Stray has quickly become known as the ‘cute cat game,’ which is honestly a fair descriptor, but the concept for such a wholesome experience started in a slightly less sanitary environment. “It started with the studio founders, Koola and Viv, who were fascinated, as artists, by the Walled City of Kowloon,” Blue Twelve Studio’s Swann Martin-Raget tells GLHF. The Kowloon Walled City was infamously one of the most densely populated parts of Hong Kong, with people living on top of each other in sanitary conditions below the standard of the rest of Hong Kong. Demolition of the Walled City took a full year and concluded in 1994.

“They really liked the way the Walled City had been organically constructed and was filled with details and interesting points of view,” Swann explains. “It was really interesting for them as artists, and that was how the project started. But as they were working on it, they felt it was the perfect playground for a cat. There are so many paths and interesting things they could see. As cat lovers, this is where the idea really started to take shape.”

Starting with the inspiration for the environment and world allowed Blue Twelve to hone a visual atmosphere that’s just as beautiful as it is inviting. As the player, you need to look around with some degree of wonder and fascination, otherwise exploring just wouldn’t be fun. “The level design, the cat, and the environment inspiration are all linked,” Swann continues. “Every item that is usually just decorative in other games – like an aircon unit or a pipe – for us it’s a platform and a path that the cat can take. Balancing the game design and environments while being inspired by Kowloon Walled City was a very interesting challenge.”

The protagonist didn’t have to be a cat, of course. It could’ve been another small animal, like a squirrel or rat, and achieved much of the same in concept. But the feline player avatar is a labor of love. “80 percent of the team are cat owners – or are being owned by a cat, depending on how you look at it,” Swann says. “We are really passionate about these animals, and seeing them every day felt like a constant source of inspiration. Seeing them every day gives us plenty of reference material for animation and sound, too.

“There was a moment in development when the cats in the office started to react to the cat in the game. That was a really good indication that we were on the right path, having them raise their head when there’s a meow, or when the cinematic is focused on the cat, they would come trying to interact. We were really happy to see that.”

Stray has been in development for several years, but it has already blown the team away in terms of the public reaction to the game. “It’s very new, it’s very overwhelming,” Swann tells us. “It was really humbling. We wanted to acknowledge that there were a lot of eyes looking at what we were doing, so we knew we needed a polished and finished product. All of the team has been very focused on living up to those expectations since.”

Stray launches July 19 on PC, PS4, and PS5. While you do play as a cat, and cannot pet other cats, you can be pet, and you can in fact groom yourself during certain idle animations. Armed with that information alone, I’m prepared to add this to the list of 2022’s best PS5 games.

Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.