Astro Bot fans are familiar with the beloved sponge power-up, but did you know that developer Team Asobi also experimented with even more whimsical powers, like a coffee grinder and a roulette wheel? This fascinating tidbit was revealed at GDC 2025, where Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, delivered an insightful talk titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'". In his presentation, Doucet provided a deep dive into the creation of the PlayStation mascot platformer, showcasing early prototype images and discussing content that didn't make the final cut.

Doucet started by sharing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, crafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi began its prototyping phase. The pitch evolved through 23 revisions before being presented to top management. Notably, the pitch was conveyed through an adorable comic strip that highlighted the game's main pillars and activities, a creative approach that evidently struck a chord.

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

Discussing the idea generation process, Doucet explained that Team Asobi engaged in extensive brainstorming sessions. They formed small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 people who contributed ideas via sticky notes, resulting in a visually impressive brainstorming board. However, only about 10% of these ideas progressed to prototyping. Doucet emphasized the importance of prototyping across all departments, even citing an example where audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to experiment with haptic controller vibrations tied to different sound effects.

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

Prototyping was crucial to the development of Astro Bot, Doucet noted, with dedicated programmers tasked with experimenting on non-platforming mechanics. This approach led to the creation of the sponge mechanic, which utilized the adaptive trigger for squeezing and became a fun, integral part of the game.

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

Doucet shared images of various prototypes that were developed but not included in the final game, such as a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder, alongside successful mechanics like the balloon and sponge.

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

The talk also covered the selection and design of levels, emphasizing the goal of ensuring unique gameplay in each. Doucet explained that while the same power-up could be used in multiple levels, its implementation had to be distinct enough to maintain variety. He showcased a cut level themed around bird flights, which was removed due to its similarities with existing levels using the monkey power-up.

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

**Spoiler Alert:** In discussing the game's final scene, Doucet revealed that the original ending involved reassembling a completely dismembered Astro Bot, which was later altered due to player feedback to a less distressing version where Astro Bot is slightly more intact.

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

Doucet's talk was filled with intriguing insights into the development of Astro Bot, a game that IGN reviewed highly, awarding it a 9/10 and 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."