Stray Producer Talks Cats, Contrast, And Finding “The Sweet Spot Between Fun And Good-Looking”

Nintendo Life: Firstly, congratulations on the release of Stray! The game had a huge first year, gaining the highest user rating on Steam, going viral with cat reaction videos, and picking up several awards. Is this the reception you pictured and how do you feel about it two years on?

Swann Martin-Raget, BlueTwelve Studio: Thank you so much! It was an absolutely amazing experience to see such positive feedback from both cats and humans alike, and we are still not over it! Working for so long on the game before its release, it becomes really hard to know if people will like it or not and we were totally surprised and ecstatic when we saw so many people having fun in this world we made.

The game appears to draw from a wide variety of sources, from iconic pop culture touchstones like Blade Runner to real-world environments such as Kowloon Walled City. Were there any games that you looked to for inspiration, too?

The whole team is made of avid gamers who are really passionate about the medium, so we constantly take inspiration from a very wide variety of games but also movies, books, and all art forms in general. There are a lot of small easter eggs and homages that we hid everywhere in the game that more or less consciously reflect this.

The idea of contrast is something that is fundamentally important in Koola and Viv’s initial vision for the game

Stray offers a very realistic depiction of cats, but it’s not an all-out cat simulator. Can you tell us how you found the balance between realism and engaging gameplay?

It was a very iterative process. We had to test out a lot of potential ideas and features in order to find the ones that were really fun and fit well together, but also that kept the realism of the cat’s abilities in real life. We were very clear from the start that our hero was just a normal cat without any superpowers, but we also knew that we didn’t want to add more classic ‘survival features’ like hunger, sleep, etc. The vision from Koola and Viv [the founders of BlueTwelve Studio and former artists at Ubisoft] was to make an adventure game first and not a simulator. But the great thing is that cats are amazing animals, so there are a lot of incredibly fun things to do with their natural abilities!

The cat protagonist opens doors to unique level design and platforming challenges. What was it like trying to design things from a feline perspective?

It was a huge challenge and a super interesting topic to work on as a creative team. The point of view that this character gives on a classic level design process is very fresh and gives a lot of opportunities for cool points of view, interesting paths and innovative choices of what is a blocker or not. But at the same time, it was really tricky to find the balance with the level art as every decoration, pipe or aircon added to the level by the artists was a potential new path for the players. So we had a lot of back and forth between designers and level artists to find the sweet spot between fun and good-looking.

…the great thing is that cats are amazing animals, so there are a lot of incredibly fun things to do with their natural abilities!

Stray is a refreshingly non-violent game, particularly compared to others that adopt the cyberpunk aesthetic. Was this always the aim, or was there a time when tools like B-12’s UV Light would play a larger role?

The aim was always to make an action-adventure game and, in this genre, the rhythm and the variety of progression are key. The UV light, like many other features in the game, is another way for us to change the rhythm between a more chill moment where you have to explore and look around and a more fast-paced sequence. We had a lot of iterations on how long every sequence needs to be and what is a good order of progression to keep the pace interesting and engaging for the players while still being able to tell the story of this world and the characters you meet in the game.

Without going into too many spoilers, Stray has a surprisingly bleak backdrop. Yet it also has a dedicated ‘meow’ button and spots to take a nap. How important was it for you to provide moments of levity in the darkness?

The idea of contrast is something that was fundamentally important in Koola and Viv’s initial vision for the game, and it is something that we have been using in a lot of different ways as a team. There is indeed that contrast between the sombre setting and some more light-hearted characters, but also the contrast between supposedly dead artificial machines and a lively and organic cat, the contrast between very lit and colourful places and more shadowy environments, contrast in the gameplay with action paced chase and slow-paced exploration, etc. We feel that this is a very important part of Stray and our creative process and it’s always very inspiring to think like this.

What was the biggest challenge of bringing the game to Switch?

We worked to find the right balance between visual fidelity and fluid gameplay for the Switch, and we’re excited that players are able to experience this world on the go to make it all worth it.

Finally, can you share any details about the upcoming Stray movie, and do you have any plans for the award-winning kitty in the future?

There is nothing that we can share at that point but definitely stay tuned as the team is still hard at work on a lot of exciting things!

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This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

In addition to the questions above, we asked about the team’s experience working with Annapurna Games — following news in September that all staff at the publisher resigned — but we were told there were “No responses to share” at this time.

Thank you to Swann at BlueTwelve Studio and to Hannah at fortyseven for setting it up. Stray is now available on the Switch eShop, with a physical version from Annapurna and Skybound Games available from online retailers.