Astro Bot: Unused Content Revealed - Bird Flight Level and Headless Astro

Astro Bot enthusiasts are well-acquainted with the iconic sponge power-up, but did you know that Team Asobi also experimented with more outlandish abilities during development? At GDC 2025, IGN learned about these intriguing prototypes, including a coffee grinder and a roulette wheel, as revealed by Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, in his talk titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'". Doucet provided a deep dive into the creation of the PlayStation mascot platformer, showcasing a variety of early prototype images and cut content.

Doucet kicked off his presentation by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, drafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi began prototyping. He revealed that the pitch went through 23 revisions before being presented to top management. The pitch was creatively conveyed through an adorable comic strip that highlighted the game's main pillars and activities, which evidently struck a chord with the executives.

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 how the team generated ideas through extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi formed small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 people, where each member contributed ideas on individual sticky notes. This process resulted in a visually impressive brainstorming board.

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

However, not all ideas progressed to prototyping. Doucet noted that only about 10% of the brainstormed concepts made it to this stage, yet this still amounted to significant prototyping efforts. He emphasized the importance of prototyping, encouraging all team members, even those outside game design, to test their ideas. For example, audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to experiment with haptic controller vibrations that matched different sound effects, such as various door movements.

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

Prototyping was crucial to Team Asobi's process, with dedicated programmers focusing on non-platforming elements. The sponge mechanic, for instance, originated from a prototype where the sponge was squeezed dry using the adaptive trigger, proving fun enough to be included in the final game.

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

Doucet shared images of other prototypes that did not make it into the game, such as a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder. He also discussed how levels were chosen and designed to ensure unique gameplay and avoid redundancy. Each level needed to feel distinct, even if using the same power-up, as seen in a cut level themed around bird flights that was too similar to existing levels using the monkey power-up.

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

In his closing remarks, Doucet touched on the game's final scene, which contains **spoilers for those who haven't completed Astro Bot**. Originally, players were to reassemble a completely dismembered Astro Bot, but this was changed due to negative feedback. The final version presents a more intact Astro Bot, easing player discomfort.

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

Doucet's talk 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, praised as "A fantastically inventive platformer in its own right, Astro Bot is particularly special for anyone with a place in their heart for PlayStation."