It’s been a little over a week since State of Play aired. Honestly, the only game that excited me is Astro Bot. Enough that I went back to it. I had forgotten how much I loved this game. Now, I will admit that I played it because it was a pack-in title. I am sure many of you have your own tales of hilarity with trying to get your hands on the console over COVID. I only got mine because my sister was persistent and faced off against the black market bots. So when I got my hands on the console, Astro’s Playroom was the only PS5 title I had on hand.
It cracked me up. It was such an entertaining concept- a game to showcase the features of a console and its accessories through game mechanics! On top of that, it had collectibles to celebrate PlayStation’s history and a banging soundtrack. And let’s not forget the characters. Between the happy bots filling CPU plaza and the bot cameramen filming other bots reliving other PS games, I kept switching between ‘whoa!’ and ‘Gosh… that’s cute!’, As I recognized the easter eggs, the nostalgia hit hard. I knew I was going to love this title immediately, within just 5 minutes of running around. However, Team ASOBI went hard on the design of the game.
The Fundamentals of Game Design
There is a foundational rule to game design, especially for a skill-based game. All games develop a skill through their mechanics, in combination with their narrative, even luck-based games. It could be anything from making inferences for a detective game, planning or strategizing for a deck/city-building or poker, or even developing reflexes or memory. Within a skill-based game, your success is determined by your ability to interact with and manage mechanics, which defines the game world’s rules.
Based on the scenario presented to you, the player, you hit the correct input buttons to complete an action at the right time: jump, dodge, an attack combo, or an interaction within a puzzle. The input and its result are one of the many mechanics that form the game world. The designers will then build levels where the player has to apply the relevant mechanics, thus practicing the skill. The levels are designed to become more complex, encouraging the player to apply the mechanics in different ways. Little elements get added to the mechanic (double jump, teleport, gravity changer), which will change or evolve how it works.
Good Game Design isn’t only about creating a cool use for an existing mechanic or creating a new/unique mechanic (something puzzle games strive for). Neither is it just about the levels. It is about crafting the journey between introducing a mechanic, evolving it with features, giving the player time to practice every variation, providing challenges within a level, and escalating the difficulty of the levels to stay ever so slightly ahead of the gamer’s skills. Then, there is the added complexity of marrying it with the many other mechanics in the game to be used in tandem. This tightrope walk is the difficulty ramp of a game.
The designer has to know when to punch up the difficulty for a boss when to lay out level elements to make players feel like a boss and to create the correct conditions to trigger an emotion. All while matching the tone and narrative of the game. Getting it right is difficult but is key to engaging the player. It’s a true measure of a game designer’s skill.
The Design in Astro’s Playroom
The Platformer
Truthfully, there is nothing groundbreaking about Astro’s Playroom. That isn’t the goal of the game. The game is clearly meant to be a fun romp through the history of the console and its associated studios. It’s a solid 3d platformer with some pretty standard mechanics. Simple variations on the movement include a double jump that translates into a hover glide with lasers that can be used as an attack. Astro can also walk on wires, pull items from the ground, throw items, shoot arrows, etc.
The game has you use these moves in simple but clever, colorful levels that take place in four different zones, with four levels each. Some are linear paths, like most of the levels in Memory Meadows. Sometimes, there are slightly open areas to explore, like at Cooling Spring’s beach. Like any good platformer, you have to find hidden paths and collectibles as you navigate to the goal.
This game isn’t a struggle. It is meant to be family-friendly, with most of the challenge being finding the hidden collectibles rather than completing the level. That being said, it does build on itself, with the levels getting progressively harder, requiring more precision and accuracy with the platforming mechanics. In the same way, enemies get harder to deal with, and the controller-specific sections get more challenging.
The Special Sauce
The primary goal of this game is to introduce the many features of the dual-sense controller and the capabilities of the PS5 in a fun, zany way. Here, Team ASOBI creates some cool gameplay elements for Astro’s Playroom. These are unique to the game and the console. In each zone, you can enter different bot suits. They usually use a combination of motion sensors on the controller and bumpers, or the touchpad, to introduce new movement mechanics. For instance, you get into a touchpad controllable Ball Suit for a pinball level in Memory Meadows. CPU Jungle sees us become a Monkey, where we tilt the controller to move or angle the body of the monkey and use the bumper to grab ledges and scale walls.
The design for the levels changes to reflect the new movement capabilities of these suits. It requires us to rethink what we know about the level while still keeping the foundation the same. There are also a lot of little additional mechanics to show off the controller, even though they don’t evolve either as mechanics or through level design. Like those fun little moments where we blow into the mic to trigger pinwheels.
These sections serve as a highlight for two reasons. The first is that they are unique and fun. The more design-focused reason is that they serve as breaks, adding variation and keeping things dynamic to what is otherwise a simple game. They come in for a short period to provide a new challenge but never stay around long enough to be frustrating. And it could have been frustrating since the inputs here are so different from the norm. These variations are also key to a good difficulty ramp. It’s why all games will pepper in bosses and minigames between regular gameplay.
The End Result
This little pack-in stands up as a legitimate game because of the attention to detail. It was too simple and short to be a good stand-alone title, but it has great potential. I loved Astro’s Playroom for every detail, nostalgia, gimmicks, and design. So, I am beyond excited that we finally see that potential realized in Astro Bot when it releases in September. I just have to make sure I go back and platinum Astro’s Playroom before Astro Bot releases in November.
