The Stanley Parable tells a story with 4 things, which are the enviroment, narrator, player choice, and walking. The way the Parable is designed is so that at any point in the game, the player can choose what they do in any given situation. The part that makes it a story is how with most actions, there is a narrator reacting. How it generally works is in an area the narrator describes an action, with the player being able to either do the action or in some way change what they do from the narration. This is then turned into a bit where the narrator reacts to the player. This gameplay loop is intended ro create a profound curiosity in the player over what their actions can do and how the narrator will respond, leading to multiple playthroughs with so many branching paths that it make the player feel overwhelmed. This is balanced by how the choices are designed, the end result usually doesnt change too drastically, with the exception of where it does. This creates paths that can be explored with an ending which is only mildly different, but due to the diverse reactions and bits along the way, the players curiosity that has been cultivated is still rewarded. With the addition made in the ultra deluxe edition, it essentially adds more of these bits to explore confined within the larger bit of the “extra content”.
The story in all is not very important to the game, it thrives on moment to moment interactions. The narrator is even disconnected from the story, as a large part of its interactions deal with the fact that you are in fact not stanley and just the player controlling him. A large amount of the bits has the narrator interacting with the player, the you, directly. There are a few paths within the game that keep the consistant characterization of stanley and follow a plot, but a where the game distinguishes itself is where you have the explicit plot to follow and you just don’t. These give more engagement with the narrator, and feeds into the gameplay loop explained earlier. Though the interactions are not confined to just the part of the game where you control stanley and the narrator interacts with you. There is game design baked into the acheivements that are absurd and meant to further the tone, and therefor gameplay experience and vibe of the game. The achievements are not truly meant to be obtained(which is exemplified with the existance of the test acheivement that cannot be obtained and is referenced within the game), just their existance communicates what the type of game is to the player. This is further estabilished with the start up of the game, as there is an extra entity the player can interact with in this part of the game as well. This all culminates into a carefully crafted and designed tone for the game which is reinforced by gameplay loops that encourage replayability, curiosity, and exploration with an experience that completely relies upon and exemplifies itself through the media of being a game.
A side tangent of, The Stanley Parable would never work without being a game. The experience is wholly unable to exist in any other artform. This is due to a few factors. The first is its use of the culture around games, with designed interactions starting before the game opens with the achievements. Then within the game it uses menus and breaks rules set by conventional game standards and preys on peoples experiences and biases from playing games to deliver a more thourough experience. The second is its commentary on the medium, about player choice and how it is set up. The third is the gameplay itself, as the gameplay loop would not work as much in a different medium, or would work in a different way. This can be seen with youtuber playthroughs of stanley parable, they are immensely popular sure, but the feelings and emotions they evoke are different from playing the game itself(and that is ignoring the skill of the player to entertain those watching). These factors make up my claim that if even if designed around a different medium, with the same care for culture, experiences, and biases; A piece of art in a medium that is not game or even video games would not be able to replicate the experience of The Stanley Parable.
