Table of Contents: Console Games

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Part I — What Makes a Console Game “Console”

Unit 1 — The Console Ecosystem

Chapter 1. A Short History of Consoles: Generations, Shifts, and Cycles
Chapter 2. Hardware as a Design Constraint (and Superpower)
Chapter 3. Console Players: Living Room Context, Habits, and Expectations
Chapter 4. Input & Feel: Gamepads, Triggers, Haptics, Gyro, Accessibility Controllers
Chapter 5. Platform Services: Accounts, Friends, Achievements/Trophies, Cloud Saves

Unit 2 — Genres, Formats, and Play Patterns

Chapter 6. Core Console Genres and Why They Thrive
Chapter 7. Session Design: “Pick Up & Play” vs Long-Form Campaigns
Chapter 8. Local Play: Couch Co-Op, Party Games, and Split-Screen
Chapter 9. Online Play: Matchmaking, Lobbies, Seasons, and Social Loops
Chapter 10. Single-Player Value: Story, Mastery, Exploration, and Replayability

Part II — Foundations of Game Design for Consoles

Unit 3 — Game Feel, Feedback, and Readability

Chapter 11. Game Feel: Responsiveness, Timing, and Player Trust
Chapter 12. Combat & Interaction Loops: Risk, Reward, and Clarity
Chapter 13. Camera, Controls, and Comfort (including motion sensitivity)
Chapter 14. Telemetry & Signaling: VFX, SFX, UI, and Animation Working Together
Chapter 15. Difficulty, Accessibility, and Assist Options as Design Tools

Unit 4 — Systems and Content

Chapter 16. Core Loops and Progression: XP, Gear, Unlocks, and Skill Trees
Chapter 17. Economy Design: Currencies, Sinks, Sources, and Inflation Control
Chapter 18. Level Design for Consoles: Pacing, Guidance, and Performance-Aware Layouts
Chapter 19. Narrative Integration: Missions, Dialogue, and Environmental Storytelling
Chapter 20. AI and Enemy Design: Behaviors, Roles, and Encounter Composition

Part III — Production: From Pitch to Playable

Unit 5 — Preproduction and Planning

Chapter 21. Vision, Pillars, and the Creative Brief
Chapter 22. Prototyping the Fun: What to Prove First (and How)
Chapter 23. Scope, Milestones, and Vertical Slice Strategy
Chapter 24. Documentation: GDDs, One-Pagers, and Living Specs
Chapter 25. Team Roles and Collaboration on Console Projects

Unit 6 — Building the Game

Chapter 26. The Content Pipeline: Art, Design, Engineering, QA
Chapter 27. Animation, Controls, and Input Mapping at Scale
Chapter 28. UI/UX for TV Distance: Legibility, Navigation, and Safe Areas
Chapter 29. Audio on Consoles: Mixing, Spatialization, and Dynamic Systems
Chapter 30. Tools, Engines, and Build Management (including devkits)

Part IV — Technical Reality: Performance, Memory, and Stability

Unit 7 — Console Performance Fundamentals

Chapter 31. Frame Rate Targets and Why They Matter
Chapter 32. CPU/GPU Budgets: What Eats Your Frame and How to Diagnose It
Chapter 33. Memory, Streaming, and Loading: Designing Around Constraints
Chapter 34. LODs, Resolution, Upscaling, and Visual Settings Strategy
Chapter 35. Stability: Crashes, Hangs, Save Corruption, and Recovery Design

Unit 8 — Platform Requirements and Certification

Chapter 36. TRCs/XRs/Lotcheck Basics: What Certification Looks For
Chapter 37. Save Data, Profiles, Suspend/Resume, and Offline Scenarios
Chapter 38. Commerce, Entitlements, DLC, and Add-Ons
Chapter 39. Accessibility and Compliance Expectations
Chapter 40. Submission Readiness: Checklists, Test Plans, and Risk Logs

Part V — Multiplayer, Live Operations, and Safety

Unit 9 — Online Systems

Chapter 41. Networking Basics: Latency, Prediction, and Authority
Chapter 42. Matchmaking and Ranked Design: Fairness and Satisfaction
Chapter 43. Crossplay and Cross-Progression: Benefits and Tradeoffs
Chapter 44. Anti-Cheat, Exploits, and Security Mindsets
Chapter 45. Voice/Text Chat, Moderation, and Player Safety

Unit 10 — Live Service on Consoles

Chapter 46. Seasons, Events, and Content Cadence
Chapter 47. Telemetry and Metrics: What to Track (and Why)
Chapter 48. Economy Updates Without Breaking Trust
Chapter 49. Patch Pipelines: Cert Timing, Hotfix Strategy, Rollbacks
Chapter 50. Community, Support, and Incident Response

Part VI — Business, Publishing, and Launch

Unit 11 — The Console Marketplace

Chapter 51. Storefronts and Discovery: Tagging, Featuring, and Visibility
Chapter 52. Pricing Strategy: Premium, F2P, DLC, Bundles, and Sales
Chapter 53. Publishing Deals: Funding, Milestones, Recoup, and Royalties
Chapter 54. Legal Basics: IP, Ratings, Licenses, and Contracts
Chapter 55. Marketing for Consoles: Trailers, Demos, Influencers, and Press

Unit 12 — Shipping and Beyond

Chapter 56. Launch Planning: Soft Launch, Day-One Patch, and Messaging
Chapter 57. QA at Scale: Regression, Compatibility, and Edge Cases
Chapter 58. Post-Launch Roadmaps: Content, Fixes, and Retention
Chapter 59. Postmortems: What to Measure and How to Learn
Chapter 60. Careers and Portfolios: Getting Hired for Console Development

Part VII — Case Studies, Labs, and Templates

Unit 13 — Practical Work

Chapter 61. Case Study: A Single-Player Console Prototype to Vertical Slice
Chapter 62. Case Study: Couch Co-Op Party Game Design and Polish
Chapter 63. Case Study: Online Action Game—Matchmaking, Balance, and Cert
Chapter 64. Lab: Designing a 30-Second “Console Feel” Movement Kit
Chapter 65. Lab: Performance Budget Worksheet + Optimization Plan