Stray (Video Game)

About

Stray is a 2022 adventure video game that follows the story of a stray cat that finds itself in a city populated by robots. In development since 2015 and originally known as HK Project, the game was released for PC and PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles on July 19th, 2022.

History

On October 7th, 2015, HK Devblog made a post about the start of the development of HK Project, a third-person adventure game about a cat in a city populated by robots (2015 concept art shown below, left).^[1] The game was originally developed by a team of two French developers known as Koola and Viv.^[2]

In April 2017, the studio received funding,^[3] expanding and rebranding^[4] as BlueTwelve Team in December 2017.

On June 11th, 2020, the teaser trailer for the game was released, gaining over 3.6 million views on YouTube^[5] in two years (shown below, left). On June 2nd, 2022, the official trailer for the game premiered, gaining over 1.7 million views on YouTube^[6] in six weeks (shown below, right).

Gameplay and Features

Stray is a single-player adventure game that combines elements of a platforming game and a puzzle. In the game, the player controls a ginger cat in a cyberpunk world populated by robots, with whom it can interact in various ways.

The setting of the city was inspired by the Kowloon Walled City, which was an ungoverned and densely populated Chinse enclave in British Hong Kong.^[2]

Reception

On release, Stray received generally positive reviews from critics. IGN^[7] rated the game 8 out of 10, describing it as "a delightful adventure in a dark but endearingly hopeful cyberpunk world." Screen Rant^[8] gave the game 4.5 out of 5 stars, naming it "a visually-stunning masterpiece of science fiction that seamlessly interweaves its features into a truly wonderful experience."

On Metacritic,^[9] the PlayStation 5 version of the game maintained an 84 average critic score based on 69 reviews as of July 19th, 2022.

Fandom

On July 29th, 2021, and July 18th, 2022, the gimmick Twitter^[10][11] account Can You Pet the Dog? (@CanYouPetTheDog) made tweets about possible interactions in the game which gained over 3,000 retweets and 16,300 likes and 13,000 retweets and 108,200 likes, respectively (shown below, left and right).

Near the release date in July 2022, the game experienced an increase in social media interest, with users posting memes, fan art, and discussing the game.

Cats Watching Stray

In the days following the release of Stray, many Twtter users posted^[12] pictures and videos of their cats seemingly enthralled by the game. These were collected by the gimmick account @CatsWatchStray,^[12] which gained over 6,100 followers in just one day.

Search Interest

External References