Astro Bot enthusiasts are familiar with the sponge power-up's origin story, but did you know Team Asobi experimented with even wilder concepts like a coffee grinder and roulette wheel?
This revelation came to light at GDC 2025 during Nicolas Doucet's presentation, "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'" where the Team Asobi director shared never-before-seen prototypes and cut content from the PlayStation platformer's development.
Doucet opened by detailing Astro Bot's inception in May 2021, revealing the pitch went through 23 iterations before reaching executives. The winning concept? An adorable comic strip illustrating the game's core mechanics - an approach that clearly resonated.
The creative process involved cross-disciplinary brainstorming groups of 5-6 members generating ideas on sticky notes. "Only about 10% made it to prototyping," Doucet admitted, showing a board overflowing with discarded concepts.
Prototyping became central to development, with even audio designers contributing - famously creating a virtual theater to test haptic feedback for door sounds. Dedicated programmers worked exclusively on prototypes, leading to innovations like the beloved sponge mechanic using adaptive triggers.
The abandoned ideas gallery revealed peculiar prototypes including a tennis mini-game, wind-up toy, and coffee grinder alongside successful features like the balloon and sponge.
Level design prioritized unique gameplay experiences. One bird-themed level was cut for resembling Go-Go Archipelago too closely. "The overlap wouldn't create sufficient variety," Doucet explained, showing no regrets about reallocating resources.
Spoiler warning: The emotional finale originally featured a completely dismembered Astro Bot, but testers found this version too distressing, leading to the modified ending players experience today.
The talk offered numerous insights into Astro Bot's development - a game we praised as "a fantastically inventive platformer" scoring 9/10 in our review, particularly resonating with PlayStation fans.
