Fashion
The Origin Story of Astro Bot’s Likable Little Guy
Astro, a babylike robot designed to show off the power of PlayStation hardware, has graduated to his own full-length adventure game.
If PlayStation’s next big character succeeds, it will be in part because he is a really, really cute little guy.
Astro, the babylike robot at the center of the new video game Astro Bot, has charmed his way from an asset in a technology demonstration for Sony to leading one of the best-reviewed titles of the year.
Establishing a video game mascot requires a particular alchemy of elegance and identity. Succeed and land among Nintendo heavyweights like Mario and Kirby. Fail and, well, even Bubsy has a Wikipedia page.
Nicolas Doucet, the creative director of Team Asobi, which developed Astro Bot, used his hands during a video interview to emphasize how Astro’s large, expressive blue eyes and compact physicality were vital to his appeal.
“I think part of it is the simplicity of the design,” Doucet said. “We’ve kept things simple on purpose.”
Doucet said Astro’s current look came from the technical limitations of hardware in 2013, when the robot was introduced in The Playroom, an augmented reality tech demo for the PlayStation 4 that saw a bevy of bots swarm players in the “real” world.
