Astro Bot and the one regret behind PlayStation’s adorable new mascot

The adorable Astro Bot is earning rave reviews.

How a team of underdogs won over the world with a cute little robot and an unorthodox development.

There was no Plan B. PlayStation’s top brass in Japan had gathered to hear Nicolas Doucet pitch a new game. It was a pivotal moment for him and Team Asobi, the small 65-person studio he founded in 2012.

A “yes” would secure a three-year development deal. A “no” would mean… well, he didn’t want to think about that.

“It was not much of a big discussion,” Doucet smiles, recalling the moment Astro Bot moved from dream to reality. “Every game that gets made at PlayStation has to come from the desire of the developers. And we really wanted to do Astro Bot.”

The pitch was a big move for the small studio. They weren’t seen as game-makers. Instead, they created small projects that were tech demos for PlayStation’s technological innovations, like augmented reality and VR.

“There was always a feeling that we [were] the underdogs,” Doucet says. “But we really wanted to prove that we could make a game.”

Doucet’s leadership style could be best described as “safety first”. He didn’t rush into Astro Bot, instead volunteering his team to create a tech demo that showed off PlayStation 5′s futuristic DualSense controller for the console’s 2020 release.

For Team Asobi, the small 65-person studio behind Astro Bot, founder Nicolas Doucet tells Karl Puschmann “there was always a feeling that we [were] the underdogs".

Rather than a boring demo, they made a 3D-platformer mini-game cheekily celebrating PlayStation’s history. It was called Astro’s Playroom and starred a cutesy, personality-filled robot named Astro. The bosses loved it and decided to bundle it free with every PlayStation 5 console sold.

It was Doucet’s Trojan Horse, smuggling Astro into the lounge of every PS5 owner.

“Astro’s Playroom did better than we expected, and gave us confidence,” Doucet says. “We are conservative and too humble as a team, but it’s good to have that mindset. It allows you to keep your head on your shoulders and your feet on the ground.”

However, there is no mistaking the tinge of regret in his voice when he says, “But at the same time, it makes me realise that perhaps had we been more ambitious sooner, we could be further down the path.”

He sighs and adds, “But you know, it’s easy to say in hindsight, right? ‘Oh, I could jump that high? I didn’t know. I wish I’d tried sooner’.”

Players loved the innovative gameplay and cheeky humour of Astro’s Playroom, so it’s not surprising the bosses greenlit a full Astro game.

Doucet’s guiding light throughout the game’s development was ensuring Astro Bot was full of “surprise and delight”, with a strong focus on what he describes as “the toy aspect of the game”.

The pitch was a big move for the studio, who weren't seen as game-makers.

“One way to keep it fresh is to surprise the player with things to do,” he explains. “But the other way is more artistic and has more to do with the character animation, the wildlife you encounter, and the little stories you create.”

In other words, play in its truest form - which, thanks to their decade in the tech-demo trenches where big ideas need to be communicated quickly, they were in a unique position to deliver on.

“When it comes to these ideas for surprises and delight, we have to pull from as many people as possible,” he says, before explaining his unorthodox approach to development.

“We have a day every two weeks where we play the game together and review what was made.”

They play in the morning and in the afternoon have a segment called “I like, let’s improve” where the entire team highlights one enjoyable moment and one thing to work on.

“I might be thinking, ‘Maybe that joke’s not funny?’ But then you realise 12 people found it funny, so you’re like, ‘Okay, there’s got to be something in it’,” he explains. “It gives a different perspective, which is important to listen to. And it’s important for the team to see that voicing your opinion has a knock-on effect that is visible. It’s not just a survey for the sake of a survey.”

It’s a prime example of his steady-as-she-goes philosophy to leading Team Asobi. And one that’s paid off handsomely. Astro Bot released last week to universal acclaim, giving PlayStation its first true mascot for the current era. It’s earned a 94% rating on game review aggregator site Metacritic based on 128 reviews filled with words like “masterpiece”, “brilliant” and “perfection”. But the word that would undoubtedly mean the most to the softly spoken Doucet has to be “heartwarming”.

“I remember the first games I played, they marked my life forever. The music, the feelings, the discovery - there was true magic,” he recalls wistfully. “I really, really hope they’re the kind of moments we can transmit.”

Then, smiling warmly, he says, “If we can do that, to me, that’s bigger than the video game.”

Astro Bot is out now on PlayStation 5.

Karl Puschmann is an entertainment columnist for the Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.