The Stanley Parable

The Stanley Parable is currently available on Steam.
🛒 Buy it on Steam (via Browser | Steam client*)
Supported OS:

Windows •

macOS •

Linux +

SteamOS (See system requirements)
Also available from the following other storefronts or websites:

Epic Games Store

A free demo of this paid game is also available on Steam.

Notice: Unlike games such as Half-Life 2 (which also has a demo version), the demo version of The Stanley Parable has very different gameplay from the full game. It also does not restrict players from enabling cheats in this.

The Stanley Parable is based on Portal 2's engine branch. Therefore, much of the documentation on this wiki pertaining to Portal 2 may also apply to The Stanley Parable.

The Stanley Parable (2013) is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end.

Originally created as a Half-Life 2 mod back in 2011^[1] and expanded into a full game with more endings, and completely new assets (using the Portal 2 engine branch), The Stanley Parable is a thought-provoking game created by Galactic Cafe that intentionally averts and subverts the very rules of storytelling most games abide by.

Creating a unique dynamic of trust, the player can choose to follow the in-game narrator or to go against him. No matter the choice (even some that exist outside the game world), the game has a response ready, weaving around the general idea of choice that the game sets forth to create.

A sequel and re-imagination of The Stanley Parable, called The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, which runs on Unity along with adding content and improved graphics was released on Steam in 2022. The original version still remains available on Steam.

Gallery

Office cubicles
Meeting room
Stanley's boss' office

Technical notes

Enabling sv_cheats 1 will instead change the current map to Serious Room, as a punishment to the player for trying to enable cheats. This was hardcoded to the game's client.dll file, which can be removed by using the dll file from the Demo version of the game.
While The Stanley Parable (and The Beginner's Guide) runs on the Portal 2 engine branch, both also have code for spawning Half-Life 2 entities, but in The Stanley Parable, it is completely unused while the latter (The Beginner's Guide), does use weapon_smg1.