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

Astro Bot fans are well-acquainted with the beloved sponge power-up, but did you know that Team Asobi also experimented with even more unconventional abilities, such as a coffee grinder and a roulette wheel? This fascinating tidbit emerged during IGN's coverage of GDC 2025, where Team Asobi's studio director, Nicolas Doucet, delivered an insightful presentation titled "The Making of 'ASTRO BOT'". In his talk, Doucet delved deep into the development process, showcasing early prototypes and revealing content that didn't make it into the final game.

Doucet kicked off his presentation by discussing the initial pitch for Astro Bot, which was drafted in May 2021, shortly after Team Asobi began its prototyping phase. He revealed that the pitch underwent 23 revisions before being presented to senior management. The pitch was creatively presented as an adorable comic strip that highlighted the game's core pillars and activities, which ultimately proved successful.

Doucet then explained the team's approach to generating ideas, which involved extensive brainstorming sessions. Team Asobi formed small, interdisciplinary groups of 5-6 members who contributed their ideas through individual sticky notes, resulting in an impressive brainstorming board:

Not all ideas progressed to prototyping, Doucet noted, with only about 10% making the cut. However, this still led to substantial prototyping efforts. Doucet emphasized the importance of prototyping across all departments, even those not traditionally involved in game design. For example, audio designers created a theater within Astro Bot to experiment with haptic controller vibrations corresponding to various sound effects, such as different door opening and closing sounds.

The significance of prototyping was further underscored by Doucet, who mentioned that some programmers were dedicated to exploring non-platforming ideas. This approach led to the development of Astro Bot's iconic sponge mechanic, which was prototyped using the adaptive trigger and ultimately integrated into the game due to its fun factor.

Doucet shared an image showcasing several prototypes, some of which became part of the game, like the balloon and sponge, and others that did not, including a tennis game, a walking wind-up toy, a roulette wheel, and a coffee grinder.

Later in his talk, Doucet discussed how levels were chosen and designed around specific mechanics. The goal was to ensure each level offered unique gameplay experiences and avoided redundancy. While reusing power-ups across levels was possible, their implementation needed to differ significantly to maintain the level's distinctiveness. Doucet illustrated this with images of a cut level themed around bird flights, which was dropped due to its similarity to the Go-Go Archipelago level and another 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."

Concluding his presentation, Doucet touched on the game's final scene, which contains **spoilers for those who haven't completed Astro Bot**. In the original ending, players were presented with a completely dismembered Astro Bot, consisting only of the torso. This version was deemed too upsetting, leading to the more intact version seen in the final game.

Doucet's talk provided a wealth of insights into the development of Astro Bot. IGN has previously interviewed Doucet 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."