Not many people expected Astro Bot to win GOTY at TGA 2024, and it seems Team Asobi was also quite surprised. In an interview with Famitsu, several members of the development team talked with the Japanese media about their experience at the event. Team ASOBI Director Nicolas Ducey remarked that he was glad their game got nominated for Best Family Game since that was the primary intention of this project.
The other team members said they didn’t think much about the awards during Astro Bot production. Team ASOBI Lead Sound Designer Junko Sano said she only thought about incorporating a fun world and the joy of gaming into the game. Lead Game Designer Hiroaki Yatoku agreed, saying he just wanted everyone on the team to play what he was making and enjoy it.
Yatoku said that the TGA venue was very quiet despite the number of people attending. Sano mentioned that they encountered some fans who cheered for the team when they were walking through the venue. Some even asked them for photographs and photos. “It made us realize that many people from all over the world have come to love Astro Bot,” Sano said.
Ducey said that while he hadn’t expected Astro Bot to win GOTY, he had started to make a speech when their game won Best Game Direction. He said he only knew he wanted to express his gratitude to the team, SIE, and his partners. He was also moved when he saw PlayStation Head of Internal Production Scott Rohde crying. Ducey’s wife later told him that she had first seen him cry.
Sano said that she was happy that many Japanese games were nominated as someone who had been involved in the Japanese game industry for a long time. Yatoku said that everyone on the team was overjoyed. “I’m very happy to have won Game of the Year,” Yatoku said, “but to be honest, I don’t remember much about winning.”
Ducey said that the team was quite distracted after watching the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet trailer, which appeared before the GOTY announcement. “We were watching it from a gamer’s perspective, so we were like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’,” Ducey said. He said that he had to switch his perspective from a gamer to a presenter when he had to receive the award.
