The evolution of Astro Bot’s adorable character design
From the moment he popped out of our transformed DualShock DualShock 4 wireless controllers in Playroom VR, it was clear that Astro Bot was going to charm hearts across the galaxy. Eight years later, this amazing character is truly ready to step into the spotlight via his titular PS5 adventure – Astro Bot. So we sat down with Team Asobi’s studio director Nicolas Doucet to get into the nuts and bolts of the origins and evolution of this iconic PlayStation mascot-in-the-making.
The Playroom
The very first conception of Astro Bot emerged from Team Asobi’s desire to experiment with the DualShock 4 controller connection with the PS4 camera, crafting a demo provisionally titled Little AR (Augmented Reality) Men. The main characters were initially tiny robots that you could interact with on your living room floor.
“That was really the starting point,” says Doucet. “At the time we didn’t have any art, so we made prototypes out of primitive shapes. The characters were just robots made up of cylinders with little eyes. Eventually we renamed them to AR Bots.
“We worked with artists to bring these characters to life, but we only had five months to implement the demo into The Playroom. So to make them sci-fi looking within such a short period of time, we gave them a Sony robotics style. But it was also important that they were endearing, so we gave them big cute eyes and made them waddle like toddlers, so they kinda became baby robots.”
The Playroom VR
As the AR Bots became customized as part of The Playroom’s evolution into The Playroom VR, Astro Bot himself emerged needing a more central character to control for a VR platformer prototype, which became the Robots Rescue mini-game.
“We internally called him Captain Astro,” explains Doucet. “We added a PlayStation blue livery and more parts to have him stand out from the environment, gave him the ability to hover and modified his hands to grab things.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission
“He also had to feel tangible for VR. We looked
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