#galacticcafe

 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: