It’s coming soon! The release of Stray is so close that we can’t wait for people to play and we hope you enjoy what we’ve been working on for a long time. And now I think it’s a great opportunity to talk a little more about how the main character of the game was born.
Being a real stray cat, meaning an unowned cat, the main character of Stray has no name, or at least no name that can be spoken in human language. That said, there is one real main inspiration behind the creation of this lovely video game character. Everyone, I’m excited to introduce the legend itself: Murtaugh!
Murtaugh was one of the two cats of the co-founders (Viv and Koola) and was a real stray cat found under a car on a street near the city of Montpellier, France. But don’t worry, he’s in a much better place right now. He’s also called the “boss,” and while the in-game characters aren’t a direct reproduction of Martau, he definitely gave a lot of inspiration to its appearance and provided great support throughout the development.
I knew I wasn’t aiming for 100% accurate expression, but it took a lot of work to create a truly reliable character, especially for cat owners who are accustomed to meeting friends every day. did. Viv and Koola tried to repeat the cat’s appearance in the game very subtly, expressing not only the cuteness of the cat, but also the liveliness and playfulness.
But once you have a good visual for your character, you need to fully animate it to make it truly lively. The shrine maiden is our main cat animator, and he did a really great job thanks to his amazing talent and countless hours looking for references. However, not all references he used are from the Internet. Everyone, I’m excited to introduce you to the now famous movie actor Oscar!
Oscar was a Sphinx and started working together in the studio almost every day, which was very helpful when Miko needed to have a real video reference for jumps and runs. Animating quadrupeds is already very difficult, but the subtleties of cat movement are incredibly accurate and difficult to convey properly.
Cat programmers Miko and Remi spend countless hours on the basic movements of the protagonist, tweaking small jumps and transitions over and over, between good-looking animations and fun and responsive gameplay. I found the perfect sweet spot in. Of course, putting a real cat under the nose throughout the development was very helpful in many ways.
But you can’t leave you without introducing another very important member of the team who will be working in the studio with us every day. As the studio’s CEO and CEO, he was responsible for monitoring the team’s efforts daily and ensuring that everyone was working on the right topic. This is too much fun for his own good: Jun!
We are really pleased that the entire Murtaugh, Oscar, Jun, and Blue Twelve Studio teams can share what we have been working on with great passion and dedication. Have fun and enjoy our first game with everyone.
Stray will be available on PlayStation Extra and Premium membership plans starting July 19th at no additional charge. See this PlayStation blog post for more information.
