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Hi there. Thank you very much for reading my analysis of the beginners guide. Many exist out there, but this is mine. And I have made it out of spite.

If you’ve not yet played the beginners guide, please play it before reading this. Or after reading this if you care not about spoilers. There will be many from this point on. Either way, just play it.

Prologue

I love the beginners guide. It has irrevocably changed the way I look at art and my craft, as well as interrogate what it’s all in service of. I play it every year to remind me why I do this.

I also have beef.

This will not be a regular analysis of the beginners guide. I will be willfully misreading the text. I will be addressing Davey and Coda as characters through this essay; I don’t wish to make any statements to or about any real people, other than “thank you for the game, and I’m sorry for what I’m about to do.”

In my first playthrough, the game (specifically Coda’s work), meant so much to me that when the reveal happened I got pissed. It was like Davey was taking something I loved away from me in service of a theme that I didn’t want. Which feels intentional! And it is well done! However, it doesn’t stop me from being a spiteful asshole.

Coda is and was an aspiration for me as a game designer. All I wanted out of The Beginners Guide was to enjoy Coda’s work in peace. But the fiction of the story had made that impossible, implicating both Davey and the player in horrible breaches of trust, including the modification of Coda’s games (to what extent cannot be known), and ostensibly The Beginners Guide itself. This analysis will live within that fiction; specifically one layer beneath it.

In short, I will be discarding the game’s uppermost layer of metacommentary, and reading the presented games as objects in themselves, disregarding any influence I can discern. I am aware that the artifacts themselves are inextricable from the context of their presentation and the modifications therein, and that this is the point of the game. This is a flawed reading. If anything, this reading is specifically one that the game’s narrative feels inherently hostile towards, and argues against. The loss of control an artist experiences upon sharing their work is endemic, and The Beginners Guide is well aware of this.

So please accept my apology, but I will continue to write anyway. After all:

The beginners guide can be whatever I want.

Intro

The intro throws the player into an impressionist counterstrike level, armed only with a simple first person character controller. Despite a lack of mechanics, the game (or more specifically, environment), still holds a staunch thesis, and begins a motif that will reoccur throughout Coda’s works; That being the critique of form.

This level has such a disdain for the structures and mainstays of not only level design, but also the conceptions of what games even are as a whole. The level scatters floating boxes of different colors and styles throughout the level. Its use of prototype textures humorously contrasts the realistic walls and styling of the rest of the level, as if the game is daring the player to deem it careless, incomplete. I think this could not be further from the truth.

It blocks a hallway with an abstract painting, placed brazenly yet sneakily, obfuscated behind a door, laughing at the player as they attempt to explore. This is an interesting case study though, as it completely disregards any and all conventional knowledge on how to obscure an out of bounds area while maintaining immersion. “For what purpose is this persistence of immersion used?” the game asks. “Is it necessary? Why are we compelled to herald immersion as some holy necessity, aimlessly copying techniques without intention or direction? Fuck you; I’m putting this wall with some stripes here. This too can be a complete game” That last bit is critical to this reading of Coda’s work. In his critique of form, the idea that a game like this one is and can be “complete” is paramount. A complete game can be anything. Any standards you place upon your work are your own.

My favorite element, though, is the void shader.

This game is not incomplete. This game is a contemporary Newman. Who’s afraid of floating cubes?

• floating boxes are called out, making this piece out to be surrealist

• You also get some cheeky clipping.

• the block cluster is notably cruel for not letting you jump on them. you can look but you can’t play.

• The black shader on the boxes grabs my interest quite strongly and I can’t quite put my finger on why

• can one really know the artist through their art?

• interpertations vary and we all project ourselves onto it.

• That said, what decisions someone made and why are all fascinating to think about

• Moreover, I wish to project myself onto this artwork (the beginners guide), and so I will.

• Recycling bin “Important games folder”!

  • Art with an audience of one: Its creator.
  • There’s nothing more beautiful. I should make some

2

• why do we start in a white room?
• gun doesnt reload. It has a click sound effect though, meaning there is handling for an “Out of ammo” state, yet there is no reload. This feels intentional.
• two paths. one is blocked. you can just pick the other after realizing that one doesn’t go through. Interesting!!
• aliens inbound, hostile force neutralized, no enemies. I want to read into this
• the bottom of the universe ahhhh. The skybox has a top but no bottom. I read this as also intentional. The bottom is square!
• You can refuse the teleport by going back yourself.
• We’re told “the game has this narrative about the whisper machine and how it has to be turned off” but are we?
• The game asks us to kill ourselves to disrupt the laser
• the 90 degree angle is not a part of the game; it’s added later. disregard.
• I read the floating as intentional. and it’s fucking beautiful. it breaks the illusion fully. this is a motif.
• Perhaps this is not death as it’s read. “Could you give yourself” is the quote. Perhaps this implies something else?
• The whispers are feedback!!!

3

• backwards
• “the past was behind her”
• why the holes in the room outlines?
• “but the future could not be seen”
• wall spawns in as a psych out, interesting! “why does the future keep changing?”
• “when she stops and looks it gets clearer but the future is always behind her. How will she find the strength to confront it?”

4

• you are now entering
• I FUCKING LOVE THIS AGHHHHH

5

• nonsense in nearly every direction
• Oh god I love the staircase
• As an aside, I love the genius of making the added speedup optional. It’s fucking cruel, but I’m sure most people will take it, and won’t experience the game as designed.
• the game lets you see its secrets, it’s just a bitch about it
• LET ME STAY IN THE FUCKING ROOM YOU FUCKING WHORE LET ME GO BACK ILL KILL YOU

6

• Ready set fish
• door puzzle
• Nothing necessarily notable about halls or the game.
• the game explicitly does not allow you to see its beauty; it must be modified for that to be revealed.
• LET ME STAY IN THE FUCKING ROOM YOU FUCKING WHORE LET ME GO BACK ILL KILL YOU

7

• aaaaand the completed loop
• I want to make an entering and never make an exiting.

8

• The great and lovely descent
• there are barriers around the perimeter
• The bar is called “the streetwise fool”
• You can enter the bathroom
• and the descent into the void from the kitchen is soooooo good
• the abstract floating shapes are beautiful
• the way a player is guided to the center upon falling is gentle
• the cage. one hour
• accessibility & “playability” vs fuck you I can do what I want
• door again
• the skybox is also a cube with a bottom!
• NPCs! Dialogue!
• “You there did you come from above! What was up there?”
• Very linear tree. You cannot help these people, as much as you may want to.
• “There must be an ending!” They proclaim. yummy.
• https://the-beginners-guide.fandom.com/wiki/Down#Dialogue_(Taken_from_In-Game_Files)
• DOORS ARENT MEANT TO BE SOLVED WAS THE SOLUTION ADDED FUUUUCK
• what you find won’t be worth what it takes to get there.
• “He wants a destination” fuck youuuuuuuuu
• , what you find won’t be worth what it takes to get there.

9

• Internet room
• fuuuuuck I love this idea so much
• dark souls?
• I love how you can’t get to all of them
• I love the layers of metacommentary and self deprecation that a lot of these comments exhibit.
• DO YOU FEEL LIKE A HERO YET OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
  • SPEC OPS OBVIOUSLY
  • IS THIS METACOMMENTARY? KODA TALKING TO THE PLAYER WHO SHOULDN’T EXIST? OR DAVEY PUTTING IN A CHEEKY JAB AT HIS PERSONA?
• flying penguin. Don’t feel like living because nothing will be as majestic. I never want to see again if nothing will be as pretty. plan on ripping eyes out.
• balls
• define fun
• there is an acorn. the sailors are looking for it.
• I refuse to believe
• recognize me please
• imaginary people are angry about the door not opening
  • that’s some metacommentary on how he refuses to open up. to make games accessible, playable
• I would like very much to be desired
• scared of writing something. don’t want to feel judged
• take my hand let’s jump together
• next time I will do better
• I need someone to talk to
• I’m not safe
• ethical
• well done, all of you
• whoever made this has issues
• art
• cabbage nation person lol
• stop pretending you are other people AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
• this game is pretentious and you all suck
  • HELL YEAHHHHHHH
• he was himself the most horrible creature he could imagine
• maybe I’ll feel real someday
• I have seen everything I have traveled the world I have never told anyone
• none of the characters can get through
• THERE IS NO SECOND SWITCH
• SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK
• if the doors are the end why is there another note after? the typewriters the dialogue? I think they are real. too disparate, too nonsensical for davey to create as a discreet ending.

10

1

• Pornstars die too
• the prision and the well.
• the ending is just being stuck at the bottom of the well. interesting

2

• dialogue asking you what to put where. the game actively fucks with you and does the same thing regardless
• It doesn’t even give you a chance to pick correctly!!
• Furniture backrooms! I love the furniture backrooms!
• LET ME STAY IN THE FUCKING ROOM YOU FUCKING WHORE LET ME GO BACK ILL KILL YOU

3

• detailed instructions to escape
• no table lol
• ur trapped lol

4

• THERES A DOOR PUZZLE IN THE PRISON
• that basically confirms that its unsolvable

5

• The phone booth
• incredibly poignant dialogue.
• I love this

11

• two doors one on either side, I think these are real

• pretty snowy env, and a cozy house

• beautiful music

• calm liminal cleaning

• meaningful dialogue about existing and cleaning

• I think davey killed them

• I think davey killed my friend

• to keep me moving

• LET ME STAY IN THE FUCKING ROOM YOU FUCKING WHORE LET ME GO BACK ILL KILL YOU

• game idea: it’s this but with multiplayer. you join and someone is saying chores. you do them until the person leaves. then you tell chores to someone else. could be done singleplayer too

• That’s not the point of the puzzle doors, davey. it’s about the black space. the game literally tells you. that’s the whole damn point.

• It interestingly says so past a door a few levels back!

• (Later) YES HE DID HE DID JUST STRAIGHT UP SAY THAT HE DID FUCK YOUUUUU

12

• School, how to be perfect/ superior
• swapping to the teacher it adds a whole new layer from the hidden dialogue options you weren’t seeing before (anyone wanna do ecstasy?)
• and also sauron’s eye at the back of the class
• beautiful little message!

13

• animal photography & networking hell
• god this is good.
• I love how it’s on a stage too GAH
• foreboding music
• all possible options have the ego tell you off
• it feels self aware. Like Coda knew this was bad, but just wanted to get the feelings out. The music is a giveaway.
• the retreat into the prison hallway, layer after layer is just so heavy. The voice is so happy about it too.
• I feel this game.

14

• play this game with eyes closed
• SS Whisper!!!! THE WHISPER MACHINE CONFIRMED???
• This is definitely a cry for help
• Again, you run into the door. You can’t even make it to the space between. Or perhaps you are in the space between, and cannot make it out. The result is the same: there is nothing on the other side.
• You can’t actually play the game with closed eyes.
• With closed eyes you just stumble around you can’t even trigger the dialogue that will end the game, let alone pick the correct option, let alone know there is dialogue.
• I read this as an allegory. The game is saying you can stumble around blind making things and continuing the status quo, or open your eyes and realize that you’re burned out.

15

• Islands
• When I create I feel empty
• I’m trying to find this engine that used to protect me and start it again (oh my god)
• the fucking machine is behind the fucking door
• you can’t get there. you can’t get to the machine.
• Hmmmm the dialogue lets you through it. Did davey edit the dialogue? I’ll assume not. Perhaps Coda did want to let us through this time.
• Hmmmmm the dialogue choices are from before this game too. Assuming previous games didn’t save files and this one is reading them, this feels like something davey put together for the narrative.
• sobbing noises
• Breaking through the walls reveals someone in a prison. the prison.
• I don’t think anything past the puzzle is real.

16

• The machine is dead. It has hurt us.
• It can’t do anything anymore. We needed it and it failed.
• We need to figure out how to keep going without it. It did what it could.
• We will destroy it is a rough twist.
• We’re back on stage.
• and here’s the gun.
• “I’ll expose you, isn’t that what you’re scared of” DIRECTLY CONTRASTED WITH DAVEY GOING GEE WHIZ I SHOULD SHOW THIS TO PEOPLE DEAR GOD THAT’S ON THE NOSE
• Davey is obsessed with the opinions of others; they’re monolithic. They’re why he creates. But Coda doesn’t create for that. He creates for himself. As an end, not a Means.

17

• The tower
• The effort, the sheer effort that went into this game. dear god.
• this game hates. This game is a hostile game.
• THE SWITCH IS ON THE OTHER SIDE HAHAHAHA SWEET JUSTICE
  • this basically confirms davey was manually putting those switches on
• The 3 dots!! I don’t have a clue! I think that’s kinda beautiful in its own way.
• I did begin to plant solutions in my work hidden between games
• If there was an answer a meaning would it make you any happier?
• Would you simply let them be what they are?
• I fucking wish he did Coda.
• AND THERE IT FUCKING IS THE ABSENCE OF THE LEVER OH MY GOD THE DOPAMINE
• OH THE ROOM SHRINKING WHILE HE CRASHES OUT GUH

18

• external validation: the epilogue
• and the game ends with the damn whisper machine. Fucking poetic.