
He considered the possibility of facing his boss, admitting he had left his post during work hours, he might be fired or that. For instance, when Stanley refuses to go to his boss’ office, The Narrator reluctantly adjusts his story: He makes every effort to change it when the player disobeys. The Narrator is often portrayed as a conscious entity who also has to learn to understand the story that he is in. He can control or rewrite the story and the environment when Stanley acts against him. He is often portrayed as the Author and Designer of the game environments. While the narrator is not a character embodied in the story (as opposed to GLaDOS for instance) he has an agency of sorts. Narration in The Stanley Parable is characterized by its interactivity. How Dissonance and Narration Work in The Stanley Parable I suggest that the female narrator that appears in one ending is actually key to understanding this narrative. I’ll also unpack some of the secrets in the game. But how does it achieve this type of “metagaming”? How does it use narration to guide its players and make them reflect? Let’s have a deeper look. The Stanley Parable is a game that reflects upon games, control and choice. The player can go against the instructions of The Narrator and choose from various paths which lead to numerous endings of the game.

His decisions and actions are commented upon by The Narrator.

In the main game, the player guides the protagonist Stanley through the office in which he works.


The sardonic narration by voice-actor Kevan Brightning as The Narrator is key to unlocking and experiencing the game. Interaction is mostly limited to opening doors and pressing buttons. Though the game adopts the first-person perspective common to shooters, the game largely relies on observation and exploration, similar to Dear Esther. The developer Davey Wreden then joined hands with modeler Will Pugh for a remastered version with new environments, which was released on Steam in 2013. Originally a mod built in Valve’s Source Engine, The Stanley Parable was first released in 2011.
