Almighty Game Designer

Zhao Lei started exploring different routes, trying different ends, and even deliberately choosing the opposite route from the narrative.

……

If Stanley doesn't choose to go to the boss, but keeps going downstairs, he's going into an endless cycle of death, and Stanley starts dreaming and ends up in madness.

……

On a window-driven desk, Stanley squatted down and rubbed out of the window and landed outside the window into a pure, white space.

But it's not BUG, because the narrative tells you, it's part of the game, and there's some self-ridicule going on.

[At first Stanley thought he destroyed the map until he heard the narrative and realized it was part of the game. He then praised the game for its profound and harmonious criticism of the video game architecture and its attempts at narrative structure metaphor.

……

If you exit before the office door closes when entering the boss's office, the confession will be “closed” in the boss's office. Players will no longer hear the voices of the narratives.

At this point, when the player returns to the initial room 427, the door next to him is opened and a place to guide the player to the lifebay appears.

Stanley keeps going upstairs on the way to the escape pod, and he'll find a 427 room on each floor, each with the same construction. Eventually he enters the escape pod and flees the place (maybe).

……

If the door on the right hand side is selected and the elevator is used to reach the maintenance area, the narrative will be completely obnoxious and Stanley will not even be able to find his way next.

Stanley was on a path completely off the narrative, so much so that the entire script was dramatized that the narrative had to restart the entire game.

But there was more confusion in the game after reboot, and after each reboot, the game would get into new problems.

For example, the door is missing.

Stanley, for example, enters a completely different scene.

The narrator even had to paint a long yellow arrow on the ground, but that still did not save the already completely misguided game storyline.

Eventually, Stanley would come to a room with a "chaotic ending” written on it and the whole process of chaotic ending written on it.

Even the narrative was shocked when he refused to follow the on-screen process to restart the game, but an unidentified presence forcibly restarted the game.

……

The deeper he plays, the more Zhao Lei finds that there is too much content in the game that he is completely unaware of. Whatever choice he makes, there will be a set of narratives in the narrative, as if he had guessed he would do it long ago.

Plus, there are a lot of interesting eggs in this game, and the teasing narrative has become an interesting thing.

If you keep typing the wrong password in the boss's office, the narrative will hint at you over and over again for the correct password, even emphasizing very angrily in red font, and eventually opening the door yourself very helplessly.

Sometimes even narratives are shocked by what happens in the game, which puts the whole game in multiple layers of confusion.

Stanley - the player - the narrator - the higher beings form a huge mystery, allowing Zhao Lei to constantly search for the game's spider tracks and find the truth behind all of this.

He has been deeply attracted to the game.

……

Unconsciously, more than two hours have passed.

Zhao Lei looked at the time before realizing he had spent so much time in this game.

But he had a faint feeling, as if there were still a lot of endings in the game that he hadn't played out, and a lot of eggs that he hadn't found.

This is the second time Chen has come to check on his progress.

“How's that, fun?” Chen Qiao asked smiling.

Zhao Lei rubbed his neck: “It's not fun, but... it feels interesting. When will this game be released? ”

"Maybe next week," said Chan. ”

Zhao Lei nodded: “Okay, I will definitely buy a collection when the game is released. ”

He paused and continued: “Also, I feel like the game is implying something. If it's profound, it seems like there are a lot of things to be said...”

Chen smiled without saying a word.

Zhao Lei asked, "Can you explain to me what this game really means? What does it mean? ”

Chen Jiao shook his head: “You can only do it if you want, you can't say it. ”

Zhao Lei was speechless and stood up: “It's getting late. I have to go back and get some sleep. I have to get back to work tomorrow. ”

Chen Jiao nodded: "Well, get some rest. ”

Two people walked to the door and saw Chen Jiao before Zhao Lei left: “Thank you for the game. Although some of the logic is useless, at least it makes me feel better. ”

Chen smiled and laughed: "Don't think too much, it's just a game. Life still has to go on, doesn't it? ”

……

Stanley's Fable is not a simple puzzle solving game.

It is a very classic META game with a deep philosophical connotation. It's not about riddles, it's about exploring different endings, but about experiencing and interpreting the myriad fable stories contained throughout the game.

In this game, there is actually a lot of design everywhere that contradicts conventional games, more like tweaking the meaning of the game itself, or tweaking the relationship between the designer and the player.

The game has no clear goals, no difficult challenges, no rewards in the usual sense. Even when the player stays in the storeroom for a long time, the narrative mocks: “God, do you want to show your friends how you ended up in the storeroom? ”

Moreover, the game is filled with sarcasm about “game fun," such as Stanley's daily job as a key and feeling happy. Isn't that what's going on with the game players?

Players follow the narrative cues, step by step, open the darkroom door, open the switch, and finally reach a seemingly complete end, isn't that what normal games make players do?

These things, which make players realize implicitly that they seem to be Stanley, that they seem to have freedom, that they have happiness, but this feeling is very false.

Behind each end lies a philosophical thought.

For example, a deceptive ending is a deception that loses its free will. A nuclear explosion is a consolidation of the status of creator. A homecoming ending is a despair that has no choice. A confusing ending is thinking about the end point. The starlight ending is treating Stanley as an experimental white mouse...

And that's the biggest thing about this game.

It's a reflection on the game itself, on life. Players reflect on what they've been through in real life and wonder how they should choose.

Of course, the game itself does not have a clear story background, it is more like a stream of consciousness, a thousand readers have a thousand hamlets, and everyone can experience something different when playing the game.

However, it brings this experience to the player, and that's what this game is all about.