The Stanley Parable
| The Stanley Parable | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Galactic Cafe |
| Publisher(s) | Galactic Cafe |
| Designer(s) |
|
| Programmer(s) | Jesús Higueras |
| Artist(s) | Andreas Jörgensen |
| Writer(s) |
|
| Composer(s) |
|
| Engine | Source |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows OS X Linux |
| Release |
Windows
|
| Genre(s) | Interactive fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | 88/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 9/10 |
| Game Informer | 8.5/10 |
| GameSpot | 9/10 |
| IGN | 8.8/10 |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 90/100 |
| Polygon | 9/10 |
| Slant Magazine | 80/100 |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4.5/5 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 4.5/5 |
The Stanley Parable is an interactive fiction video game designed by Davey Wreden. The game originally released on July 27, 2011 as a free modification for Half-Life 2. A high-definition stand-alone remake, including new story elements, was again designed by Davey Wreden together with Source engine modeler William Pugh, under the Galactic Cafe studio name. The remake was announced and approved via Steam Greenlight in 2012, and was released on October 17, 2013 for Microsoft Windows. Later updates of the game added support for OS X on December 19, 2013, and for Linux on September 9, 2015.
While both the mod and the remake use the first-person perspective common to other Source engine mods, there are no combat or other action-based sequences. Instead, the player guides Stanley, the game's protagonist, through a surreal environment while the narrator, voiced by British actor Kevan Brighting, delivers exposition. The player has the opportunity to make numerous decisions on which paths to take, and because at times the narrator says what Stanley will do next, the player can choose to ignore the narration and make a different choice. Every choice made by the player is commented on by the narrator, and depending on the choices the player makes, they will encounter different endings to the game before it restarts.
Wreden envisioned the game after considering that most major video game titles confine the user to its rules, and considered how to construct a narrative to challenge that notion. Outside of Brighting's voice work as the narrator, Wreden built the modification himself, initially as a personal project for his career goals but soon expanding to a wider release once he had shown it to friends and other players. The modification received critical attention as a new variation of creating interactive storytelling within a game engine, and provided a thought-provoking narration to discuss with others on the nature of choice and predestination within video games.
The remake expanded the experience, recreating many of the original mod's decisions within new environments while adding several more story pathways that could be followed. The standalone game has received similar critical praise from journalists favoring the expanded narrative and commentary on player choice and decision-making in modern video games.
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