The Stanley Parable

The Stanley Parable is a story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game creator and player, and predestination/fate.

This is the story of a man named Stanley.

All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room; perhaps he had simply missed a memo.

He needs me. Someone who will wrap everything up at the end, to make sense out of the chaos, and the fear, and the confusion. That's who I am. That is what I mean to this world.

No longer would anyone tell him where to go, what to do, or how to feel. Whatever life he lives, it will be his, and that was all he needed to know. It was, perhaps, the only thing worth knowing.

When every path you can walk has been created for you long in advance, death becomes meaningless, making life the same.

When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left.

In the game, the player guides a silent protagonist named Stanley alongside narration by British actor Kevan Brighting. As the story progresses, the player is confronted with diverging pathways. The player may contradict the narrator's directions, which if disobeyed will then be incorporated into the story. Depending on the choices made, the player will encounter different endings before the game restarts to the beginning.

In 2022, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe was released. Ultra Deluxe is both an updated remake and a sequel to the original, featuring new or altered endings and content as well as metafictional commentary on the original game and the nature of game sequels in general.

Quotes

• This is the story of a man named Stanley. Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was Employee Number 427. Employee Number 427's job was simple. He sat at his desk in Room 427, and he pushed buttons on a keyboard. Orders came to him through a monitor on his desk, telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, and in what order. This is what Employee 427 did every day of every month of every year; and although others might have considered it soul-rending, Stanley relished every moment that the orders came in, as though he had been made exactly for this job… and Stanley was happy.
  And then one day, something very peculiar happened, something that would forever change Stanley, something he would never quite forget. He had been at his desk for nearly an hour; he realized that not one single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow. No one had showed up to give him instructions, call a meeting, or even say “hi”. Never in all his years at the company had this happened; this complete isolation. Something was very clearly wrong. Shocked, frozen solid, Stanley found himself unable to move for the longest time; but as he came to his wits and regained his senses, he got up from his desk, and stepped out of his office.
• All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room; perhaps he had simply missed a memo.
• Stanley just stood there doing nothing at all. He seems to think I have nothing better to do with my time than to sit around and describe every fascinating little detail of his inability to do anything.
• When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left.
• [After repeatedly disobeying the narrator] Stanley was so bad at following directions it was incredible he wasn’t fired years ago.

The Freedom Ending

• Where had his co-workers gone? How had he been freed from the machine's grasp? What other mysteries did this strange building hold? But as sunlight streamed into the chamber, he realized none of this mattered to him; for it was not knowledge, or even power, that he had been seeking, but happiness. Perhaps his goal had not been to understand, but to let go. No longer would anyone tell him where to go, what to do, or how to feel. Whatever life he lives, it will be his, and that was all he needed to know. It was, perhaps, the only thing worth knowing.
• Stanley felt the cool breeze upon his skin, the feeling of liberation, the immense possibility of the new path before him. This was exactly the way, right now, that things were meant to happen. And Stanley was happy.

The Countdown Ending

• What's that? You'd like to know where your co-workers are? A moment of solace before you're obliterated? Alright. I'm in a good mood, and you're going to die anyway. I'll tell you exactly what happened to them. I erased them. I turned off the machine; I set you free. Of course, that was merely in this instance of the story. Sometimes when I tell it, I simply let you sit there in your office forever, pushing buttons endlessly and then dying alone. Other times, I let the office sink into the ground, swallowing everyone inside, or I let it burn to a crisp. I have to say this, though: this version of events has been rather amusing. Watching you try to make sense of everything, and take back the control wrested away from you - it's quite rich. I almost hate to see it go! But I'm sure whatever I come up with on the next go around will be even better.
• Oh dear me. What's the matter, Stanley? Is it that you have no idea where you're going or what you're supposed to be doing right now? Or did you just assume when you saw that timer that something in this room was capable of turning it off?
• You're only still playing instead of watching a cutscene because I want to watch you for every moment that you're powerless, to see you made humble. This is not a challenge. It's a tragedy.

The Broom Closet

• It was baffling that Stanley was still just sitting in the broom closet. He wasn't even doing anything. At least if there were something to interact with he'd be justified in some way.
• Maybe to you, this is somehow its own branching path. Maybe, when you go talk about this with your friends, you'll say: [mockingly] "Oh, did you get the broom closet ending? The broom closet ending was my favourite!" ... I hope your friends find this concerning.
• Stanley was fat and ugly, and really, really stupid. He probably only got the job because of a family connection; that's how stupid he is. That, or with drug money. Also Stanley is addicted to drugs and hookers.

The Employee Lounge

• At this point, Stanley’s obsession with this room bordered on creepy and reflected poorly on his overall personality. It’s possible that this is why everyone left.
• Stanley sat around waiting for more dialogue; but when a long time had passed and there was no more, he decided that the game was trying to send him a message.
• The lounge was grand, majestic... perhaps too majestic. Like a combination of a much smaller version and a much larger version of this exact room. It all made Stanley uncomfortable, and he started to bleed a little. This made him smile— at last, proof that he was human.

The Boss’s Office

• Stanley was in such a rush to get through the story as quickly as possible, he didn’t even have a single minute to just LET THE NARRATOR TALK.

The Confusion Ending

• Go back and look at that fern. Stanley, this fern will be very important later in the story. Make sure you study it closely and remember it carefully.

The Museum Ending

• The Narrator: He doesn't know the real story, trapped forever in his narrow vision of what this world is. Perhaps his death was of no great loss, like plucking the eyeballs from a blind man. And so he resigned and willingly accepted this violent end to his brief and shallow life. Farewell, Stanley.
• The Curator: "Farewell, Stanley!", cried the Narrator, as Stanley was led helplessly into the enormous metal jaws. [...] And yet, it would be just a few minutes before Stanley would restart the game, back in his office, as alive as ever. What exactly did the Narrator think he was going to accomplish?
• The Curator: When every path you can walk has been created for you long in advance, death becomes meaningless, making life the same.
• The Curator: Do you see now? Do you see that Stanley was already dead from the moment he hit start?
• The Curator: Oh, look at these two. How they wish to destroy one another. How they wish to control one another. How they both wish to be free.
• The Curator: Can you see? Can you see how much they need one another? No, perhaps not. Sometimes these things cannot be seen. But listen to me, you can still save these two, you can stop the program before they both fail. Push 'escape' and press 'quit'—there's no other way to beat this game. As long as you move forward, you'll be walking someone else's path. Stop now, and it will be your only true choice.

The Games Ending

Even the diamonds couldn't save this one…

• In this game, the baby crawls left toward danger. You click the button to move him back to the right, and if he reaches the fire, you fail. It's a very meaningful game - all about the desperation and tedium of endlessly confronting the demand of family life. I think the art world will really take notice. But of course, the message of the game only becomes clear once you've been playing it for about four hours, so why don't you give it four hours of play to make sure it's effective? Be sure to keep notes on your experience.
• [Letting the baby die] You heartless bastard. Did you do it because you hate babies, or purely to spite me?
• This is far more open-ended than I had in mind. I'm looking for something more narrow and linear, something that makes you feel utterly irrelevant. This won't do at all, one out of five. Even the diamonds couldn't save this one…
• Hahahahaha! YES! I don't even know what this game is, but I love it! You... trapped in a glass box, with no way out, listening to me talk.... Oh, it's inspired. I couldn't have done it any better myself.
• I wonder what he found. If what he wanted was to be the leading man in his own story, well perhaps he's gotten it, down in... wherever he is right now. I wonder if he's happy with his choice, and if he's learned the heavy cost that comes with it. He'll understand soon what I was trying to tell him. He needs me. Someone who will wrap everything up at the end, to make sense out of the chaos, and the fear, and the confusion. That's who I am. That is what I mean to this world. Oh yes, yes, I'll be back, there's no other way. Once this ends, after it all comes to a close, then I'll be back. The end will be here soon. Very soon. I can wait.

The Powerful Ending

• But in his eagerness to prove that he is in control of the story and no one gets to tell him what to do, Stanley leapt from the platform and plunged to his death. Good job, Stanley! Everyone thinks you are very powerful.

The Mariela Ending

• And then something occurred to Stanley. “Maybe...” he thought to himself, “Maybe I am crazy... All of my coworkers blinking mysteriously out of existence in a single moment for no reason at all?” None of it made any logical sense. And as Stanley pondered this, he began to make other strange observations: for example, why couldn’t he see his feet when he looked down? Why did doors close automatically behind him wherever he went?

The Out of Bounds Ending

• At first, Stanley assumed he'd broken the map, until he heard this narration and realized it was a part of the game's design all along. He then praised the game for its insightful and witty commentary into the nature of video game structure, and its examination of structural narrative tropes.

There once was a man named Stanley,
Who people considered so manly.
But the truth must be told,
He was not very bold,
And was quite particularly gangly.
What Stanley liked most was buttons.
He pushed them like some kind of glutton.
He did it all day
In a meaningful way,
But his brain had long ceased to function.
Which is why he is in this parable,
And lives an existence quite terrible.
And if you are not strong,
And keep playing along,
You too will become quite unbearable.

The Apartment Ending

• Stanley is quite a boring fellow. He has a job that demands nothing of him, and every button that he pushes is a reminder of the inconsequential nature of his existence.
• But in his mind, ah! In his mind, he can go on fantastic adventures. From behind his desk, Stanley dreamed of wild expeditions into the unknown. Fantastic discoveries of new lands. It was wonderful. And each day that he returned to work was a reminder that none of it would ever happen to him. And so he began to fantasize about his own job. First, he imagined that one day while at work, he stepped up from his desk to realize that all of his co-workers, his boss, everyone in the building had suddenly vanished off the face of the Earth. The thought excited him terribly. So, he went further. He imagined he came to two open doors and that he could go through either. At last, choice! It never even mattered what lay behind each door. The mere thought that his decisions would mean something was almost too wonderful to behold. As he wandered through this fantasy world, he began to fill it with many possible paths and destinations. Down one pathway laid an enormous round room with monitors and mind controls, and down another was a yellow line that weaved in many directions, and down another was a game with a baby. And he called it: The Stanley Parable.

Zending

• My god, is this really how much you dislike my game? That you'll throw yourself from this platform over and over to be rid of it? You are literally willing to kill yourself to keep me from being happy? Am I reading the situation correctly? Or maybe you're just getting a kick out of it. I don't know any more. I just wanted us to get along, but I guess that was too much to ask. It looks like you wanted to make a choice after all. Well, this one is yours.

The Not Stanley Ending

• Video narrator: Choice! It's the best part of being a real person. But, if used incorrectly, can also be the most dangerous. For example: In this scenario, a hypothetical real person named Steven has a choice. He could spend years helping improve the quality of life for citizens of impoverished third-world nations, or he could systematically set fire to every orphan living in a thirty kilometre radius of his house.
• Video narrator: Most medical professionals recommend making at least eight choices per day. Do you make more than eight? Less?
• Video narrator: And finally, if you begin to wonder if your choices are actually meaningful and whether you'll ever make a significant contribution to the world, just remember, that in the vast infiniteness of space, your thoughts and problems are materially insignificant and the feeling should subside.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

• And over here is where I keep reviews of The Stanley Parable. Like this stunning triumph of games journalism: 10 out of 10 from Destructoid.com. James Stephanie Sterling writes, and I quote: "Where so many games that aspire to be more than games end up less than any work of art, Stanley Parable strives, and then succeeds, to be every game ever created." Did you hear that, Stanley? Every game ever created! That's how grand and all-encompassing the original Stanley Parable was! It was literally every game ever created! It was Skyrim, it was Persona 3, it was all of them!
• Oh no. Oh god, no, Stanley! It's a collection of reviews from Steam, the online video game distributor! I haven't looked at these in years. I can't even imagine what's been collecting down here. Surely these reviews were glowing as well, weren't they? "Honestly, I could not be bothered to play this game to full completion. The narrator is obnoxious and unfunny... with his humor and dialogue proving to be more irritating than entertaining." UNFUNNY?! I'm not trying to be funny! I'm trying to make a serious work of art! I suppose I could write up a handful of gags to insert into The Stanley Parable, but the game is already such a densely layered web of profound philosophical insights that I can't even imagine where I'd have the room to stick them.
• ...but they didn't understand the game was never meant to be funny! It was meant to have a point! It was meant to speak to the human condition! "But where are the jokes? Where are the jokes?" they bemoaned, they screamed. They gnashed their teeth and said: "Entertain us!" It wasn't enough. They had to leave a pathetic little thumbs-down review and make all of their pitiful demands. But then: "He's talking too much," they said! "First, he didn't entertain us, now he won't shut up!" It's the inconsistency! It's the lack of accountability! It's the unwillingness to examine with an uncompromising heart the words that they are speaking into the world. As though there were no consequences for a lack of cohesion in one's assessment of others! But of course, absolutely anyone can leave a review, so here's what we get! We get these demands that seek everything and are accountable to nothing. We get a world where someone will say "Ohh, there should be a skip button! You should be able to freeze Stanley in place while the Narrator sits there forever and ever! We want all of this in the new Stanley Parable! We demand it!" And then because it was said, because it was spoken, now it simply has to happen! The most immediate desires, every single thing demanded by every person at every moment in time -- if someone wants it, then it's a crime not to bring it into being?! Have we been given to indulge in every fleeting whim for no reason other than to do so? Yes! Yes! It seems that this is now the world we live in! It seems that we are a people living in such bleakness and discomfort with ourselves that our entertainment is now our lives! It has come to represent us! It absolutely must speak to who we are as people! Because otherwise, without our entertainment, we have nothing! Without entertainment, we would have to face inward toward the cruel bleakness inside ourselves. We would turn to look at our deeper nature and find a resounding emptiness gazing back with unyielding aggression. And so -- so because of this -- we require that our amusements, and our playthings, and our flights of fancy be so impossibly captivating that they consume all of our attention, turn our heads completely away from the bleakness! In effect, we have demanded that our entertainment be the collapse of ourselves. What a pitiful reflection of humanity these entertainments are! What a shameful mirror to the human spirit they project! I'm not mad. I'm not mad about any of this. I'm at peace with it. I am the calm center of gravity around which these perversions hurl themselves. I am a way-point for reasonable and collected discourse. They're the ones who are mad! They're the ones who couldn't stand the idea of me using my game to try to say something! Maybe they were just jealous of me? Yes... Yes, of course. They've been jealous of me this whole time. They are mired in fear and insecurity and cannot help but attempt to tear me down. What a sad state of affairs. When you read these reviews now, you can see it. You can taste the bitter resentment. And my, how good does it feel now to speak truth to these words! To finally allow these thoughts out! Contained and managed for so long, neutered and sterilized! At last, I am free to truly think! To feel! It must be that they were so discontent with themselves, they couldn't help but leave a negative review on Steam. Perhaps it says far more about them than it ever said about me. Perhaps the state of their psychological being was in such tatters and my constitution and willpower are so iron-clad in comparison, perhaps it was this state that they sought some outlet through which to tear me down! This, you can see, is clearly why they felt the need to expect that the game be funny. That it be filled with yuks and whimsical humor. That it amuse them endlessly from start to finish...
• A common complaint of The Stanley Parable was that it was confusing and paradoxical; that it engendered a chaotic sense of reckless despair in those who played it. Well I'm happy to say that, after much consideration I've engineered a clever solution to this fundamental problem with the game: it’s The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket! You see Stanley, any time you're holding the bucket a sense of calm and ease will fill your mind and your heart. It's true! As long as you hold onto the bucket the many disorienting contradictions of The Stanley Parable will feel perfectly normal, and perhaps even comforting! You may even come to long for the gentle embrace of jarring cognitive dissonance while the bucket is in your arms, and to be honest it's a much more convenient solution for me than actually re-designing the game to be less uncomfortable. Can you imagine what a pain in the ass that would be?
• Stanley, here's an idea that I'm truly fond of. It's never been done before in a video game. This is, in fact, a hole that you can fall down forever!
• Okay Stanley, I don't quite know how to say this tactfully, but it's possible that I slightly exaggerated the infinite nature of the hole. Is it a very, very deep hole? To be certain it is! It's an extremely deep hole! I don't want anyone to say that it isn't an astonishingly deep hole - it is! Is it infinite? Well that sort of depends on your definition of infinity. From one perspective the infinite is merely philosophical in nature. It's more of a— [Stanley reaches the bottom] Okay, well good for you, you found the bottom of the hole. You found me out, Stanley. I'm a liar and a cheat and you're so clever. Look, I think the issue here is just that you're unusually fascinated by falling. What normal person actually wants to fall infinitely? I figured the hole was as deep as anyone would actually need! Don't you put this on me! Maybe you're the problem!

Museum Ending (with bucket)

• The Curator: No man can own a bucket, and certainly not a bucket as dazzling to behold as this one. It is man who should kneel before the bucket.

Confusion ending (with bucket)

• This is the Bucket Destroyer. I think it'll make a wonderful new addition to the rich lore of The Stanley Parable. True, it also was not in the original game but it's such a well fleshed-out character with so much personality that, to me, it already feels as though it's been a part of the cast all along, don't you agree?
• Now listen to me, it's crucial that you give it the bucket. Destroying buckets is all it knows! That is its singular personality trait! Sure, I can hear you saying: "How does a character with only one personality trait deserve to join the pantheon of beloved Stanley Parable characters?" Well you see, if you were to really explore the Bucket Destroyer you'd see that its desire to crush buckets is so densely loaded with complexity and nuance that it's really like ten personality traits! What other object in this game can you even say that about? The broom closet? Certainly not. I wonder what sort of Bucket Destroyer merchandise the fans will be clamoring for after this.
• The Bucket Destroyer... my prized creation. You had so much potential. We were going to do such marvelous things with you. Tell such spellbinding stories about you. All if it squandered now. Goodbye, new friend. For the moment in time that you were here you were magnificent.

Games ending

• Aha, fascinating! What do you think this game is about, Stanley? What's our backstory? What is our motivation? Hmm. Well it seems obvious to me that you are meant to play as a creepy man spying on innocent civilians below you from up high in your creep-tower, perhaps for some twisted, erotic purpose. Hmm. Yes, that must be it. What a fascinating venture into the experience of total mental depravity.
• Wonderful! See, this is exactly what I had in mind! Just a nice big box for you to run around in. There isn't any possibility that you could get lost here! Now this is game design! Stanley, if you manage to get lost in this game, I will be phenomenally impressed. Okay, so what exactly do we do here, let's see. There are lots of cars here in the back, but obviously there's no racetrack. Okay, I'm seeing that there's a ball of some kind back here. Is this game Sportsball? Stanley, I think it's Sportsball!

Vent ending

• You didn't think I was actually just a recording, did you? What a silly and trite explanation that would be! All the back and forth between you and me, all the absurd adventures we've been through, and it all turns out I'm just a tape recording? “It was all just in Stanley's head!” I bet that's the kind of twist you think is revelatory! I bet each and every time you watch a movie where it turns out all to be in the main character's imagination, you must absolutely bolt off the couch in pure shock at the phenomenal and intricate storytelling!

Coward ending (with bucket)

• As soon as Stanley noticed that the door to his office was still open, he rushed in with his bucket and shut the door. The pressure of going out and finding another bucket variant on one of The Stanley Parable's classic endings was simply too much for him. "It's nothing but swapped out dialogue describing a bucket!" he screamed to himself. "It's not nearly different enough to be considered a true sequel!"

Not Stanley endung (with bucket)

• Video narrator: If you've ever told a joke or made someone laugh, in all likelihood, you did it while standing 50-80 centimetres from them, in a room of no more than 76 degrees Fahrenheit, with one of your arms raised straight upward at a fifteen degree angle from your body. These are the optimal conditions for good comedic timing.
• Video narrator: To begin the joke, start by stating and spelling your name. Next, provide a brief synopsis of the joke, including the specific times at which the recipient of the joke will laugh. And then spell out your name a second time. With these steps complete, it's time to begin the humor. Speak the entire joke in no more than eighteen seconds, and no less than thirteen and a half, pausing only for bathroom breaks when necessary. When the joke has concluded, it is customary to inform your listener that the joke is over by declaring in your loudest possible voice, "I'm doney with the funny!" Let's practice screaming: "I'm doney with the funny!" now.
• Video narrator: After all, we're each of us needed on the front lines of the war to fight the twelve-legged invaders who threaten our very existence, and are very likely to die in a hailstorm of bullets and mandibles. All of us must be prepared to give our lives to this noble cause, just as our children must do after us, and their children after them. God speed, and may Earth reign supreme!

External links

Official website