The Stanley Parable

Development Info Prototype Info

Unused Graphics#

Loading Dock#

Except for the words "LOADING DOCK ABCDE", this image is entirely unused. It features an early sign for the Mind Control Facility and an altered line of the opening text that replaces Stanley's name with "Loading Dock A".

Minecraft Nodraw#

A Minecraft version of the "Nodraw" Hammer tool. Stored with the Minecraft graphics.

confusion/nothingmore#

Likely a placeholder text referring to a scrapped part of the Not Stanley Ending. Oddly, this texture is located in the confusion folder.

Happy Screen#

A partially unused (and very happy) screen for the monitor room. In thestanleyparable/maps/map_two.bsp (down the elevator in the Confusion Ending), A tiny portion of this texture can be seen in employee 535 in the monitor room.

Clippy Screen#

Although this screen is used (it appears above employee 001 in the monitor room), it's almost impossible to see Clippy or what he's saying, even when standing right below it in the Confusion Ending.

Secrets!#

A message from developer William Pugh teasing creator Davey Wreden. It is seen on screenshots and videos of several maps used in the Secrets article of The Stanley Parable Helpful Development Showcase.

museum/freedom#

Unused Museum screenshot	Pre-release version of this area (map2_b5, February 2013)

As seen in the VMF release by William Pugh, this is the original entrance to the Museum Ending, but further along in development.

museum/overview#

An unused texture of what's likely to be an early version of the labels in the museum. Notice the word "CORRIDOR" is misspelled as "CORIDOOR".

museum/endings#

An unused texture like the above, but for some of the endings.

Many leftover Portal 2 textures are scattered around the materials folder, including chapter previews, co-op HUD icons, and GUI elements from the Robot Enrichment store.

Linux Screenshots#

The Linux version of the game (Tea Edition) adds four screenshots to the game's directory - one 512×384 TGA, one 512×384 VTF, and two 1920×1080 JPEGs. While the TGA and VTF files appear to be normal screenshots of the game (albeit in... unusual formats for screenshots), the JPEGs are screenshots of The Raphael Parable, a fan-made mod for The Stanley Parable.

Hidden Developer Text#

• In an extremely interesting feat of programming, the developers left a peculiar little file in thestanleyparable/bin/README.txt, which contains the word "sup". In the demo, this includes "hi timmy!" instead.
  • client.dll which is also in the same directory contains a message:

PLEASE STOP LOOKING AT THE GAME BINARIES. THANK YOU.

• In the game's default configuration file, one of the last lines includes a comment:

name "Gran PC" // that's me! <3 you all!

• In the facepunch_brushbased.vmt material file, this message can be found:

// Hi FP!

• In the dev/cabinets.vmt material file, another secret message was included:

"%keywords" "SECRETS SECRETS WILLIAM IS GOOD AT HIDING SECRETS"

• In the overlays/coffee3.vmt material file, yet another secret message was included:

"%keywords" "IF YOU FIND THIS DONT SHOW THIS TO DAVEY OR ILL GET YOU - WILLIAM"

• In the materials/museum directory, there's a folder containing labels of every sign in the museum called banjoandkazoo, which is an obvious reference to a game about a friendly bear and his bird friend.
  • Additionally, one of the material files is called gruntilda.vmt, also a reference to the antagonist of the said game.
  • In the same folder, nearly every material file includes this message, again the same reference to the secondary antagonist of the said game:

"%keywords" "NO NO KLUNGO YOU STAY HERE, I'LL BE BACK HAVE NO FEAR!!!"

• In the scripts/vscripts/keypad/keypad_control.nut script file, level designer Collin Eddings inserted a couple of messages, starting with a not-so-kind comment:

//Attaching buttons to their position on the model
//EntFire(ent_b0,"SetParentAttachment","b0",0);
//EntFire(ent_b1,"SetParentAttachment","b1",0);
//EntFire(ent_b2,"SetParentAttachment","b2",0);
//EntFire(ent_b3,"SetParentAttachment","b3",0);
//EntFire(ent_b4,"SetParentAttachment","b4",0);
//EntFire(ent_b5,"SetParentAttachment","b5",0);
//EntFire(ent_b6,"SetParentAttachment","b6",0);
//EntFire(ent_b7,"SetParentAttachment","b7",0);
//EntFire(ent_b8,"SetParentAttachment","b8",0);
//EntFire(ent_b9,"SetParentAttachment","b9",0);
//...wait...
//Just kidding. Thanks Valve. You broke func_button's so they don't work on model attachments. You totally ruined my weekend there. I'm leaving this
//script in here for the whole world to see! Or, rather, a very very small fraction of it who actually hunts around in VScript files. Why are you even
//looking at this anyway? Go play outside. I've never been, but I've heard most of the buttons out there actually work when they're attached to things.

//Alright, alright, you came here for the vscript. There's no stopping you, is there? WELL JUST GO AHEAD THEN. SEE IF I CARE.

function TurnOn()
{   
//  EntFire(ent_b0,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b1,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b2,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b3,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b4,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b5,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b6,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b7,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b8,"Unlock","",0);
//  EntFire(ent_b9,"Unlock","",0);
//  Oh yeah, and heaven forbid I try to lock a button while it's pressed down! That was a fun one to work around, too.

:* The script file concludes with a final comment apologizing to the reader.

//Sorry for getting all fussy up there. I love you Valve.

Console Easter Eggs#

Certain commands entered into the developer console will result in Easter eggs instead of actual development things:

• _430_disable - Presumably would disable the Click on door 430 five times achievement, but just outputs "heck no!" to the console.
• _u - Based on its name, it would seem to give you the Unachievable achievement, but it instead outputs "Hey don't you even try" to the console. Despite this, there are ways to get this command working.
• bark - Barks whenever you click on anything. The bottom-right corner of the whiteboard in the Whiteboard Ending mentions this Easter egg.
• hideous - Opens a Steam Overlay web browser window pointing to the Official Team Fortress 2 Wiki, opened to a random hat that Hideous (one of the 3D artists who worked on The Stanley Parable) contributed to.
• imabird - Enables the "flight" effect from the downstairs path/Mariella Ending during normal play.
• raphael - After entering this, every line of narration will be replaced with "Stanley.", about a gleefully caustic teaser trailer wherein the Narrator responded to an email from a chap named Raphael.
• sv_cheats 1 - When entered into the full version, instead of enabling cheats, it will whisk you away to a secret map to get a stern talking-to from the Narrator, about why the player has forcibly entered the command, reasoning that the player will break the game. Repeat two more times for additional dialogue. In the demo, however, it simply outputs "Why?", meaning the command was unfinished.
• tsp_bosspass - Outputs "denied!" to the console.
• tsp_bossskip - Also outputs "denied!" to the console.
• tsp_boxes - Again outputs "denied!" to the console.
• tsp_broompass - Yet again outputs "denied!" to the console.
• tsp_buttonpass - Can you guess the output? Correct! It's "denied!"
• tsp_countpass - Still "denied!"
• tsp_lightstyle - This, however, outputs "nope" instead.
• tsp_loungepass - And this outputs "denied!" just like the others.
• tsp_reload - Outputs "yeah no" to the console.
• tsp_start - Equivalent to the _u command, it outputs "Hey don't you even try" to the console.
• zaxis_increase - Increases the chance of starting the game with different office variants (narrator's starting dialogue, altered office layout and design, etc.) Additionally, it outputs "Cheating is no fun - do you need a chat with the narrator perhaps?" to the console. Z-axis (or Zaxis) is an internal name for a routine code that handles and randomly chooses the office variations with every restart.

Old-School Cheats#

There are a couple of secret commands that can be entered during gameplay, instead of in a console, that enable Easter eggs:

• Typing facepunch during gameplay will replace most of the game's textures with a hand-drawn sketch of the Facepunch Studios logo. This is a shoutout to the Facepunch forums, where most of the development team originated.
• Typing secret on the title screen, then clicking the "Credits" button will play a very silly kazoo song over the credits.
• Typing vinh during the Credits makes Kevin Macleod's Who Likes to Party play, along with pictures of the Employee of the Year to scroll across the screen.

Unused Commands#

• +coop_ping - The ping tool which is also unused in Portal 2. This temporarily sprays a red X on the wall and brings up no menu when used in the game The Stanley Parable's engine is based on.
• ent_create_portal_/paint_bomb_* - Portal 2's ent_create Developer commands. Sadly, the Gels were removed from The Stanley Parable's source code.
• mp_usehwmmodels/vcds - Team Fortress 2 console commands for Hardware Morph.
• portal_(insert argument here) - Portal commands.
• tf_(Arena Mode and Escort) - Team Fortress 2 Arena Mode commands. Mentions Escort commands as well.
• tsp_enablemenunarrator - Judging by the Museum Ending and the different iterations of the Zending, this command would have been activated upon getting to that specific ending. Its sound file narrator/zen_final_escape.wav is missing, but there is a closed caption saying "No please- Stanley, don't quit- I'm asking you, please- don't take this away from me!", in which the Narrator would plead with Stanley not to quit the game and take his happiness away when pausing the game. Surprisingly, this console command also exists in the Demo.
• tsp_seriouspass - Found in thestanleyparable/maps/seriousroom.bsp, this command would seem to increment the counter that tells the game how many times the player tried to activate cheats. However, it no longer exists in the game, and its incremental counter was merged with sv_cheats instead.

*References the cubes. **The game used Portal 2 as the base engine and source code. Maybe the devs spotted the Gels and removed them from the game's source code.

Hidden/Unused Inputs#

forcebackwardswalking and allownormalwalking: These inputs for the player entity configure whether or not only to allow backwards movement. Why they're in The Stanley Parable is because two months before release, the development team was also working on Davey's next game called The Beginner's Guide, using the former as a base by running the maps in The Stanley Parable.⁴

Player Model#

The player model used for "Stanley" is not actually the model for him, but instead is the model for the unused Portal-like Chell found in Portal 2, without proper textures and no functional animations other than the reference pose. This is because she was not properly set up for use with the animations, as they were made for Chell's Portal 2 model.

Unused Animations#

Picture Frame#

A recompiled version of Portal 2's unused picture frame model used by the Apartment Ending (located as thestanleyparable/models/apartment/picture_frame.mdl) contains two additional textures that are not normally seen in-game, as only the model's reference pose (BindPose) is used:

Mariella#

Mariella has an unused animation, depicting her covering her mouth while frightened.

Unused	Used

Leftover Entities in Code#

The following entities from Portal 2 have been left in code in otherwise (somewhat) functional form:

• npc_personality_core: Personality spheres as observed throughout the game's story
• prop_glados_core: Earlier revision of the Personality Sphere entity.
• npc_security_camera
• npc_wheatley_boss: Placeholder NPC class for Wheatley, used throughout chapters 8 and 9
• npc_turret_floor: Base class for Portal 2's turrets, derived from the Half-Life 2 version
• npc_hover_turret: The original Hover Turret from Portal 2's development. It functions identically to the version in Portal 2, albeit with no materials or models and lacks additional effects.
• prop_testchamber_door
• prop_wall_projector: Hard Light Bridges
• prop_tractor_beam: Excursion Funnels
• prop_button
• prop_floor_button, prop_floor_cube_button, and prop_floor_ball_button
• prop_weighted_cube: The Weighted Storage Cube from Portal 2. Its programming still has the instructor hint for picking it up, though that is missing from the localization files for The Stanley Parable. A related file (thestanleyparable/models/props/metal_box_fx_fizzler.mdl) was also left over and unused. Although the Games Ending does feature a cube puzzle, the manner in which it and the floor buttons are implemented are functionally identical to that of the original Portal game.
• prop_portal: The portal logic; required as linked portal doors are used heavily in TSP's transitional sections. A portal gun does not exist in game code.
• weapon_paintgun: A gun that sprays gel onto walls, often with an optionally limited amount of ammo; scrapped in Portal 2 due to concerns surrounding gameplay flow and nausea (in light of the Adhesion Gel being one of the paint powers it could shoot). Does not function at all as paint powers were compiled out of code. Reuses sound effects from Half-Life 2: Episode Three's Weaponizer.
• weapon_smg1: The SMG1 from Half-Life 2, reimplemented into game code specifically for the scrapped Warzone ending. Lacks ammo definition in code.
• item_suit: The HEV Suit from Half-Life 2. Does not function as there is no actual HEV suit in TSP nor Portal 2.

Unused Audio#

Unused Narration#

In the release version of The Stanley Parable, these narrations by Davey Wreden could be found. The Beginner's Guide has similar, but newer, takes in the Backwards chapter.

An unused narration is meant to play in the Playtest Ending after dropping into the hole. However, these lines (except the third) and their soundscripts are called PlaytestFinale_1_00 and PlaytestFinale_2_00 respectively, whereas the actual map is looking for PlaytestFinale_1 and PlaytestFinale_2. Because these quotes are played from ambient_generic entities and the third quote has no inputs or outputs to ensure it too plays, it goes completely unused.

In turn, this unused dialog from the Museum Ending hints at its original similarity to the mod. The standalone game instead has Stanley fall into the machine.

An unused alternative dialog would have been played in the Playtest Ending after the player solves the "critical thinking" puzzle.

Truncated Narration#

Although they are technically used, the game cuts these voice lines off due to specific events.

Confusion Ending#

Incorrect Ending#

Apartment Ending#

Museum Narration#

In the Museum Ending, a large room is dedicated to unused narration takes that are not otherwise heard in the game. The narration can be found in the "echoroom" folder in the game's files.

Confusion Ending#

Monitor Room#

Games Ending#

Zending#

Unused Sound Effects#

Located in the thestanleyparable/sound/ambient/levels/canals directory are some unused sound files labeled headcrab_canister_ambient. These sounds were supposed to play randomly from the Weighted Storage Cube similar to the original Portal. However, they fail to play during the Games Ending in The Stanley Parable because the sounds are not precached upon loading the map.

Unused Music#

One piece of music (officially called Anticipating Stanley) goes unused in The Stanley Parable, though it is used in the demo.

Unseen Model Detail#

Hidden inside Stanley's head are his teeth with broken textures. Since Stanley never opens his mouth, this detail goes unseen.

Unused Map Element#

In thestanleyparable/maps/map1.bsp, a leftover logic_relay, internally named clock_relay, exists in the phone room which sets up an input/output routine equivalent to the timed phone exhibited in the museum. The game never triggers this entity; Its inputs point to nonexistent entities. The only difference between this routine and the one seen in the museum is that when the timer hits zero, warzonetrigger is enabled. This tells that the player would have been taken to the scrapped Warzone Ending instead of the Not Stanley Ending if they refused to pick up the phone. The museum in fact does not mention this!

Hidden Inaccessible Room#

At the beginning of the game, an inaccessible pitch-black room is located near Stanley's office and is hidden without going out of bounds. For some weird reason, the game always crashes when attempting to noclip out of bounds. Circumventing this issue would require only one of these command variables to be typed r_drawstaticprops 0 or r_farz 1000 before going out of bounds (sv_cheats not needed for both). When it's safe to do so, revert the command variables to their default value r_drawstaticprops 1 / r_farz -1. Inside the room is nothing, but when viewed in the Valve Hammer Editor program, there lives logic entities such as logic_relay, logic_choreographed_scene, etc. This set of entities controls the random office variations with every in-game restart, internally known as Z-axis (or Zaxis). Thus, it is very likely that the room is created to place the entities inside for organizational purposes during development.

Inaccessible Platform#

Watch on YouTubeThere is a normally inaccessible platform above the Countdown Room of the Mind Control Facility that can be reached with the console command ent_teleport player (sv_cheats not needed). It has catwalks that lead to three locked doors that lead nowhere (as they are really just walls) and a computer that does nothing. This was likely a remnant from an earlier version with the power control located above the main room rather than in a separate room, as in the original mod. In fact, an early version of the room seen in the Museum Ending shows an elevator.

Unused Baby Game Ending#

The map for the Baby Game includes entities to implement an unused, simpler version of the ending obtained after playing the Baby Game for four hours. There is an env_fade entity that fades to white and a series of game_text entities that display text in the game's default font:

Unused	Used

Unused	Used

Unused	Used

Unused	Used
[game restarts]

These entities are present in the map file but have no inputs or outputs, so the game never triggers them. The entity names are similar to the ones in the used ending: whitefade and finaltext[1-3]'' in the unused ending,whitecameraandfinaltextb[1-7]'' in the used one.

Unused Escape Pod Area#

During the Not Stanley Ending (A.K.A the Incorrect Ending or the Real Person Ending), when the player reappears in a tumbledown two-door room, there is a dark, unfinished area behind the room that cannot be seen nor accessed without using the console command mat_fullbright 1 and noclipping. This unfinished area shows rubbles and debris featuring destroyed remains of other structures in the background, like the warehouse and the boss's office. There is also a hole that does nothing when fallen through since no trigger-based entities exist in this area. The developers decided to block access to the area rather than bothering to remove it entirely. Some unused entities are present, albeit disabled and without inputs/outputs:

• 5 env_shake entities destroyedrumble[1, 4, 5, 7, 9]
• env_projectedtexture entity escapepodrevealprojtex
• env_sprite entity escapepodrevealsprite
• ambient_generic entity escapepodrevealprojtexsnd

Interestingly, the last three entities have an internal name that begins with escapepodreveal, which implies that there should be an escape pod in this area. The env_projectedtexture entity is pointed directly toward the hole, suggesting that the escape pod should likely emerge from it. The ambient_generic entity plays a sound file vfx/light_flicker/light_flicker_06.wav that does not exist in the game's directory. This area is a leftover from the original version of this ending, which would have you and the narrator go to the "real world" before cutting to a maintenance lift and an early version of the escape pod ending.

Unused Not Stanley Ending#

The map for the Not Stanley Ending includes two unused env_message entities, labeled sntimer_wehavenothing and sntimer_num, and one unused logic_script entity, labeled sntimer_script. These entities indicate that the player reappears above the two-door room, and instead of rolling credits, the game displays a message on the screen telling that the game has nothing left to show the player, starts the one-minute countdown, and restarts.

Unused	Used

Unused	Used

Unused	Used

Oddities#

• Using the Sub-Machine Gun (Half-Life 2) or Paint Gun (scrapped Portal 2 entity), the E key and MOUSE1 button are both forced to fire and use. This results in bizarre actions, taking over the game.

Map Oddities#

map1.bsp	incorrect.bsp

In thestanleyparable/maps/map1.bsp, the inaccessible room in the warehouse has some crates with one of them, labeled 432, full of pencil sharpeners. However, they are simple cardboard boxes in thestanleyparable/maps/incorrect.bsp.

map1.bsp	incorrect.bsp

The three dots are on the wall in map1.bsp, but absent in incorrect.bsp.

map2.bsp	map_two.bsp

The monitor room has a couple of differences when contrasting map2.bsp (first two buttons pressed) and map_two.bsp (down the elevator in the Confusion Ending).

• The spotlight effects are missing.
• Two screens on the right (employee 427 and 432) display a different image.
• The lighting is slightly different.
• Some objects (papers, boxes, etc.) are absent.

Additionally, the other monitor room in theonlymap.bsp (The Adventure Line™ map) is identical to map_two.bsp.

map2.bsp	map_two.bsp

The back side of the monitor room also has a few differences.

• Seven screens in the middle (employee 004, fired employee, four blank screens, and Clippy screen) display a different image.
• The walkway gate is opened in the opposite direction.

In the Minecraft map, this grass block near the cave uses the wrong bottom texture.

Revisional Differences#

dump0.tmp#

Many of the game's files were initially stored in an encrypted archive at platform/dump0.tmp to prevent secrets from being discovered too quickly. After a decryption tool was released by a third party, an update removed the archive and placed all the files into the game's content directory.

"Choice" Video#

Original	Revised

After a schoolteacher complained, the "Choice" video was changed to show more wholesome values.

Original	Revised

The next slide was similarly edited to show Steven considering setting fire to orphans rather than actually doing it.

Baby Game Ending Monolith#

Original	December 27, 2016 Patch

The original version of the Baby Game ending has what the developers call a "weird black monolith" obstructing the text. This is caused by the door for the puppy not closing, which has since been fixed.

References#