The Stanley Parable’s Co-Creator Talks Its Physical Release & Teases The Studio’s Next Release

Fans of The Stanley Parable will be able to enjoy the game in a whole new way, with developer Crows Crows Crows announcing a special collaboration with iam8bit this week. Since the game’s initial release as a mod for Half Life 2 in 2011, The Stanley Parable has seen several iterations. The initial standalone game arrived in 2013, followed by The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe in 2022, which added several new endings to the game; however, this iam8bit project marks the first physical release of the title.

The Collector’s Edition comes with goodies like a Stanley figurine and a Bucket Reassurance Manual. Fans will be able to purchase a myriad of extras as well, like a CopyConductor 980 TX Instructional Audio Tape and the soundtrack on vinyl. The game is a parody of the narrative walking sim genre, reexamining the concept of player choice via silent protagonist Stanley, who one day finds his humdrum corporate office completely deserted.

Screen Rant interviewed co-creator of The Stanley Parable William Pugh over email to talk about the iam8bit collaboration and what’s next for Crows Crows Crows.

William Pugh Talks The iam8bit Collaboration

Physical Media’s Importance & Incorporating Environmentalism Into Collectibles

Screen Rant: Was this game always something you wanted more of a physical release for? Is it the kind of thing you’d had physical concepts in mind for already, or did they only start to form later?

William Pugh: I’m not the type of person to collect physical media, I have the boxed copy of Paper Mario and my original copy of Sonic Adventure, but generally a copy on Steam is sufficient for me. There is a larger topic of game preservation, and I do think there’s something beautiful about shooting out thousands of these physical incarnations of this art we spent the past 10 years on into the world… But ultimately we decided to make it happen due to overwhelming demand from both people who just prefer to buy their games physically and also super Stanley Parable fans.

I do find blurring the line between the real world and the games we make compelling, my favorite pieces from previous physical editions Crows Crows Crows has done are just like, real world productions of in world items. Thankfully we have a whole sequence in The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe that explores the filthy creatively bankrupt practice of franchise development & the endless commercialization of any piece of art that can be strung along and merchandised until it stops being profitable for the parent company’s portfolio tea- I mean uh, we had a part in the game with lots of silly Stanley Parable-themed items, so we thought let’s just do some of those!

Can you talk a bit about how your collaboration with iam8bit began, and what that back-and-forth creative process was like?

William Pugh: So, in a really upbeat and positive way that doesn’t detract from this marketing beat, I am kind of worried about the climate and the mass ecocide that’s taking place right now. So when it comes to producing tens of thousands of items that will probably end up in a landfill sometime in the next 100 years we felt like we had a greater responsibility to try and get the best possible deal for the planet. After negotiating on this point with several possible partners we felt like iam8bit were best positioned to support us with that, the central pillar of that being 20% of all net proceeds going to the non-profit charity 350.org, then during the production process choosing low/zero impact materials wherever feasible.

I particularly loved iam8bit’s
edition of Untitled Goose Game
which has no plastic in it at all. I think all physical copies of games should be like that and I wish Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation would stop sucking their thumbs and get onboard with that practice! [Please note that after saying this William quietly walked up to his Switch, Xbox Series X and PS5 and gave them all a little kiss to show that he has lots of respect for the platform holders and loves them all equally.]

Anyway – after we got that aspect squared away we had a great time developing new elements, we got a Figley (Stanley Figurine) produced which was designed by the amazing figurine sculptor Gijs van Kooten who we commissioned for the in-game collectable sequence. Tom Schley our Audio Director produced new remixes and unheard tracks for the cassette tape and our Bucket Manual was checked by various legal teams and after some minor edits our legal exposure risk was finally downgraded to “moderate”!!

The Stanley Parable’s Physical Release & Future Plans

Finalizing The Collector’s Edition Set & What’s Next For The Developer

How did you narrow down what you wanted included in the set? Were there any ideas you had for physical release items that just weren’t feasible for whatever reason?

William Pugh: Well, we explored the option of shipping a bucket, but we pretty quickly realized that was going to work against our efforts to have as small a climate footprint as possible – it would’ve boosted the cost of shipping significantly, but out of that came the “Bucket Manual”, which is a simple and friendly guide for how anybody on the planet can bond with their very own “Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket”. It also has some uh, other stuff in but I notice my handler is gesturing for me to get to the next question so uh –

Is there a piece of the physical release you’re particularly proud of?

William Pugh: There’s actually a specially developed odorless gas sealed in each copy, so that when they’re opened for the first time the consumer inhales and will feel genuine contentment and peace, if only for a fleeting moment. Well, either the gas or the Vinyl… Actually it might be the vinyl… It’s got 4 sides!

We’re over a decade out from the original Stanley Parable , but there have been multiple versions since then with new content. When you looked back on the ways the 2013 version examined the concept of player choice, what concepts did you find yourself wanting to expand on most that you addressed in future iterations of the title?

[Note: In response to this question, Pugh replied simply with the following image]

In once again revisiting The Stanley Parable to create this new release, did you find yourself inspired at all about where you would like to go next, development wise? What do you see coming next for Crows Crows Crows?

William Pugh: Well, I can tell you it won’t be set in an office building…

The

Stanley Parable

iam8bit collection can be found on the
iam8bit website
.

Source: iam8bit/YouTube