Astro Bot Wins GOTY! Is The Game Design That Good?
Astro Bot Wins GOTY! Is The Game Design That Good?
M. Abrar Bagaspati
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In 2024, the game awards took place. Many great games were chosen as the nominees. Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor: Refantazio, and last but not least, Astro Bot. The inclusion of Balatro was a surprise to people, since it’s rare to see an indie game becoming a nominee. As the result for GOTY is coming close, people were expecting for Black Myth: Wukong to win. With the host slowly revealing the winner, people were hoping for their favorites to win. Unexpectedly, Astro Bot has been chosen as the winner. Some people were happy, and some people straight up said that Astro Bot doesn’t deserve it. Me personally? I’d say Astro Bot deserves it.
To figure out why Astro Bot deserves its spot as GOTY of 2024, we need to analyze the game as a whole. Of course, as the winner of GOTY, majority of the judges agree that the game design in Astro Bot is impressive. Let us go in-depth on why the judges think Astro Bot Deserves GOTY.
What Is Game Design?
Before we delve into Astro Bot’s game design, we first need to understand what is game design? Game design is when someone brainstorms ideas, usually mechanics of the game. A game designer is the person that does game designs. Becoming a game designer means you’ll be designing the game overall. For example, you “design” the way the character moves, what skill are they gonna do. Not just characters, you’ll design the way the game is gonna be played. Is it gonna be a platformer? Is it gonna be a hack n slash? It’s all up to the game designer. To be a game designer, you don’t need to be able to script. To do game design, you need to have creativity.
What Is Astro Bot?
Astro Bot is a 3D platformer that was released on September 6 2024. Astro’s moveset is a jump, hover, punch and a spin attack. Your goal is to rescue Playstation characters. They usually reside at the end of the level. Astro Bot needs to rescue all of the Playstation characters which are their crewmates, to rebuild the PS5 themed spaceship.
Astro Bot Character Design.
The concept of Astro Bot as a character merged from Team Asobi’s desire to try and experiment with the dualshock 4 controller connection with the PS4 camera. They crafted an AR demo with little robots to play around your living room area.
Astro Bot slowly became a part of the Playstation VR. The Astro Bot that we see today came from 2018 in Astro Bot Rescue Mission.
The Astro Bot IP is not unfamiliar with cameos. In Astro Bot, there are many cameo and references to many Playstation IPs (Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, even the less popular IPs are here.)
Implementing cameos and putting them in Astro Bot’s style makes an interesting take on the character's design. By implementing Astro Bot’s design into the cameos, it makes the cameos fit in the world of Astro Bot and not out of place.
Level Design.
Astro Bot level designs are interesting to say. Instead of the usual game format building level based on a specific mechanic. Astro Bot took the route of introducing new mechanics at every level. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. It keeps the experience fresh, interesting, and unique. It makes you wonder, “what type of gimmick will the next level have?”. Each time you clear a level, it can give you a feeling of excitement, and curiosity.
Level mechanics aside, we of course can’t forget to talk about the environment of this game. Each level have their own set of themes, usually related to the Playstation cameo you’re saving in the level. Not just gameplay mechanics, the level environment also changes with each level.
Each level having its own gimmick, and a wonderfully crafted level environment. Combining the fun gameplay and the environment, it created an exciting and pleasant experience to play through the game. The levels are fun with the team managing to create a great level design and structure plays well with the gimmick on each level.
Astro Bot’s Narrative.
Astro Bot’s narrative is simple. An Alien space Bully Nebulax destroyed the PS5 Mothership and Astro Bot are now needed to search for their lost crewmates to rebuild the PS5 Mothership. This narrative is simple and not complex, so it’s easy to get into for everyone.
How Did It Win GOTY?
After diving a bit in-depth into Astro Bot, it’s safe to say that it is an incredibly well made game. But other nominees were also great games, so why Astro Bot? Well, it’s a fun game. Simple answer really. Many people agreed that Astro Bot is a really fun game. It’s something that you can just pick up and have fun with. With the characters being lively, wonderful environments, fun level designs, you can’t go wrong with having a game like that as a game of the year. The other nominees were great, don’t get me wrong. But Astro Bot just have that fun feel to it every time someone plays it. So, yes it won GOTY because it’s an amazingly crafted fun game that is easy to pick up.
Source:
https://danielzklein.medium.com/what-is-game-design-441522cf1aa0
Astro Bot PS5 - All Special Bots & The Games They're From (Updated Dec 2024)
https://blog.playstation.com/2024/08/26/the-evolution-of-astro-bots-adorable-character-design/
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