Getting to know Stray’s leading feline, out July 19

blog.playstation.com:

Almost there! The release of Stray is so incredibly close and we cannot wait to see people play and hopefully enjoy what we have been working on for so long. And we thought now is a great opportunity to tell you all a bit more about how the main protagonist of the game came to life.

Being an actual stray, meaning a cat without an owner, the main protagonist of Stray does not have a name or at least not one that can be told with human language. But that said, the real-life main inspiration behind the creation of this lovely video game character has one. Everyone, I am thrilled to introduce the legend itself: Murtaugh!

Murtaugh is one of the cofounders’ (Viv and Koola) two cats and was an actual stray who was found in the streets near the city of Montpellier, France under a car. But 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.

Even though we knew that we weren’t aiming for a 100% precise representation, having a character that feels really believable especially for cat owners who are so used to seeing their companion everyday required a lot of work. Viv and Koola did a lot of very subtle iterations on the appearance of the game’s cat to really try and capture the cuteness but also the liveliness and playfulness of a cat.

But once you have a good visual for your character, then you need to animate it perfectly to truly give it life. Miko is our main cat animator, and he really did an incredible job thanks to his amazing talent and countless hours searching for references. But not all the references he