When the little robot Astro made his debut on the PlayStation 5 in Astro’s Playroom, his sole mission was to introduce the new PS5 technology. Now, developer Team Asobi is working to grow it beyond its role as a geeky hardware geek… while still using its adventures as a means to experiment with PS5 technology four years into the hardware’s lifespan.
Speaking with Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet at Summer Game Fest, he told me that it’s important for Astro to “find its own destiny” beyond being a hardware ambassador (as it has been for both the PS5 and PSVR). One way the team is doing this is by letting Astro’s adventures in Astro Bot focus much more on his platform than the Playroom. He describes Playroom as something more like a lot of tech demos stitched together from platform sections; by comparison, Astro Bot will offer power-ups for Astro that compliment the platform first and foremost. In my preview, I had to use an inflator to give Astro more height, a booster that gave him more range, and an impact upgrade that allowed him to ranged combat. It was all improvements on things Astro could already do, compared to when Playroom turned Astro into a climbing monkey for the sake of showing off motion controls and adaptive triggers.
But that doesn’t mean Team Asobi is done playing with PS5 technology. Quite the opposite, in fact. Doucet points out that while the studio uses the touchpad less in Astro Bot (it doesn’t fit as well with the idea of a platformer), they tried to include small moments of technological gameplay. For example, Astro enters each level by zooming in on a DualSense controller, which the player can control using motion controls. “We treat the game as a toy at its core.”
Doucet also points to a moment in the Astro Bot reveal trailer where the little boy absorbs a wad of water to become giant, stomps for a bit, and then squishes like a giant sponge. He tells me that this was “actually a prototype that was made separately.”
“It was like a sponge and you could squeeze the water out of it with an adaptive trigger because you could change the trigger pressure. So we want to see if you can have something that feels heavy, and then over time, it feels lighter.
“It felt great as a demo, but it was just a big sponge on the screen. That was it. So we brought it [Astro Bot] and said, “What can we do with it?” And then we thought maybe we could do a boost. The opposite would probably be impossible. If someone came up with something on paper without trying that prototype and said, ‘I have an idea. Let’s turn Astro into a sponge.’ Maybe we would think it’s a little strange. Let’s not do it. Maybe we’ll try it, maybe not. But because that demo was there, which is kind of like a home demo. You are a sponge. It could be a cleaning game, right? But in the end, we liked that demo, so we brought it in.”
Doucet also tells me about a feature for the Astro Bot that underwent a similar process, where you can “put your hand on the wall” and feel changes in texture to see where a secret passage is located. “It’s going to be like Uncharted or Indiana Jones.”
“That was one of the things that came out of us trying to push DualSense to a new level,” he continues. “It’s always like that. Towards the end of a system’s life cycle, you still see things that weren’t possible at the beginning.”
Beyond being a fun platformer and tech showcase, Doucet tells me he hopes Astro Bot can be a “first game” for kids new to video games. He clarifies that Astro Bot isn’t just meant as a “kids game,” but it’s not just a “gamer’s game” either. They are both.
“It’s a responsibility to potentially be the first game that some kids will play,” he says. “And that was the case for Astro’s Playroom. We got a lot of stories where people said it was their kid’s first game, and they played along and explained the characters to them…I’m sure as a gamer, you have memories. There are games that shape your life, right? And if we get to be the first to get some kids to play, that matters a lot. It means something really important to that family and to that little individual. So we should be proud and embrace it.”
You can catch the rest of our interview with Doucet from Summer Game Fest here, as well as our full hands-on look at the Astro Bot.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.