Whereas Astro Bot has been extremely profitable each by way of gross sales figures in addition to crucial reception, the highway to creating the sport was tougher. Talking at GDC 2025 (as caught by GamesRadar), recreation director Nicolas Doucet mentioned that Workforce Asobi went by 23 totally different iterations of the sport that may finally go on to turn into Astro Bot.
“The unique pitch for Astro Bot was written in Could, 2021, so, just a few months after we started prototyping the sport,” mentioned Doucet. “We went by 23 iterations earlier than it was proven to the highest administration.”
Whereas there have been fairly just a few concepts thrown round with loads of experimentation, in line with Doucet, the ultimate recreation ended up being near what the studio had initially pitched to Sony. Doucet mentioned, “usually talking, we delivered the sport fairly near the unique pitch.”
Among the many varied prototypes for Astro Bot, Doucet additionally spoke about how phrases like “completely happy gameplay,” “techno magic,” and “overflowing appeal,” have been used to current Astro Bot to PlayStation’s executives. Nonetheless, the unique pitch would find yourself giving Astro Bot a darker ending than what we finally bought.
“So, on the finish of the sport, Astro sacrificed himself for the staff, and because the credit roll, we wished to make a really grieving second of rebuilding Astro,” Doucet continued, which might require the concept of a “fully dismembered Astro, so that you gained the torso with out the top.”
Executives seemingly didn’t benefit from the extra grim ending to the sport. In response to Doucet, “some individuals [were] actually upset within the staff, for good causes.”
Finally, nevertheless, the sport went with a “lighter strategy with humour, the place the participant will exchange all of the components, and it nonetheless conveys the suitable feelings. The pinnacle is all the time on Astro’s physique.”
In a earlier speak throughout GDC 2025, Doucet has additionally spoken about the way it’s okay for studios to make smaller-scaled video games. Not solely would this be nice for the builders, because the scope turns into extra manageable, it additionally finally ends up being nice for gamers that have already got too many video games of their backlogs.
“From the beginning, we have been within the mindset that it’s OK to make a compact recreation… it’s OK to make a small recreation,” mentioned Doucet. “So for us, it implies that we’re making one thing of such scale that we will management it totally. That’s from a growth standpoint. However not solely that. For the gamers, everyone knows that gamers at present have a backlog of video games and can’t full their video games, so the prospect of a recreation you may really full is a extremely persuasive argument.”
Extra not too long ago, Sony unveiled an Astro Bot bundle for the PS5. Whereas not that includes any fancy themes or skins, the bundles features a copy of Astro Bot alongside the PS5 console. The bundle was unveiled earlier this month.
Within the meantime, you may take a look at extra particulars about Astro Bot by our overview of the PS5-exclusive platformer. Additionally take a look at the small print about its most up-to-date replace from again in February.
