The Beginner's Guide (game) (SPOILERS)

[Lenburg1]

I don't post often but I want to talk about this game that just came out on steam. I loved the story of it it was amazing it is the genre that I love. It analyzes a person thought. If anyone else has played it I want to know do you think the story was real because I can't tell. If it is a real story then it begs the question of whether or not the person who added it to steam Davey Wreden is a jerk but at the same time I kinda empathize with him. What about Coda and all of the existential metaphors in his work. Is Coda a real person like Wreden said in the game or is he made up (I kinda want him to be real which is probably why I don't rule out that theory)? What do you think about all those prisons one right after another. I going to go through the game again tomorrow because I enjoyed it so much. This also reminds me of that game "Drowning" that Notch made.

The trailer for The Beginner's Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBK5Jheu0To

[dawnraider]

I haven't done anything with the game, but it at least seems like an interesting premise, I think I may have a go at it.

[Miss_Kat]

Man the entire OP kind of feels like a spoiler for the game, just saying. Might want to reword it, put it under a spoiler? Haha. As for my own thoughts..

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There is no way I think Coda is real. He's fictional narrative for the game. If he were real, the game would be an ethical trainwreck, which, well I think is the point of the game, but still. There's no way it'd be on steam. It just wouldn't be legal for it to be for sale.

Anyway, I enjoyed playing through the game, even if it left me feeling deeply unsettled. Definitely wasn't what I was expecting after The Stanley Parable, which I expect is half of what the dev was aiming for. Complete tonal shift, as my fiancé described it.

[FlowerChild]

Man the entire OP kind of feels like a spoiler for the game, just saying. Might want to reword it, put it under a spoiler? Haha. As for my own thoughts..

Luckily I zoned out on the OP, to see your message here afterwards confirming that was a good thing :)

Quickly looking at the page for the game, the following immediately jumped out:

"Powerful and meaningful, to say anymore of this game would be giving the player a disservice."

Will add a spoiler to the title and avoid this thread until I've had a chance to try it.

[William the tuba]

I picked it up. I think it's a beautiful little story.

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It's not without faults. If you're reading this and haven't played it, you should probably play it first.

I'd say the story is fiction. Coda isn't a real person. Danny might be talking about his own inner thoughts, but if there's any ties to reality, they're more complex than the story given. Looking around, there's some speculation that Danny is Coda, and maybe the Narrator represents someone else (R?); however, the construction of some of the games makes it pretty obvious that it's a story, and not really a collection of someone else's games. (The one where he removes the walls, and you see... hundreds of blue props in the background) Though, the end of the game suggest that all the games may have been edited heavily by Danny (in the story), so it's probably worth replaying to see what you can catch. What do the three dots mean?

Maybe I didn't get as much out of it because I went in thinking "it's by the guy who made The Stanley Parable? How many layers above what I'm told should I be thinking?"

The ending, with no clear moral or, really, much in the way of closing, is something I appreciate, but find unsettling, it reminds me of some other things I've seen (I could rattle off a few anime), but it certainly suits the game.