"Astro Bot's Cut Content: Bird Flight Level and Headless Astro Revealed"

Astro Bot enthusiasts are well-versed in the tale of the sponge power-up's origin, but did you know that Team Asobi also experimented with even more outlandish abilities, such as a coffee grinder and a roulette wheel? This intriguing fact came to light during IGN's attendance at GDC 2025, where Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, delivered a captivating presentation titled, "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'". In his talk, Doucet delved deep into the journey of crafting the PlayStation mascot platformer, revealing a trove of early prototype images and cut content that never made it into the final game.

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. He shared that the pitch underwent 23 revisions before being presented to the top management. The pitch was uniquely presented as an adorable comic strip that outlined the game's main pillars and activities, which evidently struck a chord and led to its approval.

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 explained the team's approach to generating ideas, which involved extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi formed small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 people who contributed ideas via sticky notes, resulting in a visually striking brainstorming board:

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

Not all ideas progressed to the prototyping stage, Doucet noted. Only about 10% of the brainstormed concepts were actually prototyped, yet this still amounted to a significant number of prototypes. He emphasized the importance of prototyping across all departments, including an example where audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to experiment with haptic controller vibrations that matched various sound effects, such as the different ways a door could open and close.

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

Prototyping was a cornerstone of the Astro Bot development process, Doucet explained, with a dedicated team of programmers focused on prototyping non-platforming elements. This approach led to the creation of Astro Bot's sponge mechanic, which utilized the adaptive trigger for a fun and engaging gameplay experience that ultimately made it into the game.

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

Doucet showcased an image featuring several prototypes that didn't make the final cut, including a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder, alongside successful mechanics like the balloon and sponge.

Later in the presentation, Doucet discussed the selection and design of levels, emphasizing the goal of ensuring each level offered unique gameplay to avoid repetition. While it was acceptable to reuse power-ups, their implementation had to be distinct enough to maintain the level's uniqueness. He illustrated this with examples of a cut level themed around bird flights, which was deemed too similar to existing levels using the monkey power-up, and another level in Astro's Playroom with a similar mechanic.

"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."

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 contains **spoilers for those who haven't finished Astro Bot yet. Proceed with caution.**

In the final scene, players reassemble a broken Astro Bot with the help of other bots. Initially, the plan was to present players with a completely dismembered Astro Bot, consisting only of a torso without limbs or a head. However, this approach upset some testers, leading to the more intact version seen in the final game.

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

Doucet's presentation was packed with fascinating insights into the development of Astro Bot, a game that IGN awarded 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."