Host Geoff Keighley recently announced the nominees for all 31 categories that will be judged at this year's upcoming Game Awards, and the smash indie hit Stray netted a spot in a staggering six of them, the most notable of which being the most notable category in general; Game of the Year. That's right, the cute cat game where you can scratch doors and purposefully knock things over is up there with the likes of massive AAA titles like Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West.
The other two titles remaining in the category are A Plague Tale: Requiem and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. These are smaller budget games than the previous three, for sure, but Stray still stands as the outlier indie title competing against games with either much more content, much better graphics, or both. The official website describes the purpose of the Game of The Year award to be, "recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields."
Clearly, the Game Awards voters believe that Stray has a lot more substance than what it shows on the surface. What many thought would be a simpler street-cat simulator ended up being an atmospheric adventure through a futuristic urban landscape that briefly touches on concepts like human identity and artificial intelligence.
And following the notion of Stray being atmospheric, the game was also nominated for Best Art Direction. Within the wide spectrum of reviewer opinions, most did agree on the game being visually appealing, its lighting in particular doing a good job portraying the colorful neon blurs often associated with the cyberpunk aesthetic.
The other four awards Stray was nominated for are Best Game Direction, Best Action/Adventure Game, Best Indie Game, and Best Debut Indie Game. Of course, what each individual thinks of Stray and their presence in these categories is subjective, but Bluetwelve Studio definitely deserves a great deal of praise for making a game that received so many notable nominations, given that it was the team's first title. Furthermore, it's a success for the indie scene in general that a game with a simpler concept and a much smaller budget can stand tall next to much bigger titles.