| Stray | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | BlueTwelve Studio |
| Publisher(s) | Annapurna Interactive |
| Director(s) | Koola and Viv[a] |
| Producer(s) | Swann Martin-Raget |
| Designer(s) |
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| Programmer(s) |
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| Writer(s) | Steven Lerner |
| Composer(s) | Yann van der Cruyssen |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Stray is a 2022 adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive. The story follows a stray cat who falls into a walled city populated by robots, machines, and mutant bacteria, and sets out to return to the surface with the help of a drone companion, B-12. The game is presented through a third-person perspective. The player traverses the game world by leaping across platforms and climbing up obstacles, and can interact with the environment to open new paths. Using B-12, they can store items found throughout the world and hack into technology to solve puzzles. Throughout the game, the player must evade the antagonistic Zurks and Sentinels, which attempt to kill them.
The development began in 2015, led by BlueTwelve Studio founders Koola and Viv,[a] who wanted to pursue an independent project after working at Ubisoft Montpellier. They partnered with Annapurna Interactive to publish the game. Stray's aesthetics were influenced by Kowloon Walled City, which the developers felt could be appropriately explored by a cat. The gameplay was inspired by the developers' cats, Murtaugh and Riggs, and the team studied images and videos of cats for research. They found playing as a cat led to interesting level design opportunities, though they encountered challenges in balancing design and gameplay. The decision to populate the world with robot characters further influenced the narrative and backstory.
Stray was announced in 2020 and became highly anticipated. It was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows in July 2022, for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in August 2023, and for macOS in December 2023; it is scheduled to release for the Nintendo Switch in November 2024. The game received generally positive reviews, with praise for its artistic design, cat gameplay, narrative, original score, and platforming elements, though critics were divided on the combat and stealth sequences. The game received accolades at The Game Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, and Golden Joystick Awards, and appeared on multiple publications' year-end lists. An animated film adaptation is in development.
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