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

Astro Bot fans are well acquainted with the story behind the sponge power-up, but did you know that Team Asobi also experimented with even more unconventional powers during development? At GDC 2025, IGN had the chance to attend a talk by Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'", where he shared insights into the creation of the PlayStation mascot platformer, including early prototypes and content that didn't make the final cut.

Doucet kicked off his talk by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, crafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi began its prototyping phase. The pitch underwent 23 revisions before being presented to senior management. The initial pitch was creatively delivered as an adorable comic strip that outlined the game's key features and activities, which clearly resonated well with the audience.

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

Doucet then delved into how Team Asobi generated ideas, highlighting their intensive brainstorming sessions. Small groups of 5-6 members from various disciplines collaborated, using sticky notes to jot down and illustrate their ideas, resulting in a visually striking brainstorming board.

Another slide from the talk, displaying the sticky note brainstorming from Team Asobi.

Not all ideas progressed to prototyping, Doucet explained. Only about 10% of their brainstormed concepts were prototyped, but this still amounted to a significant number of prototypes. He emphasized the importance of prototyping, noting that every team member, including those from departments like audio design, was encouraged to test their ideas. An example he shared was an audio team's creation of a theater within Astro Bot to experiment with haptic controller vibrations synchronized with different sound effects, such as various door operations.

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

The importance of prototyping was further underscored by Doucet, who mentioned that certain programmers were dedicated to prototyping non-platforming elements. This approach led to the development of Astro Bot's sponge mechanic, where the adaptive trigger was used to simulate squeezing the sponge, which proved fun and was ultimately incorporated into the game.

Another slide from the talk showcasing various prototype activities that were created for Astro Bot.

Doucet shared an image that included several prototypes, some of which were not used in the final game. Alongside successful mechanics like the balloon and sponge, there were prototypes of a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, a coffee grinder, and others.

As the talk progressed, Doucet discussed how levels were chosen and designed to revolve around specific mechanics. The aim was to ensure each level offered unique gameplay, avoiding repetition. While the same power-up could be used in multiple levels, Doucet stressed that its application had to be sufficiently distinct to maintain the level's uniqueness. He showed images of a cut level themed around bird flights, which was dropped because it reused the monkey power-up in a way too similar to the level Go-Go Archipelago and another level in Astro's Playroom.

"In the end, it was decided that the overlap was not healthy enough to create variety, and we just cut this level entirely," he stated. "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, displaying a cut level from Astro Bot alongside two other implemented levels.

In closing, Doucet touched on the game's final scene, warning of Spoilers for those who haven't finished Astro Bot. In the original ending, players were presented with a completely dismembered Astro Bot, which some found too distressing. The final version was adjusted to a more intact Astro Bot, which was better received.

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

Doucet's talk was rich with fascinating details about Astro Bot's development. IGN has previously discussed the game with Doucet, and in our review, we awarded Astro Bot a 9/10, 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."