Several years ago, Davey Wreden started to wonder to himself about the overly didactic nature of game narratives. Why did so many story-led titles act like glorified movies, pinning the player to a linear path and then providing each participant with the same experience, governed by the central plot and the inescapable game logic? Games don't have to behave in that way.
So he taught himself how to use Valve's Source engine, and he created The Stanley Parable, a first-person exploration game in which the eponymous character turns up at the office one day to find himself in a surreal vortex of possibility. To say more would be to ruin the possibility, but the game is a sort of battle of the wills between the player and the narrator; with gaming conventions applied, analysed and twisted and with multiple layered paths open to each participant.
Now Wreden has developed an updated and expanded version of the game for Steam, and there's a free demo on the service right now. It is like no other demo you'll play this weekend, showing no content from the final product, but hinting at its mischievous, subverisive nature. It's sort of Portal, re-imagined and scripted by Douglas Adams and Flann O'Brien. It's... oh just, if you haven't already, just give it a go over the weekend. That's it, that's your homework.
