Annapurna Interactive published its latest cat adventure game Stray last week.
The game involves the player playing as a – yes – stray cat separated from its family, trying to find their way home through a gritty cybercity.
Suffice to say, the game has won a lot of hearts, and not just human ones.
So much so that someone created the Twitter account @CatsWatchStray, cataloguing people watching their cats watching them play a virtual cat!
There’s also a hashtag for those interested: #catswatchingStray.
There’s just one problem with Stray – you can’t customise your cat. At all.
Which can be a bit surprising considering how so many games now allow for character customisation.
You have to play as an orange tabby and noticeably, none of the other cats in the game are an orange tabby either.
As Kotaku reported, developer BlueTwelve said the decision to stick with orange tabby boiled down to two factors: production limitations and narrative.
As producer Swann Martin-Raget explained: “We are a small team and production-wise, it was quite tricky to have something that really was at the quality level we wanted. (…) The story is quite important for us and this character – it’s really his story. So, we wanted him to be recognisable and unique in the game.”
But this isn’t stopping modders out there – since the game launched, dozens of mods for Stray have popped up, the majority of them centred around feline customisation.
You can change the colour of your cat’s coat, or turn them into a different breed, or make them slightly chubby, or even give them glasses.
You can even turn your cat into a puppy, for those more canine-inclined.
Or into CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Stray is currently out on PlayStation and Steam.
*Featured image from BlueTwelve Studio
By Samantha Chan \ 14:00, 29 July 2022