The French video game distinguished itself at the Game Awards 2022, the major international ceremony organized this Thursday evening in Los Angeles. “Stray”, whose protagonist is an alley cat, won the award for best independent title.
Created by BlueTwelve studio, based in Montpellier, “Stray” depicts a felid in an underground city populated by humanoids and strange creatures. Using a drone, the tomcat must solve a series of puzzles to get back to the surface. The game is available on the PlayStation console and on the Steam shopping platform.
“It’s an incredible honor”
In the vast room of the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, the producers first received from the hands of actress Jessica Henwick the prize for “Best first independent game”. “Thank you very much, it’s an incredible honor”, reacted Swann Martin-Raget, producer at BlueTwelve, thanking the assembly “on behalf of the whole team in Montpellier”. He greeted their relatives, friends but also the “cats, obviously, very important”, under the laughter. “Stray” was later crowned “Best Independent Game”.
The cat in “Stray” purrs, curls up to take a nap and takes malicious pleasure in damaging the furniture. For the visual aspect, BlueTwelve was inspired by Murtaugh, a stray cat adopted by the studio’s co-founders. And Oscar, the sphynx of one of the team members, served as a model for the animations. The game also appeals to “real” felines: on Twitter, the “Cats Watching Stray” account, which lists the most zany reactions of cats observing the adventures of the mustachioed hero, has some 36,000 subscribers.
‘Elden Ring’ voted best game of the year
The other big winner of the evening is the RPG “Elden Ring” (PlayStation, Xbox, PC). This game was crowned title of the year and received awards for best direction, best art direction and best role-playing game. The next installment in the saga “The Legend of Zelda” (Nintendo Switch) has won the most anticipated game award.