Author: Lily Bennett

Is Astro, the star of Astro’s Playroom and Astro Bot, a Sony mascot? Nicolas Doucet isn’t so sure. While the soft-spoken head of Team Asobi recognizes that the plucky little robot has the makings of a marquee character, and while it’s become the face of the studio and even graces its logo, he also doesn’t think it’s his or the studio’s place to say. To hear him tell it, a mascot is grown organically out of affection from fans, not a status assigned by corporate masters. On a recent trip to Team Asobi’s studio in Japan, we got an up-close look at how Astro came to be and the design philosophy that drives the studio’s playful, polished little automaton.

Birth of a Baby Robot

It wasn’t long ago that Team Asobi’s work wasn’t meant to be seen directly by consumers at all. It was an internal R&D studio under the umbrella of Sony’s Japan Studio, composed mostly of ex-developers, and devoted to developing tools and techniques for other Sony studios. It didn’t have any grand ambitions to break into game development, but in hindsight, Doucet said the turn toward public development was probably inevitable.”We were asked to put some of our tech demos, at the time it was Pl…

Matt Smith (House of the Dragon, The Crown) has voiced strong opinions against the use of trigger warnings in entertainment. A trigger warning is used to inform people that what they are about to consume–movies, TV shows, music, books, classes, etc.–may contain content that could prompt a distressing response. In an interview with The Times of London, Smith criticized the practice, arguing that it undermines the integrity of storytelling by pre-emptively warning audiences about potentially upsetting content.”Too much policing of stories and being afraid to bring them out because a climate is a certain way is a shame. I’m not sure I’m on board with trigger warnings,” Smith said. He expressed concern that such warnings could dilute the impact of art, noting, “It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or provoked while looking at a painting or watching a play, but I worry everything’s being dialed and dumbed down. We’re telling audiences they’re going to be scared before they’ve watched something.”Smith, who recently starred in the British horror film Starve Acre, reflected on his own formative experiences watching films like Slither, Basic Instinct, and Friday the 13th at a young age. While he…