Astro Bot enthusiasts are familiar with the iconic sponge power-up, but did you know that Team Asobi also explored even more outlandish concepts? During GDC 2025, IGN attended a talk by Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'", where he unveiled a variety of early prototypes and cut content.
Doucet kicked off his presentation by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, which was drafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi started prototyping. The pitch went through 23 revisions before being presented to top management as an adorable comic strip that outlined the game's core pillars and activities. This creative approach evidently resonated well.
A slide from Nicholas Doucet's GDC talk, The Making of 'ASTRO BOT', showing a comic book explanation of the game's pitch.
He then delved into the team's ideation process, which involved extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi organized small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 people who generated ideas on sticky notes, leading to a visually striking brainstorming board.
Another slide from the talk, showing sticky note brainstorms from Team Asobi.
Doucet noted that only about 10% of these ideas progressed to the prototyping phase, yet this still resulted in a significant amount of experimentation. He emphasized the importance of prototyping across all departments, including an example where audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to explore haptic controller vibrations synchronized with various sound effects, such as doors opening and closing.
Another slide from the talk, showing a sponge prototype alongside concept art of Astro Bot becoming a sponge.
The commitment to prototyping extended to a dedicated team of programmers focused on non-platforming elements, leading to the creation of the sponge mechanic. This innovative feature, which utilized the adaptive trigger to simulate squeezing a sponge, became a beloved part of the game.
Another slide from the talk showing various prototype activities that were made for Astro Bot.
Doucet showcased a range of prototypes, some of which never made it into the final game. These included a balloon and sponge, which were incorporated, as well as more unusual ideas like a tennis game, a wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder.
He also discussed the level design process, emphasizing the goal of ensuring each level offered unique gameplay. Doucet shared images of a cut level themed around bird flights, which was removed due to its similarity to existing levels using the monkey power-up.
Another slide, showing a cut level from Astro Bot alongside two other implemented levels.
In the concluding segment of his talk, Doucet addressed the game's final scene, which involves reassembling a broken Astro Bot. Initially, the scene depicted a completely dismembered Astro, but feedback led to a less distressing version in the final game.
A clip from Doucet's presentation showing the original ending of Astro Bot.
Doucet's presentation offered a wealth of insights into the development of Astro Bot, a game that IGN praised with a 9/10 rating, celebrating it as "A fantastically inventive platformer in its own right, Astro Bot is particularly special for anyone with a place in their heart for PlayStation."
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