The Darkness Within The Beginner's Guide

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As someone who writes about video games, plays them constantly, and is studying game design in school, The Beginner’s Guide was a game that spoke to me on many levels. If you haven’t played it before, be prepared for the emotional weight it carries. When I started the game, I assumed it would be like The Stanley Parable, which is made by the same person. It’s a deep-thinking game that leaves you with a boatload of questions, but it is in no way sad. As I played The Beginner’s Guide, it started as a humorous game but quickly everything grew darker and darker.

(Coda's first game)

To summarize the game a bit, it’s essentially the creator, Davey Wreden using a compilation of his friend Coda’s games to try and reach out to him and get back in contact with him. There's been quite a bit of debate regarding Coda and whether he is a real person. Regardless if the game is about him, or the creator Davey using Coda to symbolize himself, the game still has a large impact on the player. It shows creative struggles that Coda is going through that we all go through, especially people who create media such as video games.

(The ultimate sacrifice)

When you first start, you begin in the first map Coda ever made, which resembles the Counter Strike Map Dust, but with lots of strange objects. There are floating crates, random orange blocks and other seemingly misplaced objects. As you go through the maps you start to realize what kind of person Coda is. Davey, the narrator also sheds insight on what he knows about Coda and why he thinks he designed games the way he did. The one thing I was incredibly surprised by was that Coda never wanted other people to play his games. As a designer, myself when I’m making games everything I put into it is with the player in mind. I’m constantly thinking about what someone who didn’t know my game would do in situations where I would know everything, or even what kind of reaction certain sections of my game would cause them to have.

(After sacrificing yourself, you float up into space)

The second game you play of Coda’s has an ending point in it that speaks volumes about him. On a random space station somewhere in outer space, you make your way through the map and eventually reach a strange beam. When I first encountered it I immediately knew why it was there. The point of the game was to shut down something called the whisper machine. With no levers or switches in sight it became quickly apparent to me that you would have to use yourself to do it. Self-sacrifice for the greater good. That’s an incredibly deep meaning in a game, let alone someone’s first game. This to me, was the strongest signal of what kind of person Coda was.

(The tower you can never climb)

After moving on from this game, you play through several games that would be deemed unplayable by many. One of them you must walk backwards, another you go up a set of stairs and a door opens at the top. However, the further you progress the slower you move until you eventually might as well be standing still. It felt like at least with the tower game, Coda almost didn’t want other people to experience what he was creating at all. The creator, Davey lets you go through the door and returns your speed to normal so you can see what’s in the tower. What I saw inside was astonishing and this was when I started to wonder what was really going through Coda’s head when he made games.

(Oh boy, what have I stumbled upon)

As you enter the room in the tower several lines of text begin spawning in mid-air. These sentences are obscure and most of them make no sense at all. Most of these sentences were ideas for games that either made no sense, or were depressing. At this point I wasn't sure what Davey was trying to show me, little did I know the game was only going to get even stranger.

(Why typewriters?)

Fast forward several games later and I’m in a room filled with typewriters. The typewriters were all typing furiously louder and louder, faster and faster. Shortly after this several lines of text began to appear in the bottom left of my screen. Looking at the lines made me wince. It was the creator, Coda, begging to be talked to, acknowledged, maybe understood. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish by making these games. It was becoming more apparent to me though that he had some deep-rooted problems and that maybe he was using his own games to cope with them.

(I came here because I like video games)

At this point I began to realize what path this game had taken me on. It was a dark path that wasn’t for the faint of heart. As Coda made more games, each on the progressively opened more in them. About himself, his struggles, his difficulties with making games and what was going on in his head. After a few more games I was spawned inside of a lecture hall. Inside a professor with a box for a head was talking about success, how everything is easy and how dreams don’t matter. Eventually I became the professor and was forced to say these things, the options for positive things to say were impossible to activate. In front of me was an endless void, I stared into it as it felt like everything was coming undone. It felt like a cry for help, but I couldn't decide if that’s what Coda was trying to do, he might have been trying to deal with problems of his own by constantly reminding himself through his games. It just felt wrong and unhealthy. I wasn’t sure how to react but if I had been Davey and played these games, I would’ve been at an absolute loss for words.

(I can't even imagine what he's going through)

Near the end of the game in one of Coda’s games, which takes place on a ship that is about to get hit by a giant door, everyone is blind. Everyone except for one person. His head says truth. When talking to him you are given dialogue, the most prominent piece of text is what I imagine Coda is saying to himself as the playable character, “I can’t keep making these”. At this point in the story, Davey was actively trying to help Coda but he didn’t know how to handle it or what it would take to help him. Because of his attempts to get other people to play his games Coda cut contact with him entirely. I won't go into detail about his last game, which is the final section of The Beginner’s Guide but, it sheds light on what Coda was feeling during the years he made games.

(Then why do you keep making them Coda?)

After finishing The Beginner’s Guide, I felt like I had been hit by a train. As a developer, the struggles of Coda and Davey in this story really hit home. It just felt like you could almost envision Coda and how he was feeling through the games he was making. I won’t spoil the end because it absolutely seals the deal for how I felt about my experience. If you want to play this game, be prepared because is extremely depressing. Although, I do think that as a game design major in college it’s eye opening. By playing this game I feel like when I make games, I will have a completely different perspective in doing so. It was a learning experience for me that should help me down the road when I reach points where I’m stuck or when I feel like I’ve hit a roadblock. Despite how sad it made me feel I’m glad I played it and I think if you ever want to make video games yourself, The Beginner’s Guide is a must play.