The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week:
Creating doors that don’t kill the player
Though doors are generally recognized as being the cornerstone
that holds modern society together, what many people don’t realize
is that the same principle holds true in video games. The Stanley
Parable employs over a thousand doors (one thousand and two,
specifically) and if a single one is not functioning properly it
threatens the integrity of the entire game. That’s why we’re
making sure to go through and test each door thoroughly before
shipping it in the final game.
Today I’d like to walk you through the process of inspecting doors
to make sure they don’t murder the player for sport.
Here’s an example of a door from The Stanley Parable, as seen in
the Hammer level editor, which is being used to create the game:
At first it looks just like any door in any game ever.
Oh!
you say,
everything appears to be perfectly in order! A 100% functional
door! No need to do any sort of testing or inspection or further
investigation of this door in any capacity, however small!
Oh little fox, how ignorant you are of the world. Let’s run this
game and find out what would actually happen if someone were to
play it.
Here’s the player just walking along. Doot da doo, just gonna go
right through this door, that’s what I’m doing…
Just gonna go right onto the other side of – BAM!!
You see? Now do you see how wrong you were? About the door?
Oh my god, I didn’t know –
Shh. I don’t need your excuses. I need solutions. Let’s look at
how we can fix this horrible problem that you would have ushered
unto the world if you were in charge.
First we’ll open up the level editor. There’s the door! Hello!
Great, so far so good. Now we’ll double click on it to open up its
parameters.
Aha! Here’s the problem!
You see? Its morality is set to “fuck humans.” With a setting like
that you can expect a relatively low likelihood of this door
treating humans like the clean, civilized, respectable creatures
that they are. Why don’t we adjust this setting to something less
unnecessarily hostile?
Much better! Crisis averted. Now comes the task of going through
and adjusting this setting individually for each of the thousands
of doors (4,258 specifically) throughout The Stanley Parable. It’s
grueling work, but if we’re not careful it’s easy to overlook some
game-breaking gaffs, like the setting on this door that almost
passed under our radar earlier this week:
This door is a door. It is not a frog. Fool me once, as they say.
In the end, game design is about the details. If you’re not
applying that razor-sharp attention you run the risk of your game
being rude, demoralizing, or racist toward your players. That’s
not the kind of game we make, that’s a very different kind of
game, made by very different kinds of people. I don’t want to talk
about them. You weren’t implying we’re like them, were you?
No, honestly, I never –
Save it. You had your chance and you blew it. That ship has
sailed.
Oh my god, please let me out of –
Shhhhhh.
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase: Forklifts
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
Let’s take a piece of reader mail, this one comes to us from
Franklin I. of Michigan:
I’m starting to learn game design and the biggest hurdle I keep
running into over and over is knowing how many forklifts to put
into my game. Could you give me a specific number? It would be a
huge help, thanks!
-Franklin
Hey Franklin, let’s get one thing straight: There is no “specific
number.” The appropriate number of forklifts is an art, you hear
me? What I do is art. I’m an artist.
Okay! So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s dig a bit
deeper into the correct amount of forklifts to place have in your
game. First, open up your map.
So far your game is pretty terrible. That doesn’t necessarily mean
you are terrible as a person, but it wouldn’t hurt to lose some
sleep thinking obsessively about it.
Now let’s add a single forklift.
Right now you’re probably thinking:
One forklift looks pretty good, time to add a second!
Woah there cowboy! What did I just say about the number of
forklifts being an art? You can’t just rush into a decision like
that.
Why don’t we take some time simply to be with the number of
forklifts that are currently in the game? Let’s feel it out by
meditating on it our current game for one week.
Okay! One week should have passed since you were last here, so
let’s return to our map and see how we feel about it now.
You’re right, it does need more forklifts.
Again, it’s important to take some time to feel out the emotional
weight of this decision. Let’s take another week of reflection and
deep self discovery.
Hm.
In that week that just passed, something stirred in me.
Something profound. I feel…affected.
Is it the intangible nature of our mortality?
Is my spirit swelling, ballooning the fabric that holds the
universe together?
Who am I?
What is my purpose?
Life is so short.
…
I don’t yet know what this all means, but there could be no better
way to express it than through the act of creation. I feel like I
finally see what this map is trying to become, let’s take it there
now:
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: Admitting that you’ve made mistakes
Almost everyone is human, which means that almost everyone makes
mistakes. Sure, the pain of making a mistake so wretched and
vicious it’s nearly unbearable, but it’s even more painful to have
to admit your mistake to others. Today I’m going to show you how
to communicate your errors to your teammates in a healthy and
graceful manner.
First let’s look at the mistake I made. The texture on this floor
needs to be carpet instead of wood. It’s a simple change.
Instead, I accidentally delete the entire map.
In a blind panic, I save the file. Everything is lost.
I’ve made a mistake. Again, it’s important to remember that
everyone makes mistakes and you are still normal and that I love
you.
But it’s also important to regain composure and handle the
situation with precision if you want to do any damage control.
This can be resolved if we stay calm. Let’s think about the
situation logically:
Everything that was lost was inside the map file
If the map file doesn’t exist, no one will know you deleted
everything in it
The only logical answer is to delete the map file.
Perfect! Or is it?
Look closer. Isn’t is suspicious that that’s the only missing map
file? Weren’t you supposed to be editing that particular map? If
anyone sees that this file is missing they’ll know without a doubt
that it was you who fucked up.
Our only option is to delete the rest of the maps as well.
Good, this is much better.
But I’m still uneasy. I’m not worried about being caught, I’m
thinking about what kind of man I am. I’m a real man, I own a real
shirt, I built a house once. When I start something I follow
through, and right now this feels to me like a half-assed job.
That just doesn’t sit right in my stomach.
I think I’m going to delete every file in the entire game.
Be sure to empty the recycle bin!
Outstanding! You’ve just permanently erased every file from your
team’s shared Dropbox.
High five yourself.
Uh oh, here’s William, the lead level designer on Stanley Parable.
It seems he’s discovered my “mistake” and wants to talk. As a team
leader, this seems like a good opportunity for me to discuss the
game’s radical new direction with him.
It seems he’s exhibiting a “negative” response to the news. Let’s
do some damage control: what can we say that will convince him
there’s no possible way you could have been responsible for
erasing the game?
Well played.
Shit, he’s catching on. Damage control.
SAVED!
Next week, we’ll talk about hiring new team members.
Stanley Parable Dev Showcase: A Fireside Chat with William Pugh!
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: A fireside chat with William Pugh!
I thought we’d try something different this week. I sat down and
recorded a short conversation with William Pugh, who is doing most
of the actual level design and mapping for the new Stanley
Parable! In this installment we discussed how the two of us met
and what our initial expectations for the game were compared to
what ended up happening throughout development. We both learned a
lot about one another, souls were searched. I invite you to listen
in on this peek into our collaborative creative process!
You can stream the chat here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required
to play this audio clip. Download the latest version
here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your
browser.
By the way,
please let me know what your response to this is.
These little chats are a nice break from the pressure of having to
write a new Helpful Development Showcase every week, I’m thinking
of once a month posting one of these talks between William and
myself. If you guys are keen on that then we’ll write that into
the schedule!
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
Reader mail comes to us this week from Martin I. of Michigan:
I just played the Stanley parable and I have to tell you that
the story in your game is a wreck. It makes no logical sense,
contradicts itself, there’s no central consistency in even the
loosest sense of the word. Seriously did you even look at what
you were making?
Thanks Martin, it’s always a pleasure to hear responses like
yours! Here at Galactic Café we take a lot of pride in creating
storylines that resemble trainwrecks, totally devoid of value,
impenetrable in every way, even bordering on spiteful toward the
player.
This week:
How to actively sabotage the quality of your game’s
story
Wrecking your own game isn’t just good for your players, it’s also
tremendously rewarding! To demonstrate, I’m going to start with a
video game whose narrative is extremely high quality, and work my
way down toward filth.
Here’s our example game.
It features two characters, on the left is
Marsh and on the right is Chev.
To see the story, let’s look at their characters’ Attributes. In
this case, Chev and Marsh’s Attributes determine their
relationship with one another.
This is a high quality story.
If your goal is to deeply impact your players, to inspire them
with an emotional tale of the human condition, stop now. You won’t
get any better than this.
On the other hand, if you want a game that alienates and harasses
your players, causing them to feel weak and unloved in a cold,
brutal world, well then let’s continue!
We’re going to add another Attribute to Marsh to help confuse and
contradict the story.
Great! See how already the narrative has stopped making total
sense? That’s the effect that we’re looking for here.
But we’re only just getting started, let’s take it another step
forward.
What??
your players should be asking at this point,
How can Marsh both love and not love Chev?? How can Chev love
Marsh and not actually know her?!?
This is an appropriate response, it means that we’re getting
closer to infuriating the player with a huge pile of narrative
nonsense. But someone stubborn enough could probably still make
some sort of artsy bullshit sense out of this game, so let’s push
it even further.
Fantastic, I think you’re getting the hang of it now! Keep going.
YES. I LOVE IT. MORE!
Hm. Okay, I think you stumbled a bit there, it’s actually totally
plausible that Marsh could be Swedish. In fact, if anything this
detail probably causes the story to make MORE sense. Could you
come up with something else?
Perfect! You can clearly see from the screenshot that Marsh has
arms, this Attribute sends us further into Nonsenseville.
UIHIWREHT872781FHNFDUIAS9I98HAAJFJKE
…is probably what your players are thinking right now as they’re
playing your game. They came here for a normal, rational, coherent
story! And instead they got a life lesson about not trusting me to
give them something normal.
That, and the story of Genghis Kahn.
Could we take this even further and confuse the story even more?
Of course we could, there is always more nonsense out there,
always new piles of shit to heap onto your work, always a greater
sense of sheer hatred you could be conveying to your players.
Believe in your dreams.
But this is just a tutorial, meant to get you started in the right
direction, to inspire you and your future work. So let’s stop here
and reflect on how far we’ve come. To actually step into the lives
of Chev and Marsh.
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week:
A critical analysis of last week’s blog post
I’m very upset to report that after careful consideration, it
seems that my presentation was incredibly flawed, and that much of
the information I presented as fact appears to have been an utter
fabrication. This week I would like to set the record straight by
explaining what exactly was misreported and to correct any logical
inconsistencies.
Right off the bat I dropped this turd:
“Wrecking your own game isn’t just good for your players, it’s
also tremendously rewarding!“
This is a boldface lie, actively sabotaging my game’s narrative is
in no way rewarding. In fact it’s one of the most emotionally
destructive things I’ve ever done. I wake up every morning in
cold sweats, I live the day in a nauseous haze, and I go to bed a
horrible, anxious, miserable shell of a human being. I can
directly attribute this to my work making my game’s story
terrible, and I apologize for leading people to think I enjoy it.
This is by far the most racist mistake that I made, and though
several other inaccuracies were nearly as racist, I feel like this
one deserves a specific apology.
I then presented these two characters, named Chev and Marsh:
And made the following claim:
“See how already the narrative has stopped making total sense?
That’s the effect that we’re looking for here.“
This too is a falsehood, the story in fact makes perfect sense.
“Love,” as referenced in the second Attribute, is the name of a
gay bar on 32nd street. While Marsh has deep affections for Chev,
she is not currently inside Love with him, nor is she in any gay
bar anywhere.
Again, I feel the racist undertones of this mistake deserves
specific acknowledgment.
There are a number of minor gaffs throughout the next several
lines (fluctuating in severity of racism), but in particular I
want to call attention to this statement, which I made toward the
end of the article:
“Could we take this even further and confuse the story even
more? Of course we could, there is always more nonsense out
there, always new piles of shit to heap onto your work, always
a greater sense of sheer hatred you could be conveying to your
players. Believe in your dreams.“
This is perhaps the most egregious element of the entire blog
post, and I feel sickened for having posted it. The truth is that
there is no more nonsense in the world than what I depicted in
this article. I used all of it, saving none for others to aspire
to. I encouraged children to pursue even greater heights of
absurdity, knowing it was a futile task.
Not three hours after posting this, I received an email from a
small German child:
What have I done?? I filled a terminally ill child with hopes and
dreams for a future that he’ll never actually see. And then he’ll
die, like all animals.
Ashamed at what I had done, I hastily booked a plane to Germany to
see the child before he passed away.
When I landed it turned out I had booked a flight to the wrong
Germany. I got on another plane.
This photo was taken with my iPhone
I arrived at the boy’s bedside moments before he died.
Next to him was a computer. He had been writing something. The
story, for a video game. “Oh please god,” I thought to myself,
“please let it be terrible. Please let Franz have created the
piece of shit he dreamed of. Please let me not have polluted his
final moments on this earth.” In a cold sweat, the dying boy at my
side, I read through his writing, his final testament to the
world.
It was the most beautiful story I had ever read.
Franz died in brutal agony.
Franz may have been the first German boy whose life I ruined as a
result of something I posted on this blog, but with your help he
can also be the last. It is with this goal in mind that I have
founded the Franz Baumgaertner Memorial Fund.
The Franz Baumgaertner Memorial Fund will directly impact children
all over the world, children just like Franz, who believed in a
dream that was impossible. 100% of the funds we receive will go
toward educating children not to wish for something that’s
impossible, or stupid. Kids don’t know what’s good for them, and
together, we’ll keep it that way.
Please donate today.
Please help us make sure that what happened to Franz never happens
again.
The responsibility is yours.
Stanley Parable Dev Showcase: Payment
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week we’ve got an email from Robert I. of Michigan:
The stanley parable was good but it was too short. I won’t pay
for the remake unless it’s longer.
Don’t worry Robert, we’ve got you covered! Here at Galactic Café
know that when you spend money on a piece of entertainment you
expect to be occupied by that thing for a reasonable amount of
time. Besides, if you’re poor why would you want to waste more
time playing video games? Get a job, hippie.
This is why I’m pleased to announce that The Stanley Parable: HD
Remix will actually scale in length depending on how much money
you spend on it!
Let’s look at one example: Suppose that you spend, say, $10 on the
game. In that case, the narration in the game might sound
something like this:
Now let’s suppose that you spent $50 on the game! WOAH!! You’re
after an experience! Here’s what you can expect that same line of
dialogue to sound like.
You see, the more money you pay the longer the game will take. If
you’re really loaded, a single playthrough of the game could last
years!
Alternatively, you will be able to download the game for free, but
that same dialogue will sound like this:
But of course there’s more than one way to affect the game’s
length. Loaded Lucy who spends generously on the game will find
that her character’s speed will be adjusted thusly:
Oh, but here’s Deadbeat Dana who couldn’t contribute more than a
dollar. Boo hoo Dana, way to spread the pain around. You’ll only
get to spend a few minutes playing Stanley Parable because this is
how fast your character will move through the game:
Beyond simply affecting the length of the game’s play time, we
also want to make the game a more pleasant experience for those
who pay more money. So if you pay above $20, at random times
throughout the game the Narrator will give you compliments! Here
is one example of a compliment he might give deliver:
Another example of a possible compliment:
Alternatively, if you choose to play the free version of The
Stanley Parable, this sound clip will play at random times
throughout the game:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required
to play this audio clip. Download the latest version
here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your
browser.
Next week we’ll talk about filing receipts from business expenses.
Although the weekly Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase
devblogs are a cherished weekly internet tradition, they are not
without a cost. They take time to make! And energy! And when
they’re really complex, both! So once a month, we’ll be Stalling
For Time with an update that was just a little bit easier for us
to make.
This week, similar to
when we did this a month ago, I decided to sit down with William Pugh (the level designer for
The Stanley Parable) to talk about life and video games. But what
started with a simple inquiry evolved into an examination of our
relationship. Sides of one another we didn’t even know about were
revealed, at least one terribly lie was confessed for the first
time, and business transactions were made. It is an intensely
erotic* 20 minutes.
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: Writing to the press
The role of promotion in game develop cannot be understated.
Seriously, go ahead, try.
You see? Impossible.
Because marketing is so instrumental in determining the success or
failure of your game, it’s important to maintain a healthy
relationship with members of the press. Creating a personal
connection with a journalist can be the difference between your
game becoming a huge hit and it being personally responsible for
the slaughter of thousands of innocent children in third-world
countries.
Let’s look at how I handle my relationships with the video game
press.
Suppose that I have some new bit of news about the development of
the Stanley Parable (I don’t. Don’t ask). I’m going to offer it to
Kirk Hamilton
over at Kotaku as an exclusive piece. Offering these kinds of
exclusives helps sustain a connection between developer and
journalist, it tells them that you believe in what they’re doing.
Press is about creating that kind of lasting connection.
Before I send this email though, I’m going to do some heavy
drinking.
First up is a fifth of Jack Daniels. Not the whole thing
obviously, just enough to make it legally inadvisable for me to
get into the driver’s seat of a car.
Next is most of a bottle of UV, flavored vodka, which is a great
way of letting people know that you like to drink but you also
have a great personality.
Now we’ll get classy. Just a few shots of Balblair, premium single
malt scotch whiskey.
One of these, I guess.
Don’t even know what this is.
Now let’s finish off the JD.
Perfect!
Let’s sit down to write this email.
This is the full text of the email I found in my gmail outbox the
next morning.
This might be bad for the game’s press.
It’s time to do some damage control. Kirk is a gentleman, an
upstanding and understanding kind of guy. I know that the two of
us can talk it out.
Let’s write him an email to try to smooth things over and bring
him back to our side:
Again, it’s all about creating a connection. Now that Kirk thinks
I love him, it will be impossible for him not to write some
glowing coverage of the Stanley Parable.
Oh! We’ve gotten an email back from him!
It turns out that Kirk Hamilton’s email address is NOT
kirk@yahoo.com, so for now, it looks like I’m safe as far as press
for Stanley Parable.
But this other guy at kirk@yahoo.com is still a problem. I came on
pretty strong in that last email, and now he’s probably developing
feelings for me. We need to lay this beast to rest as gently as
possible.
But he’s still trying to win me back. The next day I get this in
my inbox.
You see, he’s playing hard to get, and I’m not falling for it. You
had your chance, kirk@yahoo.com, and you blew it. It’s too late
now, I’ve deleted him from my email contacts so that I’ll never be
able to write him again, never send him my thoughts when I’m
lonely, never fill that kirk@yahoo.com-shaped hole in my heart.
So I’ve been writing the Stanley Parable Helpful Development
Showcases once a week for a few months now, and while they’ve
gotten a great response, they are not without a cost. They take
time and energy, and I want to make sure that the quality and
effectiveness of these posts outweigh the costs of making them.
On a plane recently I began brainstorming new HDS topics, and I
found that consistently they were extremely negative! Like, how to
abuse your teammates, or how to abuse your fans, or whatever.
Eventually I looked down at the paper and wondered what I was
doing to myself that I could only think of these kinds of
incredibly brutal topics to write about! Perhaps I’m just not
having as much fun writing these as I used to?
Either way, I don’t think the stress of writing a new installment
every week is helping.
So I’m going to be cutting back installments of the helpful
development showcase to one every two weeks.
I hope this eases the pressure off me and gives me more energy to
make these on a consistent basis and have them still be fun and
interesting for people, rather than just background noise. And
honestly, if I ever think that what I’m making is just garbage,
I’ll stop writing them all together and not waste either of our
time. I want creation and enjoyment of those creations to be fun!
If it ever becomes a chore, we’ll change things up.
Anyway, thank you for understanding! I want my energy to go only
into making cool shit, and I’m still figuring out how to do that.
Thank you for riding this roller coaster with me, I have no idea
where it’s all going and I’m continually excited to find out!
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: Creating games with emotion
Time and time again, people ask me: “Davey…why???”
This is followed by a lot of crying. Then, the person composes
themselves, and asks me the second most common question:
“How do you create a game with emotions?”
This is a question that people have been asking ever since video
games were first invented in 1993 by Mr. Games. The solution is
simple. It’s not enough to merely create a game with emotions in
it, you have to actually use your emotions to create the game
itself.
Let’s look at a demonstration of how we are creating the Stanley
Parable. I encourage you to follow along at home and try to make a
game for yourself using this methodology.
Here is a picture of me at my desk, in front of the game’s level
editor, ready to do work.
I’m going to start off by feeling ashamed of myself and everything
I’ve ever done in my life.
Already you can see the map starting to come together.
Now I’m going to take a step back weigh my perception of the
universe against the infinite collective perception of everyone
around me and how by the very nature of not directly experiencing
these modes of perception I internalize them as dangerous and
frightening, threatening to the identity that I have formed as an
individual which allows me to remain shallow and protected in a
perpetual bubble of self-inflicted ignorance.
Be careful as you attempt this one at home, if you feel it’s too
advanced for you there’s no shame in waiting until you have more
game development experience under your belt.
Eating money, another pretty high-level emotion.
I’m not exactly sure what emotion this is? I don’t think there’s a
word for it yet, I was mostly just improvising.
The map is nearly complete now, don’t lose that good energy!
And we’re done! That’s the creative process! This map is now ready
to ship. Be sure to relax and reward yourself for a hard day at
work.
After creating a game using this methodology, you should actually
feel more deeply in touch with yourself as a person, able to
express yourself and demonstrate compassion for others to a depth
you never understood before, that kind of nonsense.
And finally, the most important part of making an emotional video
game: You get to award yourself
The Official Video Games Are Art Developer Awareness Merit
Recognition Association Award! This award is a tremendous honor, it adds a commemorative 4
years to your age on all official government documentation, and
once a year, you are allowed to steal one item from any store free
of repercussions! This year’s date will be announced soon, so
start thinking about what you will want to steal!
That’s it! Congratulations on making an emotional video! Art is
one of the most cherished elements of human culture. By making a
game you have contributed not just to Art, but to Art 2, which is
like Art only more emotional.
Go forth my child, and create.
UPDATE:
Shortly after posting this blog, I received an email from Heavy
Rain creator, David Cage:
David Cage’s claims are preposterous. Not only is this method not
his, it can be found in the appendix of any grade school-level
textbook on game design.
I won’t be bullied by David Cage, and I encourage you to join me
in this fight. Too many small developers making emotional games
have been absorbed into the David Cage empire, and it’s time we
stood up for ourselves. Together, we will be stronger than David
Cage could ever be.
Demonstrate your support for the
No David Cage You Can’t Steal My Technique For Making Emotional
Games
cause by printing and posting this 10’ x 10’ bumpersticker
somewhere on your car, bicycle, or other vehicle:
http://www.galactic-cafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bs21.jpg
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
William Pugh is the level designer for The Stanley Parable, he
makes the game nice and pretty. Since the very first post on this
blog, he has pestered me on a near perpetual basis to allow him to
write his own Helpful Development Showcase blog post, and of
course I shoot him down every time because
which one of us wrote a successful video game oh wait it was me
get back to work William.
But this particular week, after what can only be described as a
combination of forgetfulness and wilful neglect of my duty as blog
writer, William stepped up to the plate and wrote an update. What
follows is copied straight out of the document he sent me, I will
be press ‘publish’ without actually looking at what he’s written,
just to humour him and because why not. This should be fun.
-Davey
Hello my name is William Pugh co-creator of The Stanley Parable:
HD Remix, and while Davey Wreden (the other co-creator) is writing
these ridiculous blog posts I’m the one who’s
actually making the game.
Now both you and me know that these “Helpful Development
Showcases” don’t actually reveal anything about the ACTUAL Stanley
Parable game’s development process so I’m going to venture off
script here and tell you fools about what it’s REALLY LIKE TO MAKE
A GAME LIKE THE STANLEY PARABLE.
THIS WEEK’S SUBJECT IS:
HOW TO HIDE SECRETS IN YOUR GAME WITHOUT TEAM MEMBERS FINDING
OUT ABOUT THEM
So you want to put secrets in your game? But your uptight
co-workers don’t trust your creative instinct and your ability to
exercise self restraint? All you need to do is let them experience
your brilliance through discovery! Don’t tell them you’re hiding
secrets in their game!
Okay here’s an example.
This is the Corridor Ending (which is brand new to the Stanley
Parable HD Remix). Davey wrote it so that the player walks down
this corridor for ever and the only way for the player to end the
game is for him/her to stop walking. This sends some bullshit arty
farty message about the nature of struggling against your
surroundings and conflict and blah blah blah.
This is not how you make a good video game.
Davey doesn’t know this but I have ‘enhanced’ this ending with a
few special touches.
For instance, this is a video of how the ending normally plays.
But did you notice anything other than Davey’s questionable choice
of background music or his horrible ending concept?
Yes you’re right! That green secret wall painting is VERY
secretive looking!
Let’s have a look at what happens if we play this ending again but
after clicking on the secret painting.
That’s right – this ending has the signature of a genius all over
it, and that signature reads:
WILLIAM WAS HERE!!!
Now I hear you thinking – “Man oh man, those secret signs, secret
music and secret sound effects showed me a whole new secret world
full of secrets!! How can I go back to playing the normal Stanley
Parable after that?”
The answer is: YOU CAN’T!!!
That’s right – once you click on the secret painting there is no
going back.
Every single section of the game will be full of secrets – ONCE
YOU GO SECRET YOU NEVER GO BECRET!!
SECRETS!!!!!
SECRETS!!!!!!!!
SECRETSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for listening.
UPDATE:
Davey here, just finished reading. I’d like to issue a few
clarifications.
First, the Corridor Ending is not real. Never in a thousand years
would I write something so banal and superficial that doesn’t
speak to the true nature of struggle and universal indifference
that the individual must confront on a daily basis.
Second, let me take this moment to state definitively that The
Stanley Parable is NOT a game about secrets, nor do I intend to
allow secrets in the final game. I will be going through the game
and systematically deleting all of William’s hidden “secrets.” He
has grossly misrepresented this game’s intentions, and that
mistake will be reflected in his percentage of revenue share.
Please, please do not let this blog post be a reflection of the
true quality of The Stanley Parable.
UPDATE #2:
This is William. The real secret is that I haven’t told Davey
where all of the actual secrets are hidden. THE STANLEY PARABLE
SECRETS FOR PRESIDENT 2013 DON’T STOP BELIEVING.
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
Noel I. of Michigan writes:
tits
Unbelievable.
It took a full year and a half, since the original release of The
Stanley Parable in 2011, but someone finally got it. Someone
finally understands what The Stanley Parable is truly about.
Let me back up and explain, and I’ll walk you through the secret
meaning behind TSP that Noel has uncovered.
This post will contain spoilers for
the original Stanley Parable.
Two choices. One will save you, one will kill you.
Or is that the full story?
Because no matter which door you take, there is always death
waiting down some corridor, always some gruesome fate toward which
the Narrator will guide you. And then, no matter how you die, you
are returned to the start. Reborn.
You are a baby, returned to the womb. And when you emerge, what do
you find?
Your mother’s teats, each one promising you sustenance, nutrition,
life.
Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to go.
Because in this world, no matter what you choose you are led once
again back to the grave. Simply by choosing a door, by drinking
the milk from your mother’s breasts, you are doomed to die over
and over and over again.
Why? Perhaps because her breasts have been corrupted by the
influence of the male in this story, the Narrator. Patriarchy
oppresses, it denies the woman her say, her role. No matter how
she participates in this world, her child is taken from her and
condemned to die. Is the Narrator your father? Perpetually
attempting to wrest control of the fate of the family away from
the mother? I didn’t say that, you did.
When you are confronted by the crushers, and a female Narrator
steps in to speak, she warns Stanley. She knows the truth, she has
seen what society does to women. No matter which door, which
breast Stanley chooses, he is doomed. The only option is to leave
this world, as she says, “push escape and press quit.”
But is there an escape?
Down one path is a hole in the ground.
Entering into the hole, for the first time, places the Narrator at
a distance, he loses his influence. And at the end of a tunnel of
blackness you emerge into…
The original office, except with no Narrator. A world without man,
without the patriarchal oppression. Here Stanley can once again
access the two doors, but he is not forced down either path. Free
to choose, to be with his mother, drink her milk, free from
society.
The black hole that led to this freedom…was it a vagina? Does
escape lie in the female body itself? Again, just repeating your
words.
The bookcase doesn’t mean anything.
Which door will you choose? And does it matter? Whichever breast
you drink the life-restoring milk from, are you not simply
choosing your own demise? Are you not just validating the
institutionalized oppression of women? Simply by having breasts is
it expected that one conform to the rigors of a patriarchal
society mired in the inevitability of death and rebirth? The
Stanley Parable is all of these questions and none of them, one’s
eternal struggle against oneself, the ruination of a society
internally defiled by its own malicious foundation.
Or to put it into a single, all-encapsulating summation:
tits
Thank you Noel. Thank you for giving me the strength to share what
The Stanley Parable is really about. I hope this cleared up any
and all confusion.
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: How not to give into pressure
As a highly-recognized celebrity game developer, I’m under
constant pressure from the people around me to modify and make
additions to my game simply to serve their own needs. These are
people who think only of themselves and have little or not
consideration for Art. They might not even know what Art means!
If you came to this blog to find out what Art means, let me point
you to this excerpt from Dictionary.com:
This definition is what I turn to whenever I’m uncertain about the
quality of my work. It gives me the strength I need to shoot down
other peoples’ opinions mercilessly.
Let’s look at one example of how I respond to pressure from the
public to steer the direction of Stanley Parable one way or the
other. Here’s a screenshot from the game’s Greenlight page:
See how I got all excited and acted as though I was going to use
Smithy’s idea?
That’s because I did. It’s in the game.
It’s a great idea.
I’m not going to turn down great ideas.
Here’s another example of the tough-love attitude you have to take
when members of the public try to get their dirty fingers all over
your creation.
Obviously this one is also going in.
The guy sounds passionate about squid. Don’t you see it in his
words? In his words between the words? He isn’t just asking me to
put squid in the game, he’s telling me that for him, squid IS the
game. Will he play this game and see anything but squid? Or
rather, can he look at a squid and see anything but The Stanley
Parable? I can’t answer that question, nor do I intend to. All I
can do is bring this young boy’s dream to life.
Here’s another example of a suggestion from the public:
Mr. Foots needs to be in this game.
The Stanley Parable needs Mr. Foots.
Mr. Foots the mathematical wizard, deconstructor of numbers, of
the universe. He who sees it from all angles, who can manipulate
the fabric of time to his will.
Why is he so tall? Did he choose this height or was it forced on
him? Will he ever be shorter? Does he measure himself in inches or
in quarter-inches? These are the kinds of unanswerable questions
that get to the root of what Stanley Parable is all about.
Mr. Foots is an enigma, he sees without seeing, he knows without
knowing. He is everywhere and nowhere. Is it a stretch to say that
he IS the stanley parable? No, no it is not. No stretching
required.
Hm….
…
…
These suggestions from fans, they’re so pure, so genuine…it’s like
they know my own game better than I do…
Once again, I turn to the public for help:
Slowly, in response to my request for ideas, a cohesive picture of
what The Stanley Parable should be begins to emerge:
I include all of these suggestions and more, and already the game
feels much more cohesive. I can tell it’s coming together now,
it’s got life to it.
But it’s still missing something.
I turn to the only real source of wisdom any of us have in our
lives.
Minutes later, I get an email back:
At last, hope! Could this response hold the answers I’ve been
looking for?
Eagerly, I go to Dictionary.com and pull up the definition of Art:
He got me again! I’ve fallen for that one too many times.
So perhaps all of my questions haven’t been answered, but that’s
okay. Sure, there are times when I’m uncertain of my work and
doubtful of my abilities, but it’s probably healthy to be at least
a little bit skeptical of yourself. Otherwise how would I be able
to accept when my work isn’t up to par? That’s why I keep good
friends and community close at hand, to keep me in check and watch
my back. It’s these friends who guide me ever on that eternal
voyage toward completely genuine and intensely vulnerable artistic
expression.
I’m gonna go get a picture of Mr. Foots tattooed to my forehead.
The Stanley Parable Dev Showcase: Special Editions
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: Special Edition Packages
Here at Galactic Cafe, we recognize that our players come from all
walks of life, and that each person who discovers the Stanley
Parable has a different set of needs and desires. How could we
address the variety of our players by giving them only one
product?
That is why The Stanley Parable will ship with a variety of
Special Edition Packages, each designed to cater to the specific
needs of someone somewhere. Depending on your generosity, you have
the option of any one of these lovingly crafted Special Edition
Packages, which I'm very excited to share with you today:
We will ship a 5-cent coin to your house. You pay for shipping.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
We will ship you the 10-cent coin sent to us by one donor at the
previous price level. You pay for shipping.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
We will send you both the 10-cent coin and 20-cent coin sent to us
by one donor at each of the previous two price levels. Instead of
sending them their promised rewards, we will send them a picture
of you in an envelope along with a note that says “You aren't
getting the reward we promised you because [your name here!] stole it! [third-person gender-specific pronoun] STOLE
IT FROM YOU!! HOW DO YOU FEEL?! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO KNOW THAT [your name here!] IS DRINKING YOUR TEARS RIGHT NOW?!?! YOUR BITTER, BITTER TEARS.
TASTE DEFEAT, MORTAL. TASTE IT AND WEEP.”
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
Who does that $1 donor think they are, stealing the reward
promised to an innocent person who paid good money? It’s sickening
what they think they can get away with.
With your $4 we will hire a hitman to intimidate the $1 donor. The
hitman will spend one week in a van parked in front of the
person’s house, staring at them 24/7 through a pair of binoculars.
Once during that week, they will be visible outside the van,
looking at the person who paid $1 and pounding one fist into their
other hand over and over.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
The hitman from the $4 level is quite a coward, isn’t he? He’s got
no problem resorting to cheap bullying tactics, why? Because he
got paid? Oh, that’s a reason. Big fucking man over here, preying
on others for cash, someone ought to show him how it feels.
We’ll hire a second hitman to intimidate the first. The second
hitman trained the first hitman, so he knows all of his weaknesses
and vulnerabilities. During training he also taught the first
hitman a number of highly flawed techniques, just to have the
upper hand in the event that the student ever turned on the
teacher.
That’ll show him.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
The second hitman doesn’t know it, but the person he thought he
was training was actually the hitman who trained HIM! After
educating the second hitman many years ago, the first hitman faked
his own death by pretending to fall into a chasm deep within a
Tibetan mountain. With the rest of the secret hitman society
believing him dead, he lived at the base of the chasm for 12
years. When he emerged he infiltrated the secret hitman society by
posing as a mail carrier. With access to the society’s record
books he tracked down his former pupil. Knowing that HE had taught
the second hitman a wide array of tactics with counter-maneuvers
that only he knew, that he would have an advantage over the second
hitman if the two ever confronted.
He then solicited the second hitman for hitman lessons, pretending
to be a rookie, knowing that it would cement in the second
hitman’s mind his belief that he would have the advantage over the
first. This security measure would ensure that if for any reason
anyone ever wanted to eliminate the first hitman, they would in
all likelihood hire his “teacher,” believing the teacher to be
more skilled, while in fact it was the “student” who would have
the upper hand and therefore have a clean break and an easy
getaway. Genius.
We will use your $15 to hire a third hitman, who’s never met
either of the first two. The third hitman isn’t great, but he’ll
train a fourth hitman (who’s blind, so he won’t know the identity
of his teacher in order to plot against him) to be skilled in all
the areas that the first hitman is weak in. Many years from now,
after the fourth hitman is highly trained, he and the first hitman
will duel. You will be sent a text description of the battle
written by a person with no hands.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
There is a secret fifth hitman. Stay with me.
When a hitman dies, his or her name is passed onto a newly
anointed, unnamed hitman. When the first hitman threw himself into
the chasm, his secret hitman name was given to a new hitman. But
the first hitman had been lying about his true name all along, he
had given a false name to the secret hitman society. HIS teacher
knew this, and thus in secret, gave the first hitman’s true name
to a pupil who was trained in secret, away from the knowledge of
the rest of the clan. This is how the first hitman, posing as a
mail carrier, failed to notice that another hitman carried his
true name.
The fifth hitman isn’t actually very good. We’ll just hire him to
watch the battle between the first and fourth hitmen.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
All of the above
Okay, scroll back up to the $15 level. See at the end that guy
with no hands who’s supposed to write a description of the battle
between the first and fourth hitman? He’s secretly the third
hitman in disguise, who’s actually the hitman who received the
first hitman’s fake name when he fell into the cavern, so he
formed a fake name to disguise his fake name and then cut off his
hands. I think he just got carried away? Not sure why he cut off
his hands.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
There is a dance passed down by the secret hitman society that all
hitmen must perform when they meet in combat.
This is the dance that the first and fourth hitmen perform when
they square off. However, because the first hitman hid out for
twelve years, he did not know that the dance had been changed.
Instead, he performed the old dance and made this crucial mistake:
Under the rules of THIS dance, the first and fourth hitmen are now
married. It's the most beautiful story ever told.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
None of the above
Why do hitmen have to die? Flawed techniques, faking deaths, made
up names, what is it all for? In the end, is it all worth it?
The third hitman thinks about this all the time, he struggles
under the weight of his own existence. And he’s been through so
much, I think we should do something nice for him.
Your $500 will go toward purchasing one week for the third hitman
onboard a Princess Luxury Cruise!!
Our Princess chefs are true culinary artists who insist on serving
the very finest cuisine - and it shows. Our entire fleet has been
inducted into the prestigious Chaîne des Rôtisseurs gastronomic
society. Each chef's menu is creative and the selections change
every day. Pair that with impeccable service and you're in for an
unforgettable gourmet experience.
To say the nightlife onboard is entertaining is an understatement.
Illuminating the stage in captivating productions, our performers
are some of the most talented musicians, singers and dancers at
sea. Our Princess Signature Shows, lounge performers, movies and
casinos are just some of the entertainment our passengers enjoy as
they escape completely.
The many activities onboard our ships are designed to stimulate,
educate, entertain, inspire and sweat - not necessarily in that
order. But, you can be sure we'll do our best to cover all the
bases. And from art auctions to yoga, this ship is loaded with fun
things to do.
With Princess, young kids and teens have their own kind of fun -
and their own place to hang out. Our youth and teen centers are
fully equipped with everything from the latest video games and
movies, to arts and crafts, fooseball tables, board games and
jukeboxes. And for the littlest ones, activities like kids'
karaoke, pizza parties, pajama nights and more.
A Princess Cruise is the most elegant, comfortable, and refined
way to escape completely. There's no place like the open waters
for the third hitman to begin forming the memories of a lifetime.
But he’ll still die one day.
We all will.
We all will.
This version does not include The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable Dev Showcase: Communication
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week:
Healthy communication between teammates
Being a team leader means prioritizing healthy communication over
personal feelings. For example, anyone who's ever led a creative
team knows the experience of having to fire someone for animal
brutality in the workplace. It's a dirty practice, and together
we'll one day eliminate it from the creative environment once and
for all.
But the act of having to confront your employees and change their
behavior is extremely tricky, no matter what their crime. And
navigating these relationships is key to being an effective
leader.
Let's look at an example: Last month I gave a task to
William, the level designer on Stanley Parable,
and this week I've decided to change the design and now everything
he worked on this last month is useless. When conveying this to
him, be sure to address the issue in as straightforward and direct
a manner as possible.
I've decided to do that by creating a flowchart:
A few weeks later, William gets back to me with a response
flowchart, just as I trained him to:
See this is what healthy communication between teammates is
supposed to look like.
It's like jazz, an improvisational back-and-forth between creative
equals. Each person supporting while also challenging the other.
Two supernovas dancing in the sky. Beautiful.
What's the responsible way to handle this situation? Is it to make
another flowchart? Almost certainly.
But what kind of leader would I be if I simply gave William
another flowchart to explain all of his problems? If he can't
discover his own inner flaws without me, how will he every learn?
How will he ever learn??
I'm going to go into complete and total radio silence for a few
months, essentially conveying to William that I have disappeared
off the face of the earth. Perhaps in time he will find the
strength within him to make this entire game by himself to my own
personal benefit.
Next week: Punishing William for improper treatment of grizzly
bears in the workplace.
The Stanley Parable Dev Showcase: Distribution
This week: Distribution of The Stanley Parable
The world of video game distribution is scary. Just look at the
facts:
In 2012 alone, 100,000 people attempted to purchase video games,
and yet only 1,400were able too. That's down
from 150,000/2,300 in 2011 by a factor of
nearly twice as much. And as far as we can
tell, every single person who has ever purchased
a video game has died or will die.
The facts don't lie, and they're even worse at cheering you up.
Will video games ever win the Barrack Obama Cultural Relevance
award if the people who purchase them keep dying? When will it
end?
Sure, you're likely to tell me about the methods of distribution
we already have in place, Steam, Origin, GoG, Gamestop, robbing
your friend outside of Gamestop, being robbed outside of Gamestop
and going back in and purchasing another game, the list goes on
and on. But do you FEEL any safer? Of course you don't. That's
what video games are doing to us.
There is a better way.
Although the Stanley Parable secured distribution via Steam on
their Greenlight service, today I am announcing that we will be
rescinding this offer in favor of a new distribution outlet
created specifically for The Stanley Parable. The dark era of
fearing for your life every time you attempt to purchase a game is
over.
Let me explain how our model works:
Decide to buy a game. We intend to license other games for
purchase in the future, but until that time the only game you'll
be able to decide to purchase is The Stanley Parable.
This is the most difficult step, but it's also the most important.
Tattoo the name of the game you want to exactly fill the distance
between each of your nipples.
It's also encouraged that you make the tattoo as visually
interesting as possible, like depicting characters from the game
you're purchasing forming letters of the title with their body
(see Step 7)
When you wake up the next morning, you'll find a second tattoo has
been printed on your body in the night. The visual quality of the
second tattoo will correspond with that of the first, so you
really want to be sure that first one is up to par.
The second tattoo will have an address. The address has been
randomly selected from Google Maps. You have 2 hours to get there
from when you wake up. If you fail this deadline, the bomb in your
liver will go off. You have a bomb in your liver. The person who
gave you the first tattoo put it there. They work for us. Don't
bother going back to the tattoo parlor. It isn't there any more.
Go to the address. You'll see a man, or maybe a woman, or maybe
nobody. Either way it's a good sign, means everything's going
according to plan.
When someone or no one shows up, greet them with a printout of
this picture.
The person is blind, they can't see it.
What were you thinking??
Instead, they'll tattoo a second address on your chest below the
first. They didn't bring any actual tattooing equipment, so you
should probably expect an extraordinary amount of pain while all
of this is happening.
Also they're blind so the tattoo is probably just generally going
to be nonsense. Ignore the tattoo, we'll send someone to your
house.
Take a minute to think about how if you were at Gamestop right now
you'd be getting robbed by your friends.
A week later, a man will show up at your house. He'll look he's
just here to deliver pizza. He is. You ordered pizza.
A month after that, a woman will arrive who actually works for us.
You will present to her a 10-slide powerpoint presentation
detailing why you deserve to purchase the video game. Here's an
example of a slide you might use:
As she watches your presentation the woman will give you lots of
little patronizing laughs and roll her eyes whenever you try to
make a point, and at the end she'll resignedly say something like
“well I guess I can run it by someone for a second opinion.”
She'll eat something you were specifically saving for later and
then head out the door.
The woman will then make this exact same presentation to another
executive, who in turn will perform it for another, and another,
eventually circling back around to the woman who started it. By
this point, every member will have forgotten they ever heard the
speech, and so will re-hear it, re-learn it, and re-present it
over and over, in an endless, beautiful dance, forever.
Let's visualize this process for a more in-depth understanding:
The Stanley Parable Dev Showcase: Signing Off
The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase is our way of
connecting you to the development of The Stanley Parable by
giving you a small look at what’s been going on behind the
scenes. Each week we’ll give you a tiny peek into what it takes
to make a game like The Stanley Parable, the creative challenges
we come up against in the course of development, and how to not
judge yourself as a person for the quality of choices you’ve
made in your own life. These are just a few of the topics we’ll
cover in this incredibly useful blog series.
This week: How to drop everything and quit
It's a question that's been asked over and over, throughout the
ages, by every person who's ever set out to create something:
Is now the right time
to abandon everything I've been working on
in an emotional rage?
Everyone handles this question differently. Some people flip a
coin, some people flip hundreds of coins in a series of
multi-tiered coin-flipping tournaments, and there are even people
who meticulously craft their own same-sided coins in order to
guarantee a particular outcome.
But these are generally considered to be ancient methodologies,
outdated and obsolete in this modern era. For the contemporary
craftsman there is only one truly reliable source for answers, one
that can be trusted to deliver without any concern for
failure:Rolf
Rolf lives on a 12'x12' island located in the very center of
Indonesia:
There he has a single desk and computer. He has committed himself
to two things: helping creatives figure out when to quit in a
huff, and never dying. Rolf will be there for our children, and
our children's children, and the people our children's children
dress up in children's clothing to impersonate their biological
children.
Rolf is single-handedly responsible for nearly every major
decision to completely abandon one's work in a violent rage over
the last 4 decades or so. He's become a touchstone in the creative
community, and to speak personally for a moment, he's shaped my
own development process in countless ways.
Here, for a minute let me share with you some of the exchanges
between myself and Rolf that demonstrate the impact he's had on my
game development:
Rolf didn't give me an answer because he knew that the real answer
was inside of me, that I had to search deep within myself for the
true path forward. I didn't quit development on that day, because
Rolf taught me to think for myself, to not give up on my pursuits.
And your questions don't always need to be just about the right
time to quit everything you're doing, Rolf is delighted to answer
any questions you may have!
Rolf is wisdom, Rolf is guidance.
Here's a more recent email exchange between the two of us:
Just as always, Rolf had the perfect solution to all of my
problems.
The only hard part now is going to be putting it all into action.
And I think I know just where to start.
My work is complete.
I've done everything I could.
All I need now is the final approval from Rolf.
He alone knows whether I can quit.
Whether I can abandon the HDS recklessly.
Have I done enough?
When his email arrives I tear it open with shaking hands:
The Helpful Development Showcase has been so much fun to make and
to share with all of you I couldn't even possibly say. Thank you
for joining me on this little experiment! There are many more
experiments out there left to tackle, and right now I've got a big
one left to wrap up. The Stanley Parable will be done before too
much longer, and I'm absolutely bursting to share it with you all.
So that's where I am going to be putting all my time and energy
for the next few months, into finishing the game. We've been
working on this thing for quite a long time, and I'm just about
ready to put it to a close.
Let's make a video game. Let's make a video game.
