We needed to know: Was it really the cat’s meowing? So we tried it out ourselves and paid $30 to download it for a PlayStation 5. It quickly became clear why “Stray” appeals to gamers (who like cats), people who just like cats, and real cats. It is beautifully animated and provides a break from video games that are often noisy and action packed. Also, playing like a cat is unusual and entertaining. You could even call it a-meow-sing.
While the game’s dystopia – usually set in a city that’s falling apart – may have a sad, lonely feel to it, the adventure (and choice of the main character) served as a welcome distraction from some of the dystopian headlines we’ve seen. in our own world: While we played, wildfires and heat waves raged across multiple continents, but for a while we were just a ginger cat wandering through a strange city.
The game starts in a beautiful, peaceful, leafy space that looks like the remnants of urban infrastructure. You control the main character, who is quickly separated from his cat family and falls into a seemingly deserted city far below.
From there, “Stray” gets a little confusing. Obviously, some sort of major disruptive event has happened in this town, and the game focuses on solving the mystery of what happened and returning home. As you soon realize, the city isn’t completely deserted: there are no people, but there’s a small drone robot called B-12 that helps you read signs and summarize what’s happening in your new environment; humanoid robots with heads shaped like old-fashioned desktop computers; and drawing-like creatures called “Zurks” that will attack and try to kill you every now and then.
Aside from a periodic frenzy of excitement, most of your time is spent exploring just like a cat would: figuring out what surfaces to jump on, what items to pick up or knock over, and what kind of cat behavior you can do. engage There is, of course, a special “meow” button.
What struck us about the game is the balance between having specific tasks or goals and letting users explore freely. One of us doesn’t play video games at all, while the other is a bit more familiar, but “Stray” catered to both our interests and our skill levels. Overall, it was fun to figure out, even if it took some time to fine-tune our gameplay.
“It was meant to be minimal, but to make sure everything necessary was in place to ensure the game was still accessible,” BlueTwelve producer Swann-Martin Raget said in an interview with CNN Business. “You understand, of course, without thinking too much and without necessarily being part of a … quest or a list of challenges.”
Laine Nooney, an assistant professor at New York University who studies media and video games, attributed the sudden popularity of “Stray” to several qualities: It has an endearing story, is well-crafted, is pleasant to play, and contains the ” unofficial mascot”.
“Playing as an animal allows us to ‘rest’ our human brain in a way,” Nooney said. “Even as we try to guide this cat through a scary world, the stakes are small and manageable — a welcome relief from an increasingly chaotic news cycle.”
Fortunately, while playing the game, we actually felt a little more relaxed. In part, that’s because of the pace, which only goes as fast as a cat can wander through a desolate cityscape, stopping every now and then to drink some water or take a nap. It was also the result of small, thoughtful details in the game: just repeatedly pressing the “meow” button on the handheld controller, scratching tree bark or sniffing other kitties was soothing.
The Real Cat Behind “Stray”
Why would the main character of the game be a cat specifically? According to Raget, the decision was driven by several factors.
But as the walled city of Kowloon was inhabited by people, BlueTwelve’s two co-founders, both artists, “came to realize that it really was the perfect playground for cats – the amount of small passages, the fresh perspectives it gave to the world they were building,” Raget said.
Perhaps more importantly, the BlueTwelve team is obsessed with cats. The studio’s office in the south of France has two full-time in-house cat managers (“Sometimes they turn off our computers when we’re about to save our jobs,” Raget said) and most of the studio’s employees have cats and love cats .
In fact, the main character of “Stray” is largely based on Murtaugh, a stray cat that the BlueTwelve co-founders found and adopted several years ago.
People are not the only fans
“If you want to be a cat, playing Stray is the best thing you can do,” one review read.
Sony’s PlayStation, the other platform where “Stray” is available (and the platform where we bought and played it), did not respond to a question about how many copies of the game it has sold so far, and BlueTwelve declined to share sales data. (Asked about sales through its platform, Steam told CNN Business to contact the game’s publisher, Annapurna Interactive; Annapurna Interactive declined to comment.)
BlueTwelve, which was founded a little over five years ago with the express purpose of creating this game, has not yet thought about what the next project might be.
Right now, Raget says, they’re just “overwhelmed” by the response to “Stray.”
BlueTwelve realized early on that “Stray” could have that effect, thanks to his house cats, Miko and Jun.
“When the cats in the office started reacting to what was happening on our screens, I think we felt like we were heading in the right direction,” Raget said.
.
0 Comments