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

Astro Bot fans are familiar with the beloved sponge power-up, but did you know that Team Asobi, the developers behind the game, explored even more outlandish ideas? At GDC 2025, IGN got an exclusive look into the creative process during a talk by Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'". Doucet's presentation delved deep into the development journey, showcasing early prototypes and content that never made it into the final game.

Doucet kicked off his talk by recounting the initial pitch for Astro Bot, crafted in May 2021, just months after Team Asobi started prototyping. The pitch evolved through 23 revisions before being presented to top management. What made it stand out was its presentation as an adorable comic strip that highlighted the game's core pillars and activities. This unique approach clearly resonated with the executives.

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 idea generation process. The method was straightforward yet effective: extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi formed small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 people who collaboratively brainstormed, jotting down ideas on sticky notes. This led to a visually striking brainstorming board, showcasing the team's creative output.

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

Not all ideas progressed to prototyping, Doucet noted. Only about 10% of the brainstormed concepts were actually prototyped, but this still resulted in a significant amount of experimentation. Prototyping was a core part of the development process, with every team member encouraged to bring their ideas to life. This included non-game design departments, such as audio designers who created a theater within Astro Bot to test haptic controller vibrations synchronized with various sound effects.

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

The importance of prototyping was underscored by Doucet, who mentioned that some programmers were dedicated to exploring non-platforming ideas. This approach led to the creation of Astro Bot's iconic sponge mechanic, which utilized the adaptive trigger for a fun and engaging gameplay experience.

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

Doucet shared an image featuring several prototypes, including the balloon and sponge that made it into the game, alongside others like a tennis game, a wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder that did not. These prototypes highlight the breadth of creativity explored during development.

The talk also covered how levels were chosen and designed around specific mechanics. Doucet emphasized the goal of ensuring each level offered unique gameplay, avoiding repetition. While some power-ups could be reused, their implementation needed to be distinct enough to maintain variety. An example was a cut level themed around bird flights, which was deemed too similar to existing levels and ultimately removed.

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 ending, players were presented with a completely dismembered Astro Bot, which was later changed to a more intact version due to player feedback.

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

Doucet's presentation offered a fascinating glimpse into the development of Astro Bot, a game that IGN praised with a 9/10 score, describing 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."