Inside the making of Astro Bot

gamesindustry.biz:

During Summer Games Fest last week, I frequently asked our friends in the games media what they've seen or played that's impressed them. We don't get to play as much as we'd like at GamesIndustry.biz, and so it's useful intel to hear what the journalists think.

In almost every conversation, one game would come up again and again: Astro Bot.

Thankfully, that was one we did play. The 3D platformer is the follow-up to Astro's Playroom, a small game that's included with every PS5 and showcases the capabilities of the console's DualSense controller. The quality of Astro's Playroom prompted Sony to invest in the developer behind it, Team Asobi, and now they're building a full follow-up, which launches this September.

When we first caught up with Team Asobi back in 2022, it shared with us how the studio operated. There is a core team working on Astro Bot, with a smaller group prototyping new ideas outside of the game.

"They are not bound to platforming," explains studio and creative director Nicolas Doucet. "That was on purpose so they don't feel limited. Otherwise, your brain puts in all sorts of restrictions."

Back in 2022, Asobit was around 60 employees, with Doucet expecting it to grow to 100. Instead, they've just added "a handful more" in the two years since.

"We've kept it quite tight," he says. "Even though this game is obviously bigger, it really comes down to people knowing the game well. It's a good size."

During our previous interview, we touched upon the way Asobi makes its games. They come up with a wealth of ideas, assigns people to them, then gets everyone together after two weeks to showcase, play and review the work.

"We do that right until the end," Doucet tells us. "Now we are in the final, final phase in the game, we replay so much everyday that it's less of a necessity. But it's really needed as we're finding our way. It means everybody keeps track of where we are, but also has a chance to showcase two weeks of work and see people's reaction. A lot of what we