Astro Bot fans might be familiar with the sponge power-up's origin story, but did you know Team Asobi also experimented with even more outlandish abilities like a coffee grinder and a roulette wheel? This revelation came to light during IGN's coverage of GDC 2025, where Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, delivered a detailed talk titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'."
In his presentation, Doucet delved deep into the development process of the PlayStation mascot platformer, showcasing early prototypes and cut content. He started by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, drafted in May 2021 shortly after the team began prototyping. The pitch evolved through 23 revisions before being presented to top management in the form of an adorable comic strip, which effectively outlined the game's main pillars and activities.
A slide from Nicholas Doucet's GDC talk, showcasing the comic book style pitch for Astro Bot.
Doucet explained the team's approach to generating ideas, emphasizing extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi formed small, diverse groups of 5-6 members to foster creativity. Each participant contributed ideas via sticky notes, resulting in a visually impressive brainstorming board.
A slide from the talk, displaying the sticky note brainstorming process at Team Asobi.
Despite the abundance of ideas, Doucet noted that only about 10% made it to the prototyping stage. He stressed the importance of prototyping, encouraging all team members, including those from non-design departments, to experiment with their concepts. An interesting example was the audio team's creation of a theater within Astro Bot to test haptic feedback corresponding to various sound effects.
A slide showing a prototype of the sponge power-up alongside concept art of Astro Bot transforming into a sponge.
Prototyping was so crucial that some programmers were dedicated solely to exploring non-platforming mechanics. This led to the development of the sponge mechanic, which utilized the adaptive trigger for a squeezing effect and was ultimately included in the game.
A slide featuring various prototypes, including the balloon and sponge that made it into the game, as well as unused ideas like a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder.
Doucet also discussed level design, emphasizing the goal of creating unique gameplay experiences in each level. While some power-ups could appear in multiple levels, their implementation had to be distinct to maintain variety. He showed examples of cut levels, such as one themed around bird flights that was too similar to existing levels.
"In the end, it was decided that the overlap was not healthy enough to create variety, and we just cut this level entirely," he said. "We'll never know if that level would have been popular. But in hindsight, I think it's a good thing that we got to spend that time elsewhere."
A slide comparing a cut level with two implemented levels from Astro Bot.
In his closing remarks, Doucet touched on the game's final scene, which includes Spoilers for those who haven't finished Astro Bot. Initially, players were to reassemble a completely dismembered Astro Bot, but this was changed due to negative feedback, opting for a slightly more intact version.
A clip from Doucet's presentation showing the original ending concept for Astro Bot.
Doucet's talk provided numerous fascinating insights into Astro Bot's development. IGN has previously interviewed him about the game, which received a 9/10 in our review, praising 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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