player.

  • Custom URP rendering

    Our own render graph features in Unity's Universal Render Pipeline handle depth-based occlusion, silhouette glows and scene dimming that follow the player's outline.

  • Gesture grading

    Each gesture moves through its own state machine and is graded on timing and quality against a rhythm, so the app knows how well a move went, not just whether it happened.

  • Movement-driven effects and audio

    Particle systems, VFX Graph effects and layered sound respond directly to where the player's hands are and how they move.

  • Guided camera onboarding

    The player is framed and calibrated before the experience begins, and the app waits for the AR camera to settle.

  • Built to be testable

    More than 1,700 automated tests cover gesture logic, grading and presentation timing, and builds go out to testers through TestFlight.

Stack
  • Unity 6
  • C#
  • URP Render Graph
  • AR Foundation
  • ARKit
  • MediaPipe
  • Apple Vision
  • Objective-C++
  • VFX Graph
  • Shuriken
  • Timeline
  • DOTween
  • UI Toolkit
  • Addressables
  • Input System
  • TestFlight
In development · iPhone & Apple Watch

Wellness App with Apple Watch

A wellness app for a health-tech client that connects live Apple Watch biometrics with real-time voice interaction.

We are building a wellness experience that brings Apple Watch biometrics and real-time voice interaction together in one iPhone app. The product is still under wraps, but this is what we engineered for it.

  • Custom HealthKit plugin for Unity

    A native iOS plugin streams live heart data from HealthKit into Unity. It ships as a private, reusable Unity package and sets up the Xcode project on every build, including frameworks, entitlements and privacy descriptions.

  • Two-way Watch and iPhone link

    A companion watchOS app sends live biometric readings to the iPhone, and the phone sends state back so the watch responds with color and haptics. Several delivery channels keep data flowing when the connection drops or the app is in the background.

  • Real-time voice analysis

    On-device pitch and volume detection, fast enough to drive the experience frame by frame with no server round trip.

  • Custom iOS audio routing

    A native audio session bridge records from the iPhone mic while playing high-quality audio through AirPods and other Bluetooth headphones, and adapts as they connect or disconnect.

  • Procedural music engine

    A runtime synthesizer makes music from what the user does. It needs no audio files and stays harmonious whatever the input.

  • Onboarding design and build

    Guided sign-up, sign-in and personalization flows, a modular screen system with animated transitions, a library of reusable components, and layouts that fit every iPhone screen size and safe area.

Stack
  • Unity
  • C#
  • Objective-C
  • Swift
  • watchOS
  • HealthKit
  • WatchConnectivity
  • AVFoundation
  • Unity UI
  • TextMesh Pro
Released

Apps We've Shipped

Unity · Linux · Client

IDLE Press Arcade

IDLE Press puts indie games into real arcade cabinets, each one a small Linux PC wired to joysticks, buttons and a coin mechanism. We built the software that makes every cabinet work the same way. Our Unity diagnostic app lets technicians test each control live and calibrate the monitor with standard test patterns, all from the keyboard, since cabinets rarely have a mouse.

Alongside the app we wrote a one-command Ubuntu kiosk setup that boots straight into the game and restarts it if it crashes, plus a documentation site that tells indie developers exactly what an arcade-ready game needs.

Shown live across both players' controls
28 inputs
From a fresh Ubuntu install to a cabinet that boots into the game
1 command
Of development for the app, kiosk setup and docs site
2 weeks
macOS · Swift

ImageCrush

We built ImageCrush, a native Mac app that crops, resizes, converts and compresses whole folders of images in one pass, because we needed it for our own web and game work. We designed and built its website, imagecrush.io, at the same time so the app launched with a way to be found.

First commit to version 1.0
19 days
WebP encode time after our optimization
13s → 2s
Mac App Store and direct sales from one codebase
2 stores
iOS · ARKit

AR Race Car

Our augmented reality iPhone app puts realistic race cars on your table, floor or driveway. Built on ARKit, it is available on the App Store.

AR Race Car app artwork, a green race car driving out of an iPhone screen
Unity · Game

The Phantom P.I.

Our family puzzle adventure began as a weekend game jam and grew into an award winning 3D game with more than 49,000 downloads. Years of shipping Unity games is what we bring to every Unity app. Read the case study.

Custom apps for companies and founders, built in Unity or natively for iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac. Right now that includes an AR experience driven by hand and face tracking and a wellness app that pairs Apple Watch heart data with real-time voice, plus our own Mac app ImageCrush and the AR Race Car iPhone app. We also built a Unity diagnostic app and Linux kiosk setup for the IDLE Press indie arcade cabinets.

Unity is strongest when an app needs 3D, augmented reality, real-time effects or rich interaction, and one codebase can reach more than one platform. We have shipped Unity projects for over a decade, so it is the engine we know best.

Yes. We write native plugins in Objective-C and Swift that bring iOS frameworks into Unity. For a current client we built a HealthKit plugin that streams live heart data into Unity, packaged as a reusable Unity package that sets up the Xcode project automatically on each build.

Yes. ImageCrush is a native macOS app written in Swift and SwiftUI, AR Race Car is an iPhone app built on Apple's ARKit, and we build watchOS companion apps that exchange live data with the iPhone in both directions.

Yes. One of our current client apps tracks 21 landmarks per hand with Google's MediaPipe and 52 facial blend shapes with ARKit, brings both into one screen space so it can recognize combined gestures, and uses Apple Vision person masks so effects pass behind and around the player.

Yes. We handle UI and UX design alongside the code: user flows, wireframes, interactive prototypes and the final visual design. On a current client app we designed and built the whole onboarding experience, from sign-up and personalization flows to a library of reusable components.

We are building one now, with HealthKit and a companion Apple Watch app. Health apps need careful thought about privacy, permissions, accessibility and the people using them, so we scope those requirements with your team at the start rather than bolting them on later.

Yes. We prepare builds, screenshots and listings, and work through Apple's review and sandbox rules. ImageCrush ships on the Mac App Store and as a direct download with licensing and automatic updates, both from one codebase.

We write automated tests alongside the code and send builds to testers through TestFlight. One current client app has more than 1,700 automated tests covering its gesture logic, grading and timing.

It depends on scope. ImageCrush went from first commit to version 1.0 in 19 days; a larger client app runs over several months in milestones. We start with a short discovery phase, then give you a clear plan and estimate.

Yes. An app has to be found to succeed. For ImageCrush we built imagecrush.io alongside the app, with landing pages and articles written to rank in Google and show up in AI assistants.

We stay on for updates, new features and OS changes if you want us to. Every project also includes documentation and the source code, so you are never locked in.

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