Astro Bot Almost Had a Bird Flight Level and a Decapitated Hero — Cut Content Reveals How Weird and Wild the Game Could’ve Been

If you’ve ever played Astro Bot and thought, “Wow, this game is full of cute surprises,” just know that we barely scratched the surface of what could’ve been. At GDC 2025, Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet gave a behind-the-scenes talk titled "The Making of ASTRO BOT," and it turns out the final game left a lot on the cutting room floor. We’re talking about scrapped levels, absurd prototype mechanics, and even an ending scene that would’ve probably haunted players more than it charmed them.

Let’s start with the headline grabber: One of the game’s final scenes was almost way darker. According to Doucet, the original idea for the climax was that you, the player, would be handed a fully disassembled Astro Bot — not just broken but limbless and headless, a torso shell of your little robo-companion. This idea didn’t test well (shocking no one), and players reportedly got pretty upset at the sight. So they dialed it back to something still emotional but way more palatable. Good call.

A Platformer That Could've Gone Full Fever Dream

But that was just one of many bizarre-yet-brilliant ideas Team Asobi toyed with. During the talk, Doucet walked through their prototype process, which was absolutely wild in the best way. Instead of limiting creative input to a traditional top-down design pipeline, the studio encouraged everyone — not just designers — to contribute ideas. Artists, sound engineers, programmers... everyone.

They’d split into teams of five or six across departments, throw their thoughts onto sticky notes, and toss them onto a communal brainstorming board. This “anything goes” mentality led to some of Astro Bot’s most unique mechanics, like the now-iconic sponge power-up, which came from someone squeezing a sponge with the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and realizing, “Wait, this is kind of fun.”

Slide from the talk, showing sticky note brainstorms from Team Asobi | IGN

But that same chaotic freedom also birthed a ton of experimental stuff that never made it in — including a coffee grinder power-up, a roulette wheel, and what looked like a tiny wind-up robot. It’s like they had a Mario Party game trapped inside a 3D platformer and just decided to see what stuck.

“Prototyping wasn’t just encouraged — it was fundamental.”

Doucet emphasized. Even entire systems unrelated to platforming were fair game. One audio team member built an in-game theater just to test how different door sounds synced with haptic feedback.

Bird Flight and Banana Peel-Level Chaos

Then, there’s the level design side of things. Each stage in Astro Bot was built around a core mechanic or power-up — and the goal was to make sure no two levels ever felt like they were repeating themselves. That’s why a particularly ambitious bird flight level ended up getting scrapped.

Apparently, the team designed a level that used the monkey power-up (you know, the climbing one) in a flying sequence but realized it overlapped a bit too much with Go-Go Archipelago and another level from Astro’s Playroom. So instead of reusing a mechanic and potentially boring players, they just… cut the whole thing.

“In hindsight, I think it's a good thing that we got to spend that time elsewhere.”

Doucet said, highlighting the team’s ruthless commitment to variety and polish over quantity.

It’s kind of wild, really. In an industry where reusing assets and padding out gameplay is the norm, Team Asobi went the opposite direction — constantly throwing away cool stuff if it didn’t serve the overall rhythm of the experience. That bird level might’ve been awesome, but if it didn’t push the needle, it was out.

The Creative Energy Behind the Bot

All of this paints a picture of a team that’s less like a traditional studio and more like a creative jam session that somehow resulted in a triple-A PlayStation platformer. The final product — which got rave reviews and a 9/10 from IGN — already feels like a greatest hits of clever DualSense mechanics and PlayStation love letters. But Doucet’s talk makes it clear: Astro Bot could’ve been even wilder.

Think about it. Somewhere in a hard drive at Team Asobi, there’s probably a fully functional version of Astro riding a giant roulette wheel, flying with bird wings, or grinding coffee beans for power. That level of creative throw-everything-at-the-wall energy is rare — and kind of beautiful.

Astrobot’s Role

Astro Bot isn’t just a charming mascot game; it’s a case study in what happens when you empower a team to get weird, try things, and embrace failure. While most studios play it safe with sequels and formula, Team Asobi is out here making sponge mechanics and cutting entire bird levels just to keep things fresh. That’s bold, and it shows in the final game.

So, next time you're jumping through a level and marveling at how tight everything feels, remember: there was once a version of Astro Bot where you spun a coffee grinder and reassembled a headless robot.

I kind of want to play that version, too.