The Secret to Stray’s Success

The internet has long loved cats, but there’s more to Stray’s success.

Stray, Blue Twelve Studio’s latest game, has been met with high praise. The game launched on PlayStation and Steam, where it received very positive feedback. In a world where major games often face backlash due to bugs and performance issues, this indie game appears to have nailed the basics: It's simply fun to play! From the looks of it though, Stray's success lies in its simplicity—a simple idea that works well enough on its own but also stands up against other more complex titles out there.

It's simple, but not boring. The gameplay itself is fun, engaging and relaxing—something that doesn't seem possible in this day and age when many games are overly complicated or require hours upon hours of time investment before being enjoyable. That combination is the lighting in a bottle Blue Twelve seems to have discovered. For a short play, roughly 4 hours if you focus on the main quest, it packs a ton of emotion.

This isn’t to downplay it’s actual subject, a cat in a post-apocalyptic city. Of course the internet has long loved cats, but the relatively simple physics and gameplay mechanics means the game needed to deliver an interesting world, characters, and story. It’s akin to a beloved animated short you’d see prior to a Disney film, and I think that combination is where it’s packing a lot of its punch.

Not to mention, after the first half of the year has been dominated by Elden Ring (likely 2022 Game of the Year if we had to bet), Stray executes well as a whole to give gamers a nice change of pace. It seems like every year an indie game takes the gaming world by storm, but a “cozy” adjacent game in the middle of the summer breaking through vacations is no small feat.

Simplicity done correctly, no easy feat. A strong recommendation to all gamers.