The Stanley Parable launches next week, demo available now

The Stanley Parable has gotten a release date in October, just as promised. It will release next week, on October 17.

The Steam page includes a demo to give players a taste. But rather than go with a traditional demo route by showing off a slice of the main game, it instead is a unique experience of its own to give an idea of its tone.

"The Stanley Parable is very much a game about expectations. The content is all hand-crafted to mess with you and your preconceptions in as many ways as possible," creator Davey Wreden told Polygon. "So since the main game is about expectations of what a game is, it makes sense that the demo would be about expectations of what a demo is! If we turn the traditional idea of 'demo' inside-out, it lets people know that's what we intend to do with video games in general in the full title: We intend to mess with your expectations but also keep you engaged."