Almighty Game Designer

Zhao Lei took a look at the time, and less than 10 minutes passed between the start of the game and clearance.

It also included the time he spent swinging around and shooting pointlessly.

Also, the game is simple to do, no battles, no monsters, just move and click on both.

Combining the various options in this game, obviously, this should be a puzzle solving game.

In other words, its fun should be exploring different branches and making different ends meet.

After figuring this out, Zhao Lei has a bottom line in his heart, and he knows what he should do next.

He should try different options.

……

The game starts again.

As prompted, Stanley should step out of the office and meet his colleagues in the conference room. But Zhao Lei suddenly thought, what if we don't go out? What if we close the door?

He clicked on the door of the office and the door closed.

[Stanley couldn't handle the pressure. What if he had to make a choice? What if he screws up in his line of duty? No, it's not going to work.

[The thing to do now is to wait, Stanley thought. Nothing can hurt me, here I am happy, always happy...]

Zhao Lei pushed you. What the hell?

Am I locked in the house?

He walked around, clicked on that door and tried to get out, but it didn't help. And he found a very strange thing, the clock that was hanging on the wall, and it started to move, as if it was a reminder that Stanley time was running out.

[Stanley knows that it will be over soon, someone will talk to him, someone will work for him, he will come...]

The narrative came to an end. Without the images, Zhao Lei could not imagine what was happening to Stanley.

The game is over, and this is the end.

Zhao Lei realized that both of his outcomes were relatively simple, but profound.

Like the name of this game, "Stanley's Fable," the fable itself is inspired by a long story of metaphor.

Obviously, if the player has been following the instructions of the narrative, it will only take a few minutes to come up with a “free ending” that looks good, but Zhao Lei is very suspicious of this, rather than a "free ending”, it is a “deceptive ending”, because Stanley also acted only according to the narrative, without even exploring the deeper mysteries of the world.

What do these two ends stand for?

Destroyed in silence because of a cowardly self-closure?

Or, follow obvious guidance, complete a journey, and then reach self-deception?

Zhao Lei found the game interesting and started trying different branches.

The game starts again.

This time, Zhao Lei thought of the button in the power control room.

When turning off the mental control device, he had two buttons in front of him, [OFF] and [ON], respectively. What happens if he chooses to turn it on?

This time, Zhao Lei has become familiar with light vehicles and quickly followed the narrative's instructions to the final power control room.

[Stanley decided that this machine would no longer be able to control people's lives, because he would completely eliminate those controls.

Zhao Lei pressed [ON] despite the madness of the narrative suggesting that he shut down the machine.

[Oh, Stanley, you didn't turn this console on, did you? After all these years of enslaving you, you want to control the machine yourself. Is that what you want? Control?]

The big screen in front became red, and it showed: [loading in the mental control system…], the background music became nervous.

[Stanley, I commend you for your efforts, but you have to understand that there are only a few things this machine can do. You should learn to let go, turn off this control system, and then leave. If you want to get my story off track, you need to work harder.

[I'm sure you'll be interested in this:]

[Stanley suddenly realized that he had just activated the emergency network's self-destruct system, and if the machine was activated without specific DNA identification, the nuclear bomb would detonate and blow up the entire facility.

[So, when's the detonation? Well, let me think. Two minutes!]

[Now the story becomes interesting, right? Now is the time for you to shine, please do as you please, unfortunately you don't have much time to enjoy it!

Zhao Lei was forced to have a feeling of being totally played by a confession.

He manipulated Stanley to look all over the facility, with lots of actionable buttons outside, and he was clicked one by one, but it didn't work, all of them couldn't stop the countdown.

Even as he walked towards some escape door, the door closed automatically immediately.

If you follow the usual game, there will certainly be a breakthrough at this time, but Zhao Lei is extremely suspicious that, although there are many buttons and switches in the room, nothing can stop the nuclear bomb from exploding and all attempts are futile.

The narrative continues.

What, you want to know where your colleague went? Well, for the sake of my good mood, let me tell you.

[I erased them, I turned off the machine, and I gave you freedom. Of course, just for this story, sometimes I just let you sit in the office forever, push the keys alone, and die.

[On a few other occasions, I let the office go underground, swallow all the people in it, or burn the office.

Zhao Lei ignored the narrative and still wandered around the house to see if there were any buttons to solve the situation.

But Zhao Lei was surprised by what he said next.

Oh, Stanley, what are you doing? Do you think there's a button in this room that can turn off this countdown?

[Look at yourself, running around between the screen and the screen, pressing against the things in this room, you must be thinking, are these buttons with numbers! No, it's these different colored buttons! Or this big red button! There's got to be something here to save me!

Why, Stanley? You think you can solve any problem in this game?

[No, you're still alive just because I want to see you powerless and frustrated, it's not a challenge, it's a tragedy.

The countdown is over.

With a loud explosion, everything was quiet.

Zhao Lei was shocked, obviously it was also an ending, but the ending made him feel even more unexpected.

The most special thing about this narrative is that it seems to mock the behavior of the player, as if it is talking to the player through the screen.

Obviously, all of this must have been designed by Chan, but Zhao Lei still has a feeling of interacting with the narrative.

Moreover, the narrative implies the fact that the narrative has absolute control over the whole game, that he can rewrite the whole story at will, control Stanley's life and death at will, and that it all depends entirely on his mood.

After realizing this, Zhao Lei suddenly became very interested in the game, and he couldn't wait to find out more.