The Beginner's Guide
Written and narrated by Davey Wreden, The Beginner’s Guide tells the story of game developer Coda. The game is a series of unfinished levels and designs created by Coda. While the player traverses these linear levels, Wreden comments on their ideas, and even modifies some of the games to make them more accessible. He attaches meaning to Coda’s ideas, motivations, and even state of mind, without realizing he can’t fully understand the work.
The game has a lot of similarities with The Stanley Parable. Played from a first-person perspective, there’s no real objectives other than seeing the story through to its end. The game explores themes of dwindling mental health and social anxiety. While he doesn’t like commenting on the game’s explicit meaning, Wreden has clarified that Coda is not supposed to be him during a certain stage of his life. Even though his narration makes it a very personal game, he leaves the story open to interpretation by the players. Let’s see what you make of it.
About the developer
Struggling with the runaway success of his debut game The Stanley Parable, American indie game developer Davey Wreden disappeared from the public eye after creating The Beginner’s Guide. The past few years he’s been working on The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. He also co-founded a new studio Ivy Road supported by Annapurna Interactive.
