(CNN) This week, two of the web’s most passionate communities — gamers and cat lovers — collided with the release of a new video game that lets you play as an adorable orange tabby cat.
“Stray,” created by French indie game company BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive, was released on Tuesday for PlayStation 4 and 5 and PC. It has quickly become an online phenomenon, enjoyed by humans and cats alike.
We had to know: Was it really a cat’s meow? So we tried it for ourselves, paying $30 to download it for the PlayStation 5. It quickly became apparent why “Stray” appeals to gamers (who like cats), people who like cats, and actual cats. It’s beautifully animated and offers a respite from the often noisy, action-packed video games. Also, playing as a cat is unusual and fun. You might even call it a-meow-zing.
While the game’s dystopia—which mostly takes place in a crumbling city—can have a dreary and lonely feel, the adventure (and the main character‘s choices) served as a welcome distraction from some dystopian titles. our world: When we were playing, there were fires and heat waves on multiple continents, but for a while we were just a ginger cat wandering in a strange city.
Yes, there’s a “meow” button
The game begins in a beautiful, peaceful and leafy space that looks like the remains of urban infrastructure. See the article : Sausalito approaches a rented art center in the old bank. You control the main character, who is quickly separated from his feline family by crashing into a seemingly deserted city.
From there, “Stray” gets a little confusing. It’s clear that some major disruptive event happened in this city, and the game focuses on solving the mystery of what happened and getting back home. As you soon realize, the city is not completely empty: there are no humans, but there is a small drone robot called B-12 that helps you read the signs and piece together what is happening in your new surroundings; humanoid robots with heads that look like old-school desktop computers; and tick-like creatures called “Zurks” that will occasionally attack and try to kill you.
Aside from the occasional thrill, you spend most of your time exploring like a cat would: figuring out which surfaces you can jump on, which items you can pick up or knock over, and what kinds of cat behaviors you can engage in. Of course, there is a “meow” button.
What struck us in the game was the balance between having specific tasks or goals and allowing users to explore freely. One of us doesn’t play video games at all, while the other is a bit more into it, but “Stray” caters to our interests and skill levels. Overall, it was fun to figure out, even if it took some time to, uh, perfect our gameplay.
“The intention was to keep it minimal, but to make sure everything was there to make sure the game was still available,” BlueTwelve producer Swann-Martin Raget told CNN Business in an interview. “You understand naturally without thinking too much and without necessarily being part of a list of… quests or challenges.”
Laine Nooney, an assistant professor at New York University who studies media and video games, attributes the sudden popularity of “Stray” to several qualities: it has a lovable story, it’s well-crafted, it’s fun to play and it’s the “unofficial mascot” of the Internet.
“Playing as an animal allows us to ‘rest’ our human brains in a sense,” Nooney said. “While we’re trying to get this cat through a scary world, the stakes are small and manageable — a welcome relief from an increasingly chaotic news cycle.”
Fortunately, we actually felt a little more relaxed playing the game. In part, this is due to its pace, which moves as fast as a cat can through a desolate urban landscape, stopping every now and then to grab a little water or take a cat nap. It was also a result of the game’s small, thoughtful details: repeatedly pressing the “meow” button on the handheld controller, scratching tree bark or chasing other kitties was relaxing.
The real cat behind “Stray”
Why make the main protagonist of the game a cat, exactly? According to Raget, the decision was driven by several factors. Read also : New city budget increases funding for the arts.
The first was the nature of the universe in which the game takes place. The dystopian city of “Stray” is inspired by the Walled City of Kowloon, a settlement in Hong Kong that was considered the most populous place on Earth before it was demolished more than twice. decades ago
However, while people were living in Kowloon Walled City, BlueTwelve’s two founders, both artists, “began to realize that it was the perfect playground for cats: the number of little passages, the fresh perspective it gave to the world. They were building it,” said Raget.
Perhaps more importantly, the BlueTwelve team is obsessed with cats. The studio’s office in the south of France has two full-time feline executives (“Sometimes they turn off our computers when we go to save our work,” Raget said) and most of the studio’s staff own and love cats. .
In fact, the protagonist of “Stray” is largely based on Murtaugh, a stray cat found and adopted by BlueTwelve’s creators several years ago.
Humans aren’t the only fans
BlueTwelve’s love of felines resonates with consumers, who have taken to “Stray” like a cat. This may interest you : United States storm past Australia, England remain unbeaten and more from Day 4. It’s among the most popular games on Steam, one of the two platforms it’s available on – almost 50,000 people played it on Thursday, just two days after launch, and more than 21,000 of those who bought the game on Steam left “very positive” reviews. .
“If you want to be a cat, playing Stray is the next best thing,” read one review.
Sony’s PlayStation, the other platform on which “Stray” is available (and the one we bought and played it on), did not respond to a question about how many copies of the game it has sold so far, and BlueTwelve declined to share sales figures. . (When 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 its next project might be.
Right now, Raget says, they’re “overwhelmed” by the response to “Stray.”
Humans aren’t the only fans of the game. Since “Stray” was released earlier this week, social media has been abuzz with pet cats obsessed with their orange on-screen counterpart. (No word yet on whether any of them hit the leg button.)
BlueTwelve first realized that “Stray” could have this effect, thanks to his house cats, Miko and Jun.
“When the office cats started reacting to what was happening on our screens, I think we kind of felt like we were going in the right direction,” Raget said.
