Davey Wreden
Alma materUniversity of Southern California
Occupation(s)Game designer, developer
Known for
RelativesDouglas Wreden (brother)

Davey Wreden is a game designer and developer, best known for his work on The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide.

Early life and education

Wreden attended the University of Southern California, graduating in 2011 with a degree in critical studies.[1]

Career

The Stanley Parable

Wreden created The Stanley Parable in 2011, as a modification for Valve Corporation's game Half-Life 2. The mod itself received attention for its approach to storytelling and use of the video game medium.[2][3]

In 2013, he remade and expanded it into a standalone title with co-developer William Pugh.[4][5] The Stanley Parable received critical acclaim for its thought-provoking themes and innovative use of popular gameplay mechanics.[6] The game explores the nature of player agency and challenges traditional game design conventions.[6]

Wreden experienced depression after the success of The Stanley Parable, which included various media outlets' game of the year awards.[7][8][9] He described responding to emails, both negative and positive. "In answering all that fan mail, Wreden says that he lost sight of the meaning in his answers, he lost sight of why he made The Stanley Parable in the first place."[7] Wreden also drew a comic to help describe his feelings.[7][8]

Jasper Juul finds ironic similarities between Wreden's experience and his following game, The Beginner's Guide.[9]

The Beginner's Guide

In 2015, Wreden released The Beginner's Guide, a narrative-driven game that delves into the personal and creative struggles of a fictional game developer. Through a series of introspective and emotionally charged levels, the game raises questions about authorship, interpretation, and the relationship between creators and players.[10][11] The Beginner's Guide was noted for its introspective storytelling and its ability to blur the line between reality and fiction.[12][11]

Wreden in The Beginner's Guide

Davey Wreden, acting as narrator of The Beginner's Guide became a character in the game as well.[13] Frank G. Bosman and Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen write that the game's narrative ends up being largely about the Davey Wreden character, also describing the complex intertextual relationship between Wreden the character's narrative and other elements of the story.[13]

Alayna Cole and Dakoda Barker describe Wreden's approach to the narrative of the game; they suggest that the introduction, where he describes himself as the creator of The Stanley Parable and gives out his real email address is meant to establish authenticity.[10] They suggest this approach blurs the line between reality and fiction in a post-structuralist way.[10]

Braxton Soderman believes the character Coda is also a stand-in for Wreden the game designer.[14]

Itch.io

Wreden has also released free-to-play games on itch.io. This included a 2017 collaboration titled Absolutely: A True Crime Story, described by Kotaku as a "nihilistic parody".[15][16][17]

Subsequent projects

In 2021, Wreden founded the game studio Ivy Road along with Karla Zimonja and C418, with additional support from Annapurna Interactive.[18] They are claiming to be working on an unannounced project.[19]

Style and influences

Wreden has been influenced by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author David Foster Wallace, and the games of Brendon Chung—including Gravity Bone and Thirty Flights of Loving.[20]

Soderman finds a change in themes between the lightheartedness of The Stanley Parable and the depression and alienation of The Beginner's Guide.[14]

Discussing authorship and player agency in game design, Ivan Girina writes, "Davey Wreden's authorial discourse is often evoked as the focal point around which the meaning of not only Stanley but also his other creations, such as The Beginner's Guide ... is organised."[21]

Legacy

The TV Show Severance claims it took inspiration from Wreden's work.[22]

References

  1. ↑ Stephen, Scott. "The Stanley Parable honored by The New Yorker". USC Cinematic Arts.
  2. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk (August 9, 2011). "The Stanley Parable Turns Video Game Storytelling On Its Head". Kotaku. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  3. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (August 8, 2011). "A tragedy, not a challenge: understanding The Stanley Parable". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  4. ↑ MacDonald, Keza (October 18, 2013). "The Stanley Parable review". IGN. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
  5. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (October 1, 2015). "The Stanley Parable creator reveals The Beginner's Guide". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  6. 1 2 Standen, Seven. "The 'Parable' of Stanley's success: indie game is "re-imagined" a decade later". The Boar.
  7. 1 2 3 Bischoff, Daniel (February 21, 2014). "Stanley Parable Creator Explains Struggle Between Creator And Audience After Game of the Year Award Wins". Game Revolution. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  8. 1 2 Wreden, Davey (February 21, 2014). "Game of the Year". Galactic Cafe. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014.
  9. 1 2 Juul, Jasper (2019). Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity. MIT Press. p. 163-166. ISBN 9780262042796.
  10. 1 2 3 Cole, Alayna; Barker, Dakoda (2020). Games as Texts: A Practical Application of Textual Analysis to Games. CRC Press. ISBN 9781000329735.
  11. 1 2 Marchiafava, Jeff (October 1, 2015). "The Beginner's Guide Review". Game Informer. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  12. ↑ Vincent, Brittany. "The Beginner's Guide Review: Wreden, Begin Again". Shack News.
  13. 1 2 Bosman, Frank G.; van Wieringen, Archibald L.H.M. (2022). Video Games as Art: A Communication-Oriented Perspective on the Relationship between Gaming and the Art. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. p. 35-39. doi:10.1515/9783110731019. ISBN 9783110731019.
  14. 1 2 Soderman, Braxton (April 27, 2021). "4". Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject. MIT Press. p. 166. ISBN 9780262362481.
  15. ↑ Gach, Ethan (2017-11-28). "The Beginner's Guide Creators' New Game Is About Keanu Reeves Stabbing People". Kotaku. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  16. ↑ Beck, Kellen (2017-11-28). "'Absolutely: A True Crime Story' is a game about Keanu Reeves stabbing people". Mashable. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  17. ↑ Caldwell, Brendan (2017-11-28). "The Beginner's Guide creators release a JRPG about Keanu Reeves because why not". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  18. ↑ Holt, Kris. "'Stanley Parable' and 'Gone Home' devs team up to form Ivy Road studio". Engadget.
  19. ↑ "Ivy Road Official Website". Ivy Road.
  20. ↑ "Davey Wreden Interview". The Oxford University Press.
  21. ↑ Girina, Ivan (July 2021). "On Agency and Interactivity in The Stanley Parable". In Jung, Berenike; Sachs-Hombach, Klaus; Wilde, Lukas R.A. (eds.). Agency Postdigital: Verteilte Handlungsmächte in Medienwissenschaftlichen Forschungsfeldern. Herbert von Halem Verlag. p. 137-139. ISBN 9783869625034.
  22. ↑ Percival, Tom. "Severance was influenced by this terrifying online urban legend". The Digital Fix.
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