Publisher(s)
Galactic Cafe
Series
The Stanley Parable
Release date(s)
October 17, 2013
Mod support
Yes (sourcemods)
System requirements
- Win XP or later, Mac OS X 10.8 or higher, Ubuntu 12.04
- Dual-core CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 X2)
- 2 GB RAM
- 3 GB disk space
- 128 MB VRAM video card with DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 2.0b compatibility
For details, see below
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
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.
System Requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
7, 8, 8.1 (with limitations due to Steam EOS)* 10, 11 |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Core 2 Duo AMD Athlon 64 X2 (Dual core) Pentium 4 (3.0 GHz) |
System memory (RAM) |
2 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) |
3 GB |
Video card (GPU) |
AMD/ATI Radeon X800 Nvidia GeForce 7600 Intel HD Graphics 2000 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 2.0b support |
Sound (audio device) |
DirectX 9.0c compatible |
macOS (OS X) |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
macOS 10.8 or higher (with limitations due to Steam EOS)* |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Core 2 Duo AMD Athlon 64 X2 (Dual core) Pentium 4 (3.0 GHz) |
System memory (RAM) |
2 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) |
3 GB |
Video card (GPU) |
AMD/ATI Radeon 2400 Nvidia 8600M |
Linux |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
Ubuntu 12.04 |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel (Dual Core) AMD (Dual core) (2.8 GHz) |
System memory (RAM) |
2 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) |
4 GB |
Video card (GPU) |
AMD/ATI Radeon HD2600/3600 (Driver: AMD 12.11) Nvidia GeForce 8600/9600GT (Driver: NVidia 310) |
Sound (audio device) |
OpenAL Compatible |
Note:* This game previously used to support Windows XP & Vista and Mac OS X 10.8, however support for Steam for these operating systems has been dropped as of 2019.
|
See also
References
The Stanley Parable on ModDB