Created by the BlueTwelve studio, based in Montpellier, in the south of France, "Stray" features a felid in an underground city populated by humanoids and strange creatures.
Using a drone, the tomcat must solve a series of puzzles to get back to the surface.
The game is available on the PlayStation console and on the Steam shopping platform.
In the vast room of the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, the producers first received from the hands of actress Jessica Henwick the prize for "Best first independent game".
"Thank you very much, it's an incredible honor", reacted Swann Martin-Raget, producer at BlueTwelve, thanking the assembly "on behalf of the whole team in Montpellier".
He greeted their relatives, friends but also the "cats, obviously, very important", under the laughter.
"Stray" was later crowned "Best Independent Game".
The cat in "Stray" purrs, curls up to take a nap and takes malicious pleasure in damaging the furniture.
For the visual aspect, BlueTwelve was inspired by Murtaugh, a stray cat adopted by the studio's co-founders.
And Oscar, the sphynx of one of the team members, served as a model for the animations.
The game also appeals to "real" felines: on Twitter, the "Cats Watching Stray" account, which lists the most zany reactions of cats observing the adventures of the mustachioed hero, has some 36,000 subscribers.
on Twitter, the "Cats Watching Stray" account lists the most zany reactions of cats observing the adventures of the mustachioed hero on the screen © Chris Delmas / AFP / Archives
In the other categories, the RPG "Elden Ring" (PlayStation, Xbox, PC) was crowned title of the year and received awards for best direction, best art direction and best role-playing game.
The next installment in the saga "The Legend of Zelda" (Nintendo Switch) has obtained the award for the most anticipated game.
© 2022 AFP