Stray Looks To Be Not Only Popular With Gamers, But Actual Cats Too

The curious puzzle-platformer game titled Stray, from the development team at BlueTwelve Studios, is now out. And it's proving to be quite a good game with a very refreshing premise. You don't play as a typical muscle-bound hero, but as an ordinary stray cat. However, it seems like not only gamers are enamored with it.

(Photo : Steam)
stray on steam

As reported by GameRant, the actual pet cats of people playing Stray also seem like they're liking (or are at least reacting to) Stray's gameplay. Many players trying the game out have recently gone online to post photos of their pet cats reacting to it, with one even going as far as creating an entire social media account devoted to such pictures.

Here is one Twitter thread where numerous photos of cats watching some Stray gameplay (alongside a few videos) have been shared:

As you can see in the abovementioned thread, the cats are quite focused whenever the game's titular feline (and its friends during the opening act) are on screen. It's as if the little guys and gals think the playable cat is a real one "trapped" inside the TV, and they want to interact with it. Honestly, this is just way too adorable.

The game's popularity with cats and cat lovers is also something that PlayStation UK took advantage of, as evidenced by their hilariously captioned announcement tweet:

Explaining why real life cats are reacting this way to Stray isn't too easy, but maybe it has to do something with the game's animations. The announcement trailer for Stray made headlines with its very fluid and uncannily realstic physics and movement, which is likely what draws real cats to the feline video game protagonist.

Here's a trailer to show you what we're talking about. Now, tell us that that cat doesn't move and behave just like a real cat would:

Stray is out now for the PS4, PS5, and Windows PC platforms (sorry, cat-loving Xbox users).

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The Real-Life Inspirations For Stray's Feline Protagonist

To ensure that their four-legged, furry hero will move as realistically as possible through the game's Cyberpunk-like world devoid of humans, the developers at BlueTwelve Studio actually used real-world felines as inspiration for the looks and animations. Because duh, the only way to move like a cat is to study a cat.

According to a separate GameRant article, the developers used a cat named Murtaugh, the pet of studio co-founders Viv and Koola. Murtaugh was a rescue cat which the two found in the streets of Montpellier, France, living under a car. He was the main inspiration for the looks, but a different animal was used as reference for the animations.

(Photo : PlayStation Blog)
stray murtaugh

As shared on the PlayStation blog, the animation reference was a Sphynx cat named Oscar. BlueTwelve Studio basically says Oscar is more or less an office pet, who helped provide movement data for animator Miko to base the entire work on. In other words, real-life cats living in the BlueTwelve office helped create the realistic-moving feline in-game, down to the cat things it does like scratching carpets and posts, and of course, tipping things over from edges.

(Photo : PlayStation Blog)
stray oscar

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This article is posted on GameNGuide

Written by RJ Pierce