This studio unit differs a bit with regards to the previous trimester. One of the differences is that the focus for this trimester is on the final product itself rather than the programming behind it, another aspect that is different from the last trimester is that we are all working together on a single project and we are going to be working with a group of animators as well, to closely simulate an actual team from different fields working on a single project.
The driving question for this trimester is to simulate 3D gameplay, we brainstormed multiple genres and narrowed our possible choices. From there we started thinking about the gameplay elements that would be present and how we could incorporate them. Then when we met with the animators the following class we listened to their pitch and combined various aspects from both departments. We then pitched our idea to our instructors and received feedback for it.
For this trimester we will be using Unity and we will be introduced to things like shaders, special effects and some more complex AI behaviour. It will be interesting to see how all these features will come together for the game. Another interesting aspect from this project is the size of the team compared to my previous project, with this increase in team size a lot of focus must be placed during the pre-production phase, with things like planning, researching different technologies, understanding team members strengths and weaknesses and being in charge of leading people while at the same time not demotivating them. I have volunteered as the team leader for the game programmers and I feel it will be a demanding and stressful role but also very beneficial for my own growth and experience.
The way our assignments and classes have been planned out we will be constantly prototyping during the pre production phase, completing the necessary documents, which will then transition to production phase where we will incorporate the models and animations into the game.
Some of the issues I have to look out for as a team leader is staying up to date on what others are working on, checking their progress and acting appropriately when issues arise with teams members responsibility to foreseeing hardware problems.
For next week we will make any changes to our initial pitch to our formal presentation, write a high-level game design document and showcase our first prototype. These task have all been assigned to those that feel most comfortable with the task or are skilled, as the trimester progresses these roles will be cycled through in order to have everyone working on different parts of the development process and to understand what is being made.
Filippo Santarelli 
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