2013’s The Stanley Parable was an incredibly unique interactive comedy-drama that saw players take the role of Stanley, a fairly nondescript office worker who quite literally pushed buttons all day. Players start with the game’s narrator describing that Stanley arrived for work to find that no orders ever came in, which later leads to the discovery that all of his coworkers had disappeared. What follows is one of the most unique commentaries on video game narratives ever presented in a walking simulator, using some pretty unique storytelling methods too.
It’s hard to explain The Stanley Parable any further without ruining the game, as it contains a ton of meta-commentary on video game narratives that are best experienced rather than explained. What can be said is that co-creators and writers Davey Wreden and William Pugh managed to make a game that switches between being hilarious, touching and dark, all within ten minutes. The Stanley Parable is getting a remaster soon, so it might be a good idea for players to return to the originals before checking out The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.
It’s already been confirmed that The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe will have more endings than the previous game, which implies that there are going to be new paths through the office. However, it’s also entirely possible that the development team behind this remake, Crows Crows Crows, will lean into the meta-commentary to mess with fans who’ve played the original. Given that Pugh and Wreden are both involved with the remake, it’s almost certain that Ultra Deluxe will feature some jokes specifically for fans of the original game.
Pugh and Wreden often commentate on the nature of games as games, especially in their work since The Stanley Parable. Wreden released The Beginner’s Guide in 2015, which told the story of game development by literally walking the player through a series of half-developed games. Pugh and his studio Crows Crows Crows developed and published Accounting+, a VR game that had players continuously dive further into virtual reality through in-game VR helmets. Needless to say, both of these developers are fairly comfortable writing meta-commentary.
Players who have already completed The Stanley Parable might be able to imagine how the first decisive moment in the game could be messed with to play with fans’ expectations. For those who haven’t played The Stanley Parable, this moment is fairly critical in how players experience the game, so it’s difficult to talk about without spoiling it. The kind of meta-commentary that the game provides can however be explained by a pretty easy-to-find easter egg that really doesn’t spoil too much of the experience.
If players stand in a broom closet for long enough, the narrator will end up confusingly asking Stanley why they’re still standing in the broom closet. Stay there for even longer, and the narrator will go on to rant about how expecting something special for standing in a broom closet is stupid, and that there isn’t a “broom closet ending” that they could brag to their friends about finding. If the player continues to stay in the closet, the narrator simply assumes the player died at the keyboard.
Perhaps, in Ultra Deluxe, players will find the broom closet missing or locked, with players able to go on a long and complicated quest to unlock it. Maybe there would actually be a broom closet ending this time, as a reward for players who tried out the original easter egg. It may seem silly to expect something as small as a few lines of dialogue in a broom closet to be referenced in a remake, but it may surprise some to learn that Wreden and Pugh have done something like this before.
A trailer for the stand-alone remake called “Raphael Trailer” forms an entire joke around an email the developers supposedly received from a “fan” of the game. The trailer is effectively six minutes of ranting about a single person that complained the game was “emotionless.” The developers also hid one of the game’s endings outside of the main map, meaning players would have to parkour across various office desks without a jump button, all referencing a single exploit from the original mod.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has the unique opportunity to not only expand on the meta-commentary of the original but also to explore its existence as a rerelease that has an established fanbase. Even still, the original Stanley Parable is still worth checking out before the remake releases. It’s a brilliant breakdown of narrative tropes in gaming that’s incredibly self-aware, making it one of the better walking simulators available on Steam.
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