#daveywreden

[zaneronaldtalbot-blog]

An Objective Perspective: The Stanley Parable

(Trying to be objective is tough) But let’s look at this masterpiece from a... Wait, is ‘masterpiece’ already being subjective?

The Stanley Parable, released in October of 2013 by Galactic Cafe, offers a unique experience for players, touting hilariously witty storytelling and an interesting take on decision making (more on this later). However, Stanley offers little in the way of actual gameplay, and it’s core mechanics lie within the choices players make and the different scenarios they encounter.

 Core Mechanics:

The core mechanics in The Stanley Parable consist of the player’s choices, the encounters themselves and the narrator.

The players ability to make choices between two abstract paths integrates with the encounters themselves, as they are thrown into situations without any real knowledge of why they’re there, and it serves as a personal commentary on their own lives and personal preferences. This serves to make the player put themselves into Stanley’s shoes and force them to make subjective choices based off their own inclinations. The developer then chose to throw a spanner in the works by having a narrator commentate the player’s experience. The narrator itself is subjective in nature, as they make snide remarks when the player chooses to go against their narrations, throwing jabs and seeking to make the player go their way. This serves to make the player feel self conscious about their decision, or even make them feel rebellious when they take their own path.

An interesting comment made by co-developer William Pugh in his GDC talk about the game, was that he loved designing each encounter, as it forced the player to make a decision based off little to no context, making their choice a personal experience every time. Again, the narrator comes into the game to throw off the player and their choices, but the commentary itself when encountering a scene may also be seen as core to this game’s flow. As there is little-to-no context offered as to why things are the way they are in The Stanley Parable, aside from the narrator themself. The narrator here serves to make the player understand the environment around them, and it also acts as a way to thicken the plot for the player, and give them a path to either follow or deter from. This may make a player feel rebellious if they decide to move away from the narrator’s path, and could potentially make them feel a level of understanding as the narrator tells them the story.

Loops:

Moment to Moment Loop:

In the m2m loop the player can expect to walk, encounter a choice, make a decision and repeat.

Gameplay Loop:

As the game itself is quick in nature, the gameplay loop consists of the player making choices until they reach the end of that particular path. They will then restart at the beginning and potentially make different choices resulting in a different ending.

Session Loop:

In a session, a player can expect to play through the gameplay loop a few times, as the entire game is short, but the different choices available will lead to many different paths.

Exit Points:

The ideal point for a player to exit the game would be after a gameplay loop, as it starts a fresh level for the player to play and cuts off the previous choices.

[diary-of-a-deadgirl]

In an attempt to forget the events of the day, I went to A Streetwise Fool.

The tapping of raindrops on the sidewalk and the dull chill in the air guided me to the one place I felt at home. Playbacks of the memories I would try to forget assaulted the forefront of my consciousness despite my attempts to subdue them, and they only worsened as time progressed. Until I got to the door.

The tenseness that I hadn’t even realized existed melted away as the scent of coffee and cinnamon took over my senses. The bitter chill of the outside rain was lifted away by the warmth of the air inside. I felt very sleepy all of a sudden.

The barista, the same man that made my tea every day, greeted me with a smile. He was the owner, but he worked as a regular employee. I had gone there every afternoon since I was a kid and he was always there, working alongside his son and a few others.

I asked for my tea - a chai latte - and he smiled and made a lighthearted remark about how I always ordered the same thing, and I reminded him that I went through phases, and that last month I did the same thing with earl grey. I offered him a handful of change, but he said to not worry about it. I set up camp at a table by the window, where I would remain for the next several hours listening to music and “doing homework” while I actually just played games on my phone.

As I pulled my charging cable and headphones out of my collapsing backpack, I felt a pair of eyes staring into the back of my head. 

[jamieallegro-blog]

My Experience with The Beginner’s Guide

I'm a year late, but I just finished Davey Wreden's The Beginner's Guide. I'm glad I finally got around to it.

It's a game that makes me a little uncomfortable to talk about or try to interpret. I think it was a bold move for Wreden to share his email and invite interpretations, in a game that seems to warn of the dangers of trying to read too deeply into the mental state of the creator. I still want to say something about one particular piece of the game, though. I hope that's allowed. If not, then I guess I hope he doesn’t see this. It’ll be as if I didn’t say anything.

I think what affected me the most was the housecleaning game, and, more importantly, Wreden's line during The Tower game: “Like the housecleaning game, you know that one used to actually loop the cleaning chores and you just cleaned a house forever”. I always had difficulty suspending disbelief enough to believe that Coda was a real person, and yet in that moment I still felt a flash of sympathetic anger.

I often fall into a mental trap where I look at all the chores and tasks I have to do every day and start to feel unhappy. It's not that I have to do the dishes today, or laundry tomorrow, or meet a friend for lunch the next day, or go to work this weekend, or any of the other millions of monotonous tasks. It's that I have to keep on doing those things, over and over, until I eventually am too old and frail to do so.

That's what most of my life has been. Repeatedly doing mundane tasks. My way of dealing with it has alternated between hiding from responsibilities, and constant pursuit of growth and change... as if someday I could reach some height that those mundane tasks could all be left behind. Maybe if I collected enough money, or enough friends, or enough fans, maybe if I reached towards perfection, somehow that could take away all the sad and boring parts of life. More, more, more. No manner of cautionary tale seems sufficient to dissuade me. The only way to be happy is to escape.

Here's where I start making assumptions about Wreden's work: it seems to me like Coda managed to do the impossible. He found some way to find happiness and peace in just focusing on the task at hand, rather than striving for some kind of goal. It's a state of mind that I have managed to find for moments, or days, or even weeks at a time.

But like Wreden says... it has to end. I can only be happy with where I am for so long, before I have to focus once again on where I'm going. I can forget about it for a while, but sooner or later something will remind me that it still feels like something is missing in my life. Like maybe asking myself ‘Is this fun to you?’, and not being able to summon the strength to answer.

As mentioned, I had difficulty viewing The Beginner’s Guide literally. Maybe that’s to protect myself from the thought that a talented game developer could also be a shitty person at times. But whether it’s a dramatized tale of someone Wreden truly accidentally wronged or a story of self sabotage, it’s really hard to not be upset by Wreden’s unwillingness to let anyone, himself or otherwise, stay in the peaceful space. Because maybe there really is a way to be happy without a lamppost, and if someone finds it, I think we should let them stay there for as long as possible, even if we can’t understand how they could be happy without something to work towards.

But as we know, that says more about me than him.

Thank you for the beautiful game.

-Jamie

[thefightingfanboy-blog]

I Want to write A Stanley Parable fanfic

what do

[crossroadsalpha]

The Stanley Parable has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Originally created as a mod in 2011 by Davey Wreden, it was a deconstruction of video games that used their inherent absurdity to subvert player expectations. Sharply written and irreverent, it's a requisite touchstone when discussing games about games. Now Wreden has released his sophomore [...]

[micdousmi]

Playdate: An introverted journey with 'The Beginner's Guide'

Playdate: An introverted journey with ‘The Beginner’s Guide’

Everybody needs a creative outlet — a valve, if you will, to relieve the pressure of modern humanity. What if your outlet was creating video games? And what if a friend of yours compiled the games you made during a specific personal crisis, and di…

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[crossroadsalpha]

Davey Wreden, one half of the development team responsible for The Stanley Parable, has announced his new game The Beginner's Guide a mere two days before it is to be released on Oct. 1. The surprise project is a first person, narrative driven experience, but other than that details are scarce. Judging from the screenshots the game [...]

[micdousmi]

'The Stanley Parable' developer's new game launches in two days

‘The Stanley Parable’ developer’s new game launches in two days

We know just a few things for certain about Davey Wreden's follow-up to The Stanley Parable: It's called The Beginner's Guide It's a "narrative video game" for PC and Mac It launches on October 1st Aside from a few equally vague screenshots,…

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