The Museum is a place where various parts of The Stanley Parable, both in-game and cut content, are chronicled. The evolution of the game is seen in various rooms of the Museum, cast in an all-white glow with white floors, walls and ceilings. The only colored pieces are the actual museum objects. However, if you come here with the Bucket in hand, the museum is instead dedicated to talking about different kinds of buckets.
Accessing[]
The Museum is available from doing all the right choices and entering the Escape Hall right before the Mind Control Facility entrance.
Endings[]
This room is where the Museum Ending occurs.
Normal Museum Tour[]
After entering, the player is unable to leave using the entrance due to it disappearing after hitting a trigger placed in front of the entrance. The player then follows a flight of stairs (either the left or the right) and reach the bottom floor.
Nature Paintings[]
This shows the framed paintings placed around the whole office.
In the HD Remake, if you press the green leaves painting, a photo of one of the game's developers will replace it. This also affects every instance of the picture in the game. An example is the Hallway between the Two Doors Room and the Meeting Room
Nature Paintings
Stanley's Computer[]
Stanley's Computer with the orders missing.
Stanley's Computer
Office Layout, Corridor & The Two Doors[]
A small blueprint showing the entire Office up until the Two Doors Room.
Office Layout
This blueprint shows the office from the beginning of the game. The path from Stanley's Office to the two doors was the first part of the game that was built. Sections have been added and altered throughout development though the core layout remains almost identical to the first iteration.
Corridor
The pacing of this opening section was important to get right - this corridor has been moved and altered to make sure the player reaches the two doors in a good time.
The Two Doors
The set of two open doors was the first concrete piece of The Stanley Parable's design. Once this room was created, the rest of the game emerged as an extension of it, an exploration of the contradiction this room posed.
The Filing Cabinets[]
Filing cabinets used throughout the office from the game.
Filing Cabinets
Employee's Desk[]
A nameless display of an employee's desk.
Office Doors[]
Office doors of Employees 001, 002 and 003. Employees 002 and 003 are both mentioned with related easter eggs in the game, but Employee 001 is only present in the museum and the Monitor Room.
The Office
Button Sounds[]
Five white numbered buttons from the Countdown Room that can be pressed to play diffrent button sounds used for other buttons from the game. There isn't a recticle in both The Stanley Parable and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe to indicate this behaviour though.
Button Sounds
A selection of the sounds used throughout the game when buttons are pressed. Each sound is a mix of a keyboard stroke and a synthesized tone.
Office Computers[]
Three pillars with PCs atop. All of them can be turned off, like normally in the office.
The left one shows the generic Windows XP image used on all accessible computers in the office, except for Employee 421's monitor and Employee 436's monitor. The middle one shows a game of soliatare, used for Employee 425's monitor. The right one shows the Employee Database from the office variation affecting Employee 436's monitor.
Office Computers
Credits[]
- Main article: Credits
The game credits shown on five walls. Up until The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe these particular credits exclusively had the noted voicework for The Curator, Stanley's Wife and The Receptionist.
Maintenance Room[]
A screenshot of the Maintenance Room with developer textures from the Unfinished Section. Lacks a lot of background props.
Maintenance Room
An early version of the maintenance room
Copy Machine Stand[]
A nameless exhibit. A stand used in the office to indicate where Employees number 431-436 are. On the other side, there is a copy machine.
Office Box and Plant[]
One of the many prop stands in the museum. Almost all of them are labeled the same way. This one features a potted ivy plant and a beige cardboard box.
The Office
Ultra Deluxe Announcements[]
Note: This exhibit is exclusive to The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.
Six pictures showing screenshots from various trailers of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.
Ultra Deluxe Announcements
In December 2018, we announced the Ultra Deluxe version of The Stanley Parable at The Game Awards. These are screenshots of the videos we made for the announcement and the game's delay.
Warzone[]
A section explaining the development of a Warzone Ending. The player must have had fought aliens in an apocalyptic environment. This ending didn't make the cut though. Two images can be seen on the opposite sides of the exhibit, and a barbed wire fence with a bike in the middle of the room.
Warzone
Early in development, we designed an ending where Stanley would end up on a battlefield fighting aliens. The action game would become sentient and would wage war against the Narrator. We realized shortly after starting to build it that it was far too jokey and on-the-nose for the tone of the game. Plus, some people interpreted it as making fun of people who like shooters, which was not our intention.
Narrator Emails[]
A cubical room with a projector that shoots emails from The Stanley Parable fans asking the Narrator questions. Some more messages were added with the release of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. Not all emails are present here, in the Museum, but only twenty. The email from Alex Opificus is switched quicker than any other email slide.
Narrator Emails
After the second trailer we sent out we asked people to email the narrator for questions - while we had initially planned to use these further promotional materials we never found the perfect use for them. Here are a selection of those emails.
Pencil Sharpener and Desk Phone[]
Yet another display stand of an office prop, this time being the infamous pencil sharpener and a desk phone.
The Office
The Lounge[]
A frame with a picture showing the early version of the Employee Lounge. It seems the lowered-down section didn't exist yet, and the couches were supposed to be brown instead of blue.
The Lounge
An early version of the lounge
Stanley's Office[]
A large room with three sub-rooms that is meant to show the evolution of the layout of Stanley's Office. The rooms shown are from years 2011 to 2013, when the game launched. Once during this room's development, Stanley would have had two computers at his desk.
Stanley's Office
From left to right, the evolution of Stanley's office over time. The first was created in November 2011, the second in March 2012, and the third in February 2013.
Game Design Mockup[]
This shows a version of the office from early in development, where it started to look like what is in the final game. Of course the broken ceiling, gray walls, cement floor and a sign leading to the Employee Center were removed, but the original office layout is still clearly visible.
Game Design Mockup
This is the level that William, the level designer, sent Davey, the writer, as a kind of audition piece. The strength of this level got William hired to design the full game. Though much of the environment has changed, the basic layout from this mockup is still in the game.
Countdown Desk[]
A desk meant for the Countdown Ending. It has way more displays than the usual countdown desks use, with an additional button that comes out of a hole. Various numbers are being displayed on the rightmost monitor. The sound for inputting the incorrect code from the Boss's Office can be heard while the button hides.
Countdown Desk
One of the desks from an early version of the countdown ending.
Freedom Ending[]
There are two exhibits mentioning the Freedom Ending apart from each other. The first picture is from the alpha of the game, the other is from the beta. The alpha is almost identical to the current version of the Freedom Ending, while the beta takes the outer world and turns it into a grassy field.
Freedom Ending
This was the very first incarnation of the freedom ending, in the game's alpha.
Freedom Ending
This is the freedom ending as it existed in beta.
Monitor Room Elevator[]
The elevator that rides the player from the Monitor Room to the Countdown Room was supposed to have two buttons, both going in opposite directions (in a similar manner to how the Boss's Secret Elevator works in The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe), with the Freedom Ending achieved going up, and Countdown Ending going down.
Monitor Room Elevator
For a time, the elevator in the monitor room could go up or down, with freedom above and countdown below. We abandoned this when players found it too difficult to remember what was up and what was down, and placed the two endings together instead.
Countdown Room[]
The Countdown Room looks similar to the way it looks in the full game, although it lacks the glowing red light in the middle, and the layout is not as circle-like as it is now. There also seems to be no Facility Power Room in this version.
Countdown Room
An early version of the countdown room
Office Clock[]
One lit-up clock from the office mounted on a pillar.
Office Clock
Boss's Office[]
Three pictures of the Boss's Office from the game's development; each has more detailed textures and more props seen in the actual office. The fireplace used to be orange.
Boss's Office
Screens from the development of the boss's office
Lounge Couch, Armchair and Table[]
Props used for the Employee Lounge.
The Lounge
Underground[]
An early version of the Mind Control Facility Entrance. The Escape Hall used to be properly labeled, the escape wasn't only indicated by a metal sign. The player used to walk on catwalks, not actual metal platforms.
Underground
An early version of the underground portion of the game
Narration Outtakes[]
An empty room with a swinging lamp, eight pillars and some chairs. The Narrator's voicelines that didn't make the cut into the final game are played simultaneously with an echo effect.
Narration Outtakes
Kevan Brighting, the voice of the Narrator, recorded dialogue for the entire game roughly three separate times over the three years of development. These are clips from early takes that were not used in the final game.
Escape Menu[]
One of the pause menus showing an ending that ends only when the player restarts from the main menu. There are some endings that do only end after "Beginning the game again" in the actual game, but they aren't indicated visually.
Escape Menu
For a long time, we had an ending that only "ended" when the player restarted from the escape menu Unfortunately, very few players realized this was what they were supposed to do, which was frustrating for everyone.
Zending Model[]
A model of the Zending from early versions of the game. The Zending was a completely different ending, with the player pulling levers and/or passing between rooms. None of this is in the actual game, however, as the Zending now includes a suicide act which the player has to do to complete it.
Zending Model
The Zending went through many iterations. This room represents the 4th version of the ending, and we thought it was complete, but decided to abandon and change it again shortly before launch.
Zending[]
Another version of the Zending shown with a picture. There are a lot of holes, rails, buttons and pipes, which is very different from the normal version. It could also be a part of the Unfinished Section, as the Two Doors leading in/out of the room look like having Developer Textures inside.
Zending
This screenshot depicts an early version of the ending known as the Zending, which was eventually cut and merged with another part of the game.
Zending Levers[]
Three levers of different colors that the player was meant to pull in the Zending. The Narrator would tell the player what color they pulled.
Zending Levers
These levers were originally part of the Zending. The player would pull a lever and the Narrator would describe what color they had pulled.
Trailers[]
A room playing a The Stanley Parable trailer from May 2012. This room can't be accessed in the HD Remake, as the game freezes once the player steps into the corridor with the room. This requires a manual PC restart, as the game won't let you close itself.
This room is completely functional in The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.
Trailers
We ran four major teaser trailers over the course of the game's development, each meant to convey something about the spirit of the game. This is the first one, released in May 2012. It features a series of broken rooms and the voice of the Narrator informing viewers that he is repairing a new version of The Stanley Parable.
Maintenance Layout[]
A few options were discussed on how the Maintenance Room would work, how the Confusion Ending was accessed, and which doors would be open or not. The one in the upper-left corner won the discussion, although the entrance itself is not placed inside the Employee Lounge.
Maintenance Layout
The flow of hallways following the first two doors was important to get right, since players will replay them so many times. We discussed a number of designs, but ultimately it was the simplest version that won out.
Meeting Room Props[]
A Pro-jector, a file case and a clipboard from the Meeting Room placed on two pillars.
Meeting Room
The Apartment Timer[]
Previously in the Phone Room, the point of divigerence between the Apartment Ending and the Not Stanley Ending would be not picking up the phone in 15 seconds or picking it up in time.
The Apartment Timer
In a previous version of the choice leading to the Apartment Ending, a timer would give you 15 seconds to pick up the phone. Not picking up the phone would lead to a different ending.
The Cargo Lift[]
Two images of the Cargo Lift, in the early versions it was also a choice between riding all the way to the top, or falling down on a platform, however jumping to Stanley's death wasn't always a choice. The pictures show that the Warehouse environment wasn't always so obvious, and it was the final game to add the aesthetics.
The Cargo Lift
The cargo lift was always intended to offer the choice of staying on or jumping to a different path. However, after this early version we decided we also wanted the option of the player falling to their death.
The Cargo Lift
The second version is functionally the same as what's in the final game, but we wanted it to look more like a place where cargo was actually stored.
EXIT[]
One of the Museum's rooms features an exit sign leading to a black, dark hallway. Here, the Curator comments on how Stanley and The Narrator need each other. Pulling the lever to turn off the game causes the curator to reload the scene of Stanley getting crushed by the machine, prompting the player to exit the game and that it will be their only true choice.
Bucket Museum Tour[]
After the Bucket and Stanley get saved by The Curator, Stanley is once again freed from the cart ride. After entering the dark room with "THE STANLEY PARABLE" written in it, the bucket is removed from Stanley's beforehand. Instead of the normal museum behind the black wall, there is a museum focused around Buckets. Stanley's Bucket can be seen being lifted by a hook into the white void above, which may symbolize it going to heaven after death. Most of the content in this museum is humoristic and embraces the buckets even though they may not be that involved in history as some of the exhibits say.
Welcoming Sign[]
A large "Welcome" sign with a short description of the mightiness of the bucket can be seen directly in front of you after entering the Museum. The text is written in two columns. A bucket can be seen to the left of said text.
THE BUCKET
Welcomes You To The Grand Exhibit
You are standing at the precipice of knowledge. Much like a bucket itself, the human mind is frequently empty within, a cavernous void. But through use of the exhibit in front of you, the mind becomes full and enriched and substantiated. Knowledge of the bucket and its history is the only true knowledge we really have. Will you take what you learn here out with you in the world? Will you accept with an open mind what may be challenging about the information in this exhibit? Will you change the lives of yourself and your loved ones as a result of this exhibit? Or will you turn a blind eye and continue to live as you were, in ignorance and darkness.
25 Buckets[]
A large image of supposedly twenty-five buckets, though way more are present on the picture.
25 Buckets
A photograph of twenty-five buckets, the greatest number of buckets ever captured on camera. The photographer experienced catatonic shock for several weeks as a result of the euphoria from exposure to this many buckets at once.
A Bucket with Two Handles[]
This section describes a bucket with two handles, describing it's powerful nature. This meant it was more powerful than regular buckets, which may be proof that the buckets' power comes from their handles.
A Bucket with Two Handles
This bucket is depicted as having two handles. Such a design has never been created in real life, having been deemed "too dangerous" and "recklessly experimental."[sic] Every year, dozens are put to death just for attempting it.
Inferno Bucket[]
A brown medieval wooden bucket, that is said to be making people argue and fight. It is also stated here that no one can control its power.
Inferno Bucket
A replica of the Inferno Bucket, which in the medieval era was so powerfully alluring that it drove dozens of nations to war with one another for control of it. Billions died, and yet in spite of it all, the simple fact remains: no one can control a bucket.
The Stress Bucket An Analogy[]
A picture of a drawn bucket; there are arrows pointing inside of it with all sorts of negative emotions. The stress of the human holding it is represented by the number of tears that they have cried inside the bucket. A tap is attached to the side to let the tears out, and "make the owner feel relaxed".
The Stress Bucket
Presented without commentary.
Cave Drawing[]
A large cave drawing focused around prehistoric people and animals discovering the benefits of buckets:
- A leak is fixed by placing a bucket below the leaking spot
- The bucket can be used as water storage
- The bucket can be used as a holder for a classic "moving-out" bag with the owner's things inside.
Two of the prehistoric people are making a Bucket Statue at the top of the picture. "Gambhorra'ta" can be heard chanted near the drawing.
Cave Drawing
While we know that buckets predate the existence of mankind, we do not know by how long. This cave drawing depicts early man's discovery of the practical uses of the bucket, by which time the bucket had already likely been around for several millennia. Notice in these drawings how the bucket is allowing itself to be used, having judged humanity to be worthy of its treasures.
The Hanging Bucket[]
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
The final exhibit of the museum, that being Stanley's bucket itself. The text describes how humanity and the buckets have to be separated at times to not allow humanity to study the bucket too carefully and find out its deep secrets. This is the Exit of the Bucket Museum, as the player can actually walk on air and grab the Bucket. Then, the crushing scene with the Bucket is replayed, where The Curator prompts the player to let Stanley die and get crushed, so his bucket can be saved from his power.
The Hanging Bucket
This piece symbolizes the necessary relationship between bucket and humanity. However clear our grasp of the bucket may be, there is yet more that is always out of reach. This distance, inevitably is for our own good.