If you’ve seen the recent excitement around ASTRO BOT, you may be wondering about the studio that brought the game to life: Team ASOBI. This Tokyo-based team has been creating unique experiences since the days of the PlayStation 3, and with their latest title, ASTRO BOT, they have one of the most anticipated games of the year. In anticipation of the game’s launch, PlayStation invited CGMagazine to Japan to see the studio firsthand. From passionate developers to one of the most innovative teams in the industry, Team ASOBI stands out as one of the most unique studios I have ever visited, and I can’t wait for more people to experience all they have created.
If you’ve played on a PlayStation in the past decade, chances are you’ve encountered some of Team ASOBI’s work. Formed in 2012 as an internal part of Japan Studio, one of Sony’s oldest first-party developers, Team ASOBI takes its name from the Japanese word “Asobi,” meaning “play.” From the outset, their mission was clear: to create fun, colourful games that bring joy to players of all ages.
Led by studio director and creative director Nicolas Doucet, Team ASOBI began by working on technical demos and smaller projects. Their first major release was The PlayRoom in 2013, a pre-loaded augmented reality game that showcased the capabilities of the PlayStation Camera and DualShock 4 controller for the PlayStation 4.
While The PlayRoom was a fun tech demo, it was Team ASOBI’s next project that truly put them on the map. In 2018, they released ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission, a delightful 3D platformer exclusively for PlayStation VR. The game starred a cute robot named Astro, who first appeared in The PlayRoom and tasked players with rescuing his lost crew scattered across various planets.
ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission was a critical and commercial success, earning rave reviews for its inventive level design, charming characters, and clever use of VR. It showcased Team ASOBI’s talent for creating joyful, polished experiences that appealed to a wide audience.
Building on the success of ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission, Team ASOBI developed Astro’s Playroom as a pack-in title for the PlayStation 5 in 2020. This time, the game served as both a celebration of PlayStation’s history and a demonstration of the new DualSense controller’s unique features. Once again, critics and players alike fell in love with Astro’s adorable antics and the game’s creative use of the hardware.
After the launch of Astro’s Playroom, significant changes were underway at Japan Studio. Several key staff members departed, and Sony announced that the studio would be re-centered around Team ASOBI. In June 2021, Team ASOBI was formally spun off into a standalone studio within PlayStation Studios, with Nicolas Doucet remaining as the studio and creative director.
This move signalled Sony’s confidence in Team ASOBI and their ability to create high-quality, family-friendly games. As a standalone studio, they now have the resources and autonomy to pursue their vision and continue pushing the boundaries of play. Now, with ASTRO BOT on the horizon, the studio has one of the most exciting games of the fall—straddling the line between family-friendly fun and a nostalgic trip through PlayStation’s history. Yet, the game manages to feel genuine throughout the experience, something few studios can achieve.
Hearing the story of Astro’s evolution while visiting the studio provided insight into their unique development process, which emphasizes collaboration and iteration. The studio follows a development pipeline that operates in two-week increments, allowing the team to brainstorm, bring new ideas to the table, and rapidly prototype potential additions to the game. According to creative director Nicolas Doucet, this approach is deeply ingrained in the studio’s culture and plays a significant role in keeping their projects fresh.
“It has a lot of benefits. There’s a short burst of work, and it’s a sustained tempo, but at the same time, every two weeks, you get a big gratification because everyone gets to see the work you do. We review it together, then we play games together. There’s a moment of reward that comes with it. It also means we can quickly address issues. There’s nothing worse than working on something for a long time only to realize later that it was inadequate or should have been done differently. Having these regular check-ins allows us to keep our finger on the pulse.”
This passion for the production process seems to resonate throughout the entire studio, with everyone eagerly discussing what goes into bringing ASTRO BOT to life. From the art team to the programmers and animators, they all collaborate to bring ideas to fruition, and the process ensures everyone has a say in new concepts. This collaborative environment allows rough ideas to evolve into something fun and rewarding. When talking to Team ASOBI’s animation director, Jamie Smith, his enthusiasm for the studio was contagious as he described their process and how the games come to be.
“It’s always been this way from the start. I mean, it’s basically the DNA of the team. It came from a very small team, where it’s all about fast iterations, controller-in-hand testing, figuring out what feels good, and then developing that into a full-fledged system. So, that process is crucial to the DNA of this team. It’s the most essential thing.
We’ve all worked in other game studios that didn’t have that process, and I think the most positive thing I can say about it is that it’s really productive. There’s no waste—small prototypes mean you don’t waste artists’ time, you don’t waste animators’ time. These can be done by a programmer, and we can quickly figure out if it’s something fun. Then, we can invest the time and effort into it. So, it’s a very productive process.
A byproduct of this process is that everyone wears many hats, using all their skills to bring concepts to life. For instance, a programmer with an idea of how something should work must tap into various skill sets to turn that idea into reality. According to Nico, this approach not only keeps the process efficient but also keeps it exciting, preventing anyone from being stuck doing one thing for too long and getting bored.
“The variety gives people something different to do every two weeks. That might sound like a small thing, but going from working on a gameplay prototype to maybe a power-up, and then the next two weeks focusing on an enemy set for that power-up, keeps the work from becoming ultra-repetitive. As a pure life experience, getting up in the morning to do something new is really important. So I think these two-week cycles have a lot of merit beyond just being efficient.”
Art Director Sebastian Bruckner also shared a similar view to this, touching on just how important that is to the process overall. “it’s very important. I think the Gameplay Program is starting off with the prototype at a really fun time, after something that is, okay, how I’m going to make this move. It doesn’t need to look pretty. It doesn’t need to sound fantastic. But I want to get my point across. That’s the main reason for making the prototype.”
“Looking back at my time at Team ASOBI, I’m excited to see the world embrace ASTRO BOT and eager to see what the studio does next.”
Beyond pushing the limits of creativity and innovation, Team ASOBI has a special relationship with the PlayStation hardware team, making them some of the first to get their hands on new technology from Sony. With their studio located just a block away from PlayStation’s headquarters, they have the luxury of seeing the iteration of tech as it emerges from R&D.
This close relationship is a key reason why Team ASOBI has such a deep connection to what the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 can do. As Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki explained, “We’ve been doing this since the days of DualShock 4, even before DualSense, working and collaborating together, transforming the technology into gameplay experiences. And yeah, the team has been involved in that from the start.”
But this relationship is a two-way street, with the studio providing feedback as the tech is being developed. The teams work hand in hand to ensure the experiences are enjoyable for players and fully leverage what the hardware can offer. As Principal Gameplay Programming Lead at Team ASOBI, Masayuki Yamada explains, “The hardware team gave us great hardware. It’s like a toy for us, and we created something interesting with it. Then we show what we’ve created to the hardware team, and the next week, they come back with something new. We have this kind of ongoing interaction.”
Having such a talented studio right on their doorstep also means Team ASOBI can push beyond what the tech team initially thought possible. As Toshi Aoki explains, “Some of the surprises, like the ‘wows,’ came from the fact that we only have two haptic feedback points, but the team managed to create a tornado-like sensation that we didn’t think was possible with just two. We expected it to feel more like a side-by-side movement, but it genuinely felt like it was moving around.
That was a great surprise for us. I think the biggest difference between a tech demo and the gameplay experience is that the latter combines a lot of visual and audio elements, while the tech demo focuses solely on the technology. That’s why I think it’s so important to have that full experience to understand the potential of the device and technology.”
As my time at Team ASOBI came to a close, I couldn’t help but think that this is the type of studio many kids dream of working in. It’s a studio that operates in AAA development but never loses that indie spirit that drives many of the great ideas pushing gaming forward. It felt like a place filled with people excited to come to work, eager to build and iterate on experiences with each new project. Naturally, I had to ask what sort of people the studio looks for and what it would take for anyone playing ASTRO BOT to join a studio like Team ASOBI.
“Find something that you’re very passionate about and that you really enjoy doing and have a skill at,” Jamie Smith explained excitedly. “That’s basically what you need to do. If you can find something within the industry that you love doing every day and that you’re good at, and you’re so passionate about it that you want to keep improving, that’s great.
Outside of that, I would say, really take feedback well because feedback is crucial. Even now, after being in the industry for 25 years, we get feedback every day, like, ‘Oh, that’s not working.’ We have to learn and improve, right? So, really develop an attitude where you see feedback as a positive thing that can help you improve your skill set.”
“I have no doubt that Team ASOBI will stay true to their core mission of bringing joy and wonder to players around the world.”
“Yeah, likewise,” Sebastian Bruckner chimed in. “I think on the art side, there’s a really different approach these days compared to how it used to be. When I started out in 3D, generalists were essentially the only way to get things done because you had to model, render, animate—everything. And that’s still very true for the studio. We have a lot of generalists, people wearing multiple hats. Marquisine, for example, can model, lay out a level, do everything, although she’s currently focused mainly on animation.”
With ASTRO BOT now released, this marks one of the biggest projects Team ASOBI has undertaken to date. Despite this, everyone at the studio remains humble yet excited about the experience they are bringing to players and confident in what they are releasing. In game development, there’s a tendency to always aim for the biggest game possible. Nico explained this well when asked if there was any concern that the game might be too big, especially compared to past games:
“There’s a tendency for us to always make things too big. There’s this idea that, to convince people, you need to impress them with size. But actually, having the confidence that size doesn’t matter is important because it’s a relative concept.”
Looking back at my time at Team ASOBI, I’m excited to see the world embrace ASTRO BOT and eager to see what the studio does next. With a talented team, a supportive parent company, and a clear vision for the future, Team ASOBI is poised for great things. As they continue to grow and take on new challenges, they have the potential to become one of PlayStation’s flagship studios, mentioned alongside giants like Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games.
But even as they evolve, I have no doubt that Team ASOBI will stay true to their core mission of bringing joy and wonder to players around the world. They’ve already captured our hearts with ASTRO BOT, and I can’t wait to see what delightful surprises they have in store for us next.
