Astro Bot fans are familiar with the iconic sponge power-up, but did you know that developer Team Asobi experimented with even more outlandish ideas? During GDC 2025, IGN attended a talk by Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet titled, "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'", where he delved into the game's creation process and showcased various early prototypes and cut content.

Doucet kicked off his presentation by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, which was crafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi began prototyping. The pitch underwent 23 revisions before being presented to top management. It was uniquely conveyed through an adorable comic strip that highlighted the main pillars and activities of the game, ultimately proving successful.

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 explained the team's idea generation process, which involved extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi formed small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 people who contributed ideas via sticky notes, resulting in a visually striking brainstorming board.

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

Not all ideas made it to the prototyping stage, Doucet noted. Only about 10% of the brainstormed concepts were prototyped, yet this still amounted to a significant number of prototypes. Doucet emphasized the importance of prototyping across all departments, including an example where audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to test haptic controller vibrations linked to various sound effects, like the opening and closing of doors.

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

Prototyping was so crucial to the Astro Bot team that some programmers were dedicated to exploring non-platforming ideas. This approach led to the development of the sponge mechanic, which used the adaptive trigger to squeeze the sponge dry, proving fun enough to be included in the game.

Another slide from the talk, displaying various prototype activities created for Astro Bot.

Doucet shared images of other prototypes that didn't make it into the final game, including a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder, alongside successful elements like the balloon and sponge.

He also discussed the selection and design of levels, aiming for each to offer unique gameplay and avoid repetition. While the same power-up could appear in multiple levels, its implementation needed to be distinct enough to maintain variety. Doucet showed examples of a cut level themed around bird flights, which was scrapped due to similarities with the Go-Go Archipelago level and another from Astro's Playroom.

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. In the original ending, players were to reassemble a completely dismembered Astro Bot, but this was changed after feedback indicated it upset some players. The final version features a more intact Astro Bot.

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

Doucet's presentation was filled with fascinating insights into Astro Bot's development. IGN has previously interviewed him about the game, which received a 9/10 in our review, 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."