“Creating a modest game is perfectly fine,” Astro Bot director emphasizes on its AA-level achievements

Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet has discussed how the game succeeded based on smart AA-sized ambition and that, in this year especially following industry layoffs, it’s “OK to make a small game”.

Doucet gave a “making of” talk on the celebrated PS5 exclusive at this year’s Game Developer Conference (GDC), which also took home two prizes at the conference’s awards: Best Audio and Best Technology.

During the talk he discussed the game’s scope, why the team didn’t name the cameo bots properly, and how originally the game had a different ending the developers found too upsetting.

“From the start, we were in the mindset that it’s OK to make a compact game, and I think it’s really important – especially going into this year – it’s OK to make a small game,” said Doucet.

“In order to exist in this very busy world, I think it’s sometimes better to settle for a good spot in the second week rather than a bad spot in the first week,” he continued later. “A lot of choices we made with Astro Bot could be labelled as AA… like the size of the team, the size of the game, there’s no voice, it’s not open world, but that doesn’t really matter. We could still make something that gets people really happy.”

For instance, the team cut more openly-designed levels as it was much more difficult for them to control the game’s tempo. This was a key factor during development, which impacted elements like the lack of text (there are only 4292 words in the entire game!), the simplified controls, the movement in loading screens and lack of cutscenes to not interrupt play time, and of course the “catchy video game music” soundtrack that’s “an integral part of game design”.

Doucet even described the level design in musical terms, with the placement of enemies, platforms, and bots all aimed at creating a certain melodic rhythm for players to maintain that fast-paced tempo and keep them engaged throughout.

The smaller scope also allowed the team to focus on polish and detail. Around a third of development time was spent prototyping, with everyone from programmers to the audio team testing out small, focused ideas in two-week cycles. Afterwards, the team could then focus on adding finer details to give the game its personality as “a toy for players to experiment with”.

This polish led to inanimate objects becoming characterful, wildlife stories as cute critters react to players and enemies, exaggerated reactions of vegetation, and the multiple photo chances strewn across levels. “These touches really made a big difference to the game,” said Doucet. “When you have hundreds of them, suddenly your game is transformed.”

Speaking about the ending (spoiler warning!), Doucet stated: “So at the end of the game, Astro sacrificed himself for the team, and as the credits rolled we wanted to make a very grieving moment of rebuilding Astro.

“The first version of this prototype included a completely dismembered Astro, so you gain the torso without the head. That meant some people were really upset in the team – and for good reasons.”

Doucet showed the prototype, which had players piecing Astro’s limbs onto his body, finishing with his head. The final version ended up similar, but with Astro’s head always fully attached.

After many “emotional conversations”, the team “opted for a lighter approach with humour where the player will replace all the parts and it still conveys the right emotions – and the head is always on Astro’s body.”

As for not properly naming the cameo bots Astro rescues on his quest, Team Asobi explored the idea of adding detailed descriptions and real names but found the approach “too formal”. Instead, it chose to maintain the “playful vibe” by letting players guess the characters. “It was almost like a little game we were playing with the fans,” said Doucet, “and in doing so, we were able to keep a lighthearted tone, which also fit the younger audience.”

Indeed, Astro Bot acts as a “generational breach” between players who grew up with PlayStation and their children discovering classic characters. Yet the team had to establish the correct ratio of cameo bots to collect. As such, around 50 percent of the bots are easy to see but challenging to rescue, 20 percent had no challenge but were funny to watch, and 30 percent were well hidden. The easier the bot was to rescue, the more popular the character, to ensure casual players recognised the bots and hardcore players were rewarded for their efforts.

We described the game as a “wildly generous delight” in our Astro Bot review. Team Asobi has also continued to update the game, with a host of new speed-running levels and a PS5 Pro boost.