is Astro a Sony mascot well Nicholas duay isn't so sure while the softspoken head of Team aobi recognizes that the Plucky Little Robot has the makings of a marquee character and while it's become the face of the studio and even Graces its logo he also doesn't think it's his place or the Studio's place to say on a recent trip to teamobi Studio in Japan we got an up close look at how Astro came to be and the design philosophy that drives the Studio's playful polished little [Music] tomaton at first te mob's work wasn't meant to be seen directly by consumers it was an internal R&D Studio Under the Umbrella of Sony's Japan Studio composed mostly of EX developers and devoted to developing tools and techniques for other Sony Studios there were no Grand Ambitions to break into game development or make a cute mascot but in hindsight du said the turn towards public development was probably inevitable I asked you know to to to put some of for Tech demos at at the time he was PlayStation 4 into the the console and that's when we had to kind of go back into making games but I think honestly over time probably we would have felt the same way I think staying in R&D and R&D only because we were all like ex game developers you know we had um you know there were people who came from projects such as you know uh Gravity Rush at the time or you know my case I was working on other games and I think sooner or later we would have wanted to go back into you know making full on games I'd imagine yeah so that was a request but you know he a good one thing the request came in 2012 to help develop mini games for the playroom a showcase for the PlayStation 4's augmented reality technology using the PlayStation camera released in 2013 it was composed of only a few mini games but one of them was a star in the making AR Bots let you fling robots into your living room where they would roam around and interact with each other or with objects you draw and fling into the screen but they bear an unmistakable resemblance to Astro since they were meant to be squat little characters sitting on your living room floor the team designed them to have certain baby likee qualities they wanted you to feel protective of the little Bots unless you're iced tea still all the pieces were there adorable playful little robots who live inside of your PlayStation controller Japan Studio released a few other add-ons for the playroom with similar visual Styles like toy maker and ninjab Bots it had all the makings of a franchise but it would be years before it received another game and a more identifiable name when Sony released the playroom VR in 2016 the robot character was front and center complete with a rebranding as Astro Japan Studio wanted the name to be short Snappy and easy to pronounce in any language plus duay joked that they imagined picking an a name because it might put them at the top of the alphabetical listings the VR game had one short platforming miname called robots rescue which was particularly well received as a standout of the package that expanded into astrobot Rescue Mission in 2018 a full-fledged platforming game exclusive to PlayStation VR it received glowing reviews which paved the way for Astro's playroom as a back in for the PlayStation 5 in 2020 which was also well received again and again Japan Studio had been given the task of showcasing PlayStation tech and it had consistently risen to the occasion from an R&D support Studio to a front-facing developer it had come into its own and the little AR robot now firmly renamed Astro had grown along with it it was only a matter of time before the studio got a rebranding of its own in 2021 one Sony announced that the broader Japan Studio would be winding down and Astros creators team aobi would become its own Studio duay announced at the time that the studio would be Staffing up and Sony unveiled a new logo that put Astro front and center it was finally time to pitch a full-fledged Astro game to sell the idea the team focused on a few key pillars some with Buzzy portmanto nicknames and map them onto a spectrum of agent and experience levels that each would appeal to techn Magic was the name given to as so's unique ability to ring delightful surprises out of PlayStation's technology and the studio imagined it would carry widespread appeal and while Astro's playroom was a veritable Museum of PlayStation history this new game would be a PlayStation Fiesta of references to PlayStation's history that captures not just the story and spirit of the game but this time Astro would go much deeper into its references to PlayStation history by introducing dozens of VIP characters recognizable heroes from the past given a robot makeover some with their own unique crafted stages to emulate their respective famous games these robots would Express their own sometimes softened personas through their visual style and animations like the angry cute kattos robot also for the first time the cameos include third-party characters from outside of Sony Studios our director Sebastian brockner said teamobi found thirdparty developers were very amendable to the idea it is a huge celebration of all PlayStation history for the last 30 years so hence a lot of our partners actually were really Keen uh when we approached them yeah please this sounds great uh we want to be part of this so it was an unbelievable honor to hear this sort of response from our partners and we took in incredible care of trying to fully and respectfully recreate whatever the essence of these games is and recapture that in the style of our [Music] game making a full-fledged platformer that maintains the pace of surprises from astral's playroom was a Herculean task but teamobi has developed a workflow to help help generate and Test new ideas at a rapid Pace it all starts with Post-it notes at idea sessions the meetings leader sometimes but not necessarily du say will introduce a design challenge or idea they need to solve everyone in attendance sketches out a handful of ideas on Post-it notes which often resemble cartoon storyboards to express the idea behind an attack pattern or a character animation these get hung on the wall combined and C down the team emphas that everyone is included in these sessions programmers and game designers once an idea has been settled one designer and programmer are given the tasks to work collaboratively for about 2 weeks to prototype it then the idea gets tested and refined through group play test sessions multiply this process by the significantly expanded studio and team Asobi was able to generate a steady stream of ideas for stages bosses and surprises the rapid prototyping is also aided through a live link tool that allows designers to make changes to Stage layouts that are reflected in a playable State instantaneously it's easy to see how a designer and programmer working collaboratively could test and iterate quickly so that their design is as polished as it can be before presenting it to the broader team for play testing the rapid prototyping means that duay as well as other senior staff have to be very careful about fil ing ideas and driving forward towards the strongest material but he also stressed the importance of trusting his team to run with an idea and see what STS like a few of us that think okay this idea is really it's not going to work however the person doing the implementation really believes in it think no no no that's going to work and we have a quick conversation but then we have to be able to accept that if the person doing the execution of it is going to be programming that has the vision for how it's going to be good then we have to try right you have to give of trust that goes into each individual and where they think Lies We have to listen very much and there's a lot of ideas in the game that if You' ask me on paper you know is it going to be a good idea my good feeling has kind of maybe a be on the safe side I would have said it's probably going to fail but then the person who did it you know carried the vision and saw things that I didn't see and so um it has to be um you know and that's teamw work supp you know like no one no one person is holding the the key to every every situation right can you um with astrobot te mob's most iconic creation is finally coming into its own with a big original game but if he's destined to become a long-term PlayStation mascot Duce says it's up to the fans Not aobi or even Sony I feel like it's for us to decide I think with a lot of mascots you know it's like over time through several iteration and there were qualitative iterations they grew onto people and people you know adopted them and and and you know could associate you know the brand to these characters and then they became mascots but that was that was decided by the public not by uh the design right he says it's easy to just design a character and make it represent a brand for 5 years as many advertising mascots do but when it comes to Classic iconic mascots like Mickey Mouse it was just designed to be good and endearing and then the character grew into the role I think it's um we have to be handle about it you know so of course it would be amazing if one day that can be the case but for the time being I think we have to solidify the base we have to continue making great games and then you know if if organically that that happens I think he'd be great but so is Astro a Sony mascot like so much else we've seen from teamobi it's about buckling down and doing the work and letting the rest follow this was just a chunk of Steve watt's awesome feature on astrobot I highly suggest you read the full article and I will leave that in the description below thanks for watching