PlayStation VR-exclusive platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission was apparently a financial success. The game’s director, Nicolas Doucet, revealed in a conversation with former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida on a recent episode of the Game Maker’s Notebook series that the game’s success came as a surprise even for the studio.
“It was an amazing project because we made it without any expectations,” said Doucet, talking about the fun experimentation that the studio was able to partake in during the development of Astro Bot Rescue Mission. “All we wanted was to do the best possible evolution of that prototype and help VR show people VR can do this, this, this, and that. We were trying to come up with so many original ideas as possible.”
“We had no idea that it would actually going to be a profitable game and even take us some awards,” he continued. “So that was a really really nice.”
Doucet also spoke about working on the next Astro Bot title: Astro’s Playroom. Since the title would be a pack-in game available digitally on every PS5 sold, the studio made use of the console’s unique features. This includes the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback on the DualSense controller.
“We made some demos once again and showed them to the world, same kind of thing,” said Doucet.
He also recently revealed in an interview with Famitsu that one of Astro Bot‘s most beloved features – its VIP Stages – were originally planned to be mini-stages. For context, VIP stages are the ones that feature characters from classic PlayStation franchises, like Kratos and the monkeys from Ape Escape.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission was essentially the debut of the franchise. Being released back in 2018 exclusively for the PS4’s VR headset, PlayStation VR, the game was a showcase of just about every kind of gameplay trick that would be possible by making use of the unique medium.
The whole game was designed around the DualShock 4 controller and the VR headset, and allowed players to experience a third-person platformer game from a unique perspective. Players would get to interact with the game’s environment in unique ways as well, such as smashing walls with headbutts.
Astro’s Playroom, on the other hand, was designed as a simpler 3D platforming experience, this time around showcasing the various features of the PS5. All of its levels were designed around one of the PS5’s features, including its internal hardware. Despite essentially being a tech demo, Astro’s Playroom got quite a bit of praise for being a genuinely fun and accessible platformer.
More recently, Astro’s Bot has been incredibly successful developer Team Asobi. The PS5-exclusive title was well-received, and even ended up being the highest-rated game on Metacritic for 2024. Check out our own review for more details about the title.
