How The Stanley Parable goes down the rabbit hole of other games

The Stanley Parable features so many contradictions and branching paths that they might take you into a completely different gaming world. (Spoilers in the link)

Ozzie Mejia

October 23, 2013 2:00 PM

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The Stanley Parable has grown significantly since it first began life as a 2011 Half-Life 2 mod. The game has expanded to include a far greater number of branching paths and random outcomes, all based on player choice. How random are these outcomes? Some player choices might even warp them into completely different games. Spoilers follow.

While the original mod featured a similar idea that briefly took players into the world of Half-Life 2, the full Stanley Parable branches out further, featuring certain branching paths that can briefly take players into the world of Valve's Portal and Notch's Minecraft.

"We wanted to change that part up a bit to surprise players of the original game," creator Davey Wreden told Gamasutra. "We talked about it with Valve and via a magical bit of paperwork that I'm not allowed to talk about, we can now legally put Portal in our game!"

Wreden adds that he received special permission from Notch to use Minecraft assets for The Stanley Parable. "Minecraft we talked about for a long time, and we weren't even sure it would work. Would it break the flow of the game or be too distracting? But once we tried it out, players really loved it. I asked Notch for permission to use the art and he said yes!"

The Stanley Parable is packed with dialogue choices and branching paths that will lead to a number of different results. For an idea of what to expect, you can check out the trailer below. It's available now on PC.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?