# Didn't this hallway turn right last time?

- Series: [How It Spawns](https://miu.fm/howitspawns.md)
- Published: 2026-10-21
- Page: https://miu.fm/howitspawns/didn-t-this-hallway-turn-right-last-time

## Story

Didn't this hallway turn right last time?

In The Stanley Parable (2013), ending after ending sends you back to office 427. Davey Wreden built it in Valve's Source engine with William Pugh; at first, he says, all he knew how to make was "empty hallways" and sounds. So how does one empty office stay surprising? Near Stanley's office sits a sealed, pitch-black room you can never enter. Open the map in an editor, as dataminers did, and inside are the switches that pick the office. As programmer Bisqwit read the game's logic in 2013, every time the office loads, they roll: one number picks the kind of change (a narrator line, a small detail, a big change or the phone), a second picks which. Papers all over the floor, a storm outside, a blue room, a long detour, the hallway turning left. And the phone may offer you thousands of boxes: say yes, and the next office is full of them.

Same office, loaded fresh, then rolled.

The office, the switches and the rolls in this film are our own simplified version, built in code.

Which change have you seen most?

Sources: Davey Wreden and William Pugh, Game Developer, "Road to the IGF: Galactic Cafe's The Stanley Parable" (2014); Bisqwit, "The Little Things That Change", Steam guide (2013); The Cutting Room Floor, The Stanley Parable.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Galactic Cafe or Crows Crows Crows.

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- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DewepdWtG8q/

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