Astro Bot: Cut Content Revealed - Bird Flight Level and Headless Astro

Astro Bot fans might be familiar with the sponge power-up's origin story, but did you know that Team Asobi also experimented with even more unusual powers, such as a coffee grinder and a roulette wheel? This fascinating detail came to light when IGN attended GDC 2025, where Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, delivered a talk titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'". During his presentation, Doucet provided a deep dive into the development process of the PlayStation mascot platformer, showcasing early prototype images and content that didn't make it into the final game.

Doucet started his talk by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, which was drafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi began its prototyping phase. He revealed that the pitch went through 23 revisions before being presented to top management. The pitch was creatively presented as an adorable comic strip, highlighting the game's main pillars and activities, which evidently struck a chord with the decision-makers.

A slide from Nicholas Doucet's GDC talk, The Making of 'ASTRO BOT', showing a comic book explanation of the game's pitch.

Doucet then shared insights into the team's ideation process. The approach involved extensive brainstorming sessions conducted in small, diverse groups of 5-6 members. Each participant contributed ideas via sticky notes, resulting in an impressive brainstorming board that showcased the team's creativity.

Another slide from the talk, showing sticky note brainstorms from Team Asobi.

However, not all ideas progressed to the prototyping stage, with only about 10% of the brainstorms being developed into prototypes. Doucet emphasized the significance of prototyping across all departments, encouraging everyone, even those outside traditional game design roles, to experiment with their concepts. For instance, audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to test haptic controller vibrations corresponding to various sound effects, like the different sounds of a door opening and closing.

Another slide from the talk, showing a sponge prototype alongside concept art of Astro Bot becoming a sponge.

Prototyping was crucial for Team Asobi, with dedicated programmers focusing on non-platforming mechanics. This approach led to the creation of Astro Bot's sponge mechanic, which utilized the adaptive trigger for a squeezing effect, proving fun enough to be included in the game.

Another slide from the talk showing various prototype activities that were made for Astro Bot.

Doucet also showcased a range of other prototypes, including a balloon, a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, and the aforementioned coffee grinder and roulette wheel. These ideas, while not making it into the final game, demonstrated the team's willingness to explore diverse mechanics.

In his talk, Doucet explained how levels were chosen and designed to complement specific mechanics. The goal was to ensure that each level offered unique gameplay and didn't feel too similar to others. While some power-ups could be reused across levels, their implementation needed to be distinct enough to maintain variety. Doucet cited an example of a cut level themed around bird flights, which was scrapped due to its similarity to existing levels that used the monkey power-up.

Another slide, showing a cut level from Astro Bot alongside two other implemented levels.

Doucet concluded his talk by discussing the game's final scene, which includes **spoilers** for those who haven't completed Astro Bot. In the original concept, players were to reassemble a completely dismembered Astro Bot, but this was revised to a more intact version after feedback indicated it was too upsetting for some players.

A clip from Doucet's presentation showing the original ending of Astro Bot.

Doucet's presentation offered a treasure trove of insights into Astro Bot's development, a game that IGN reviewed with a 9/10 score, 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."