The Stanley Parable is a 2013 story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh.

In the game, the player guides a silent protagonist named Stanley alongside narration by British actor Kevan Brighting.

Together with Pugh, Wreden later released a stand-alone remake using the Source engine under the Galactic Cafe studio name.

The remake recreated many of the original mod's choices while adding new areas and story pathways, as well as overhauling the game's graphics entirely.

The player has a first-person perspective, and can travel and interact with certain elements of the environment, such as pressing buttons or opening doors, but has no combat or other action-based controls.

Stanley is tasked to monitor data coming from a computer screen and press buttons appropriately without question.

For example, if the player were to follow the Narrator's directions and pass through the leftmost door, the story of the missing employees proceeds.

[6][7][9] Davey Wreden, 22 years old at the time of the mod's release, was inspired to create The Stanley Parable about three years prior,[10] after considering the typical storytelling narratives within video games, and thinking of what would happen if the player would go against that narration; he also saw this as a means towards his planned career as a game developer.

[11] Wreden believed that recent games with more engaging or thought-provoking stories, including the Metal Gear Solid series, Half-Life 2, Portal, Braid, and BioShock, started to approach this void, giving reason for the player to stop and think about the narration instead of simply going through the motions.

[1] According to Wreden, his design document for the game was "Mess with the player's head in every way possible, throwing them off-guard, or pretending there's an answer and then kinda whisking it away from in front of them.

[11] In one case, Wreden wanted to include a point where the player would have to press buttons as the narration and screen prompts would have said, but could not figure out how to bind keyboard input to do this, but left the element in there as a "broken" puzzle; he later was praised for this, as to players, this gave the impression of lacking control during the stage of narration.

[1] Despite the success of completing the game, Wreden considered the overall project "grueling" and stifling of his career ambition,[1] noting that his efforts became more intense once he started learning of other players' interest in the title.

[11] Wreden initially tested the game with a friend before posting the mod to the website ModDB on July 31, 2011 a few weeks prior to his graduation from college.

[11] Instead, he started to gather other independent programmers to work out an improved version of The Stanley Parable and leading towards a completely new title in the future.

[11] William Pugh, one of the creators of the game, collaborated with Wreden on The Narrator's script, with one of them adding an element that would then be tweaked and expanded upon by the other.

"[17] Shortly after the release of the original mod, Wreden was contacted by William Pugh, a player who had experience in creating environments within the Source engine and had previously won a Saxxy Award for his work.

[10] Brighting returned to voice the Narrator in the remake, as Wreden considered his performance "half the reason this game has been successful".

[1] Additionally, a custom soundtrack was created for the remake, composed by Blake Robinson, Yiannis Ioannides, and Christiaan Bakker.

[26] In August 2016, Galactic Cafe partnered with IndieBox, a monthly subscription box service, to create an exclusive, custom-designed, physical release of the game.

[31] Personalized versions of the demos were created by Wreden for Game Grumps[32] and Adam Sessler of Revision3 for Let's Play to promote the 2013 remake.

These editions included some rerecorded lines directed at these players; Wreden considered that based on the higher-than-average viewership for these videos that this helped towards marketing of the game,[33][34] and that the demo received similar coverage as the full title.

This effectively helped generate media buzz equal to two game titles for the next two months of work it took to create the specialized demo.

[36][37] To generate interest in Ultra Deluxe, the 2013 remake was made available for free for a limited time in March 2020 on the Epic Games Store.

[47] Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica noted that while the game purportedly gives the player choice, many of these end up lacking an effect, as "to feel like you're in more control than you are".

[47] Brighting's voice work was considered a strong element, providing the right dry British wit to the complex narration.

[35] IGN's Luke Reilly listed The Stanley Parable's demo as one of the top six demos in video games, citing how it is "an entirely standalone exercise designed to prepare [the player] for the unique player and narrator relationship that forms the core of The Stanley Parable experience".

[81] The Narrator has proven to be a popular fixture of The Stanley Parable, with fans of the game reacting to the character positively.

"[83] Scott Donaldson, as part of the book 100 Greatest Video Game Characters, analyzed The Narrator's role in the story of The Stanley Parable, noting how The Narrator's constantly shifting role shifted from being a background element to the primary focus of the game as the player progressed.

[6] Alex Culafi of Nintendo World Report similarly praised the game, responding positively to the added content and port-specific additions, but criticized frame rate issues present in certain ports.

[111] In May 2014, an announcer pack featuring the voice of the Narrator was released for the multiplayer online battle arena game Dota 2.