#THE STANLEY PARABLE HALF LIFE 2 MOD MOD#

'There's a few endings that are typically more popular than others for the first playthrough, but we're long past the point of noticing it,' says Pugh.

Are there any endings that are popular with first-timers for whatever reason? In my own first playthrough, I found myself following the narrator's whim until a large sign with the words 'ESCAPE' scrawled on it pulled me off the beaten track. 'At some point we simply take our hands off the reins and let whatever conclusions you come to be yours.' 'We can only design for so much of that,' he says. 'There are almost certainly references you didn't catch the first time that someone else will see and say 'oh how did they know I'd play in that order!' You'll also probably make connections that we had never even thought about or intended in the first place.' 'All we have to do is give you enough content to work with and you'll do the work of connecting it all together for us,' he laughs. Wreden notes that players love to form meaning out of the random events that occur in the game, even when there is absolutely no meaning to be found. 'However there were points where playtesters would just not realise that they were being presented with a choice and they'd miss out on something like confusion ending or the red and blue doors, so we had to work to visually highlight these choices a bit more than others,' he adds. 'So we did our best to avoid pushing players to make particular choices.' 'We always intended for players to be able to play through the endings in any order they wanted, and for the game to feel like it 'worked,'' answers Pugh. I asked creators Davey Wreden and William Pugh whether there was any truth to this.

It's a game all about choice, although there's this strange nagging feeling throughout that the game is simply causing the illusion of choice, and is actually nudging you in particular directions. You're presented with a simple decision - the left door, or the right door? - and from there sprawls a variety of bizarre sights, sounds, and wonders.

#THE STANLEY PARABLE HALF LIFE 2 MOD MOD#

The Stanley Parable, previously a free Half-Life 2 mod in a former life, is a game riddled with dialogue and choice. Wandered through it thoroughly? Feel free to proceed. If you've not played through The Stanley Parable yet, I urge you to back away from this piece now - you'll only wish that you hadn't had it spoilt for you afterwards. It's difficult to talk about the first-person choice-wrangler that is The Stanley Parable without drifting in and out of massive spoiler territory, so I thought it would be best to begin this interview with an unmissable 'spoiler alert' paragraph.

The stanley parable half life 2 mod