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Meow, meow meow meow – just kidding. When the first trailer for Stray dropped on June 11th , 2020, animal loving gamers were immediately filled with the highest of anticipation. BlueTwelve Studio and Annapurna Interactive present a third-purrrson adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world. The game stars a stray cat who falls into a walled city with robots, machines, viruses, and a drone named B-12 who tags along on the adventure to help the cat back to the surface. Now I could go on and tell you about the game but find it equally important to give you the backstory of the game because its just so gosh-darn cool and adorable. The game was inspired by BlueTwelve Studio cofounder’s cat, Murtaugh, as well as the studios in-house casts, Oscar and Jun. Murtaugh was an adopted stray found under a car outside Ubisoft Montpellier offices. BlueTwelve went a step further and used the cats to design the gameplay experience of Stray, even going so far as to record audio straight from the animals themselves. The game took 6 years to finish – that’s 54 in cat years.
After a few delays attributed to the pandemic, Stray released for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and PC on July 19th , 2022. Players everywhere experienced an original detailed world with robots and a narrative that slowly unwraps mysteries of the walled city and the state of mankind. It keeps the player engaged with interactive environments, puzzles, secrets, stealth missions, and self-aware robot NPCs that are so diverse, the player will want to interact with all of them. In an age where the gaming market is flooded with battle royales, first-person shooters, and eighty-hour open world adventures, it’s nice to have a title that a casual player can finish in five to six hours. If the hardcore gamer is feeling left out, don’t hiss, Stray is filled with plenty of open-world secrets involving lore and encounters that will have you exploring every inch to rack up those achievements. Or if you simply just want to be a cat that meows and knocks stuff off high places, you can do that too.
As of this writing, the title hasn’t been out long but is already being discussed as a shoo-in for award nominations including Best Narrative and Game of the Year. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive with both players and cat lovers alike praising the graphics, art design, original music, and of course the realistic movements of Puddy Tat*. The Washington Post called the game “a master class in environmental storytelling and level design,” while Video Game Chronicles deems it one of Annapurna Interactive’s best releases. The good reviews go past human opinion and into feline, with many viral videos of household cats around the world watching Stray gameplay on televisions. No word yet on if a sequel will be made, but with its popularity and success, not having a sequel would make gamers everywhere cough up a hairball.
*Not the name of the protagonist, just the name I was calling it.
If only my dog inspired me as much as these cats inspired BlueTwelve Studios
Thanks, this was such a fun game and a great article. I’m excited for the next one.
I’m glad you enjoyed the article, thank you for your kind words!