Creative director Nicolas Doucet says the platformer “can be a lot prettier, and have a lot more physics and things” than Astro’s Playroom.

Team Asobi’s Astro Bot launches in less than two months, and it’s a much bigger endeavor than Astro’s Playroom. Aside from the increase in levels, 12 to 15 hours of playtime (compared to Playroom’s 4 to 5 hours), and over 300 Bots to collect, the developer overhauled its engine.

Studio head and creative director Nicolas Doucet revealed this to Julien Chièze on YouTube (translation via DeepL). “I don’t know if it’s necessarily easy to see. You’d have to see side by side, but we have a total overhaul of the team’s engine, which means that Astro Bot can be a lot prettier, and have a lot more physics and things than there were compared to Astro’s Playroom.”

Doucet also revealed how the game utilizes the DualSense’s haptic feedback when the player locates secret passages. When touching some walls, they may go from smooth to rough and back again, which haptic feedback conveying the texture. “Passing like this, you see where it’s rough. You can press it to make a secret passage like in Indiana Jones or Uncharted.”

While this would be possible with normal vibrations, Doucet feels it would have been “pretty primitive.” “With the DualSense, you really get that more magical feeling.”

Launching on September 6th, Astro Bot will retail for $60 on PS5. It features over 80 stages, upwards of 70 enemy types, and +15 new abilities for its protagonist.