Cat Game ‘Stray’ Introduces Three Real Life Feline Stars

There’s a ton of hype for Stray and I’d even go as far as saying I’m more excited than a cat who’s just heard the distant shaking of a bag of Dreamies. Developed by BlueTwelve Studio, Stray will see players embody the role of a stealthy cat who must traverse a robot populated city in a bid to reunite with its family.

Earlier this week, an incredible line of Stray cat merch was unveiled, just in case your IRL kitty is jealous of your new virtual friend. PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers will be able to get their hands on the game for free when it launches on 19 July. Ahead of its release, BlueTwelve Studio are finally introducing players to the game’s three real life feline stars.

Check out the purrrrrrr-fect trailer for Stray below.

The protagonist of Stray may not have a name, but the feline reference model that helped bring the character to life certainly does. Budding star Murtaugh belongs to BlueTwelve Studio’s co-founders and just like in the game, Murtaugh was a real life stray. Stray producer Swann Martin-Raget revealed on the PlayStation blog that Murtaugh was “found in the streets near the city of Montpellier, France under a car.”

The post goes on to say, “Don’t worry, he is in a much better place now. He is also called ‘The Boss’ and even though the character in the game is not a direct reproduction of Murtaugh, he was definitely a huge inspiration for its appearance and was a great support during the whole development.”

With Murtaugh too busy to lend his time to the motion capture team, Oscar had to take over. According to the team, “Oscar is a Sphynx who comes to work with us at the studio almost everyday and was super helpful when Miko [main cat animator] needed to have actual video reference of some jumps and runs.”

That’s not all my cat loving friends because we cannot forget about Jun who is described as “the executive chief general president commander director officer at the studio.” Now THAT is a cat with ambition. Jun was “in charge of monitoring the team’s efforts everyday and making sure everyone was working on the right topic.” What a very good kitty.

I hope everyone is going to join me in nominating Murtaugh, Oscar, and Jun for every award possible. Game performance of the year, developer of the year … you name it. Kitties deserve awards too.