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 initial release of the game as a Mod for Half life 2 in 2011, The Stanley Parable Has seen several iterations. The first standalone game arrived in 2013, followed by The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe In 2022, which added some new endings to the game; However, this iam8bit project is the first physical release of the title.
The collector’s edition comes with goodies Like a Stanley figurine and a bucket reassurance manual. Fans can also purchase a host of extras, like a CopyConductor 980 TX instructional audiotape and the soundtrack on vinyl. The game is a parody of the story of the Go Sim genre, and responds to the concept of player choice through the silent protagonist Stanley, who one day finds his cramped corporate office completely deserted.
Screen Rant Interviewed co-creator of The Stanley Parable William Pugh via email to talk about the iam8bit collaboration and what’s next for Crows Crows Crows.
William Pugh talks the iam8bit Collaboration
The importance of physical media and incorporating environmentalism into collectibles
Screen Rant: Has this game always been something you wanted a physical release for? Is this the kind of thing you already had physical concepts in mind, or did they just start to take shape 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 enough for me. There is a larger theme of game​​​​ preservation, and I think it is something beautiful to turn out thousands of the physical incarnations of this art that we spent the last 10 years in the world… But finally we decided to make It happens due to an overwhelming demand from both people who just prefer to buy their games physically and also super Stanley Parable fans.
I find blurring the line between the real world and the games we make compelling, my favorite pieces of previous physical editions Crows Crows Crows has done are just like real world productions of world things. Thankfully, we have a whole sequence in The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe that explores the dirty creatively bankrupt practice of franchise development and the endless commercialization of any piece of art that can be strung together and merchandised until it stops being profitable for the parent company’ S’s Portfolio Tea – I mean ah, we have a section in the game with a lot of silly Stanley Parable-themed things, so we thought let’s just do some of those!
Can you talk a little about how your collaboration with iam8bit began and how the creative process went back and forth?
William Pugh: So, in a really upbeat and positive way that doesn’t detract from the marketing beat, I’m a little worried about the climate and the mass ecocide that’s going on right now. So when it comes to producing tens of thousands of things that will probably end up in a landfill in the next 100 years, we felt like we had a greater responsibility to try to get the best possible deal for the planet. After negotiating on this point with several possible partners, we felt that iam8bit are best positioned to support us with this, the main pillar of which is 20% of all net proceeds 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 had no plastic in it. I think all physical copies of games should be like this and I wish Nintendo, Xbox and Playstation would stop sucking their thumbs and get on board with the four! [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 squared that aspect off, we had a great time developing new elements, we produced a Figley (Stanley Figurine) that was designed by the amazing figurine sculptor Gijs van Kooten that we commissioned for the collectible sequence in The game. Tom Schley, our audio director produced new remixes and unheard tracks for the cassette tape and our bucket manual was reviewed by various legal teams and after some minor edits, our legal exposure risk was finally downgraded to “moderate”!!
The physical release and future plans of The Stanley Parable
Finalizing the Collector’s Edition set and what’s next for the developer
How did you narrow down what you wanted to include in the set? Do you have any ideas for physical release items that just aren’t feasible for whatever reason?
William Pugh: Well, we explored the option of shipping a bucket, but we realized pretty quickly that it was going to work against our efforts to have as small a climate footprint as possible – it would have boosted the cost of shipping significantly, But out of it came the “Bucket Manual”, which is a simple and friendly guide to how anyone on the planet can connect with their own “Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket”. It also has some uh, other stuff in there but I notice that my handler is gesturing for me to get to the next question so uh –
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Is there a piece of the physical release you are particularly proud of?
William Pugh: It is actually a specially developed odorless gas sealed in each copy, so that when they are opened for the first time, the consumer inhales and will feel genuine satisfaction and peace, if only for a fleeting moment. Well, either the gas or the vinyl…actually it could be the vinyl…it has 4 sides!
We are more than a decade from the original Stanley ParableBut there have been multiple versions since then with new content. When you looked back at the ways that the 2013 version examined the concept of player choice, what concepts did you find yourself expanding on the most that you talked about 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 in all ways where you would like to go next, development wise? What do you see next for Crows Crows Crows?
William Pugh: Well, I can tell you that it’s not going to be set in an office building…
- Released
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October 17, 2013
- developer(s)
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Galactic Cafe
- Publisher(s)
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Galactic Cafe
- motor
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unity, source
- ESRB
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E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due to Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Tobacco Reference
- How long to beat
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2 hours
- Metascore
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89
- PS Plus Availability
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N/A
Source: iam8bit/YouTube