History VideoGame / TheBeginnersGuide

''The Beginner's Guide'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame published in 2015 by David Wreden, creator of ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable''. The game involves Davey guiding the player, via voiced narration, through a collection of short games created by his friend, 'Coda', between 2008 and 2011. Throughout the game, Davey explains his friendship with Coda and what the various things in each game mean.

''The Beginner's Guide'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame published in 2015 by David Wreden, creator of ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable''. The game involves Davey guiding the player, via voiced narration, through a collection of short games created by his friend, 'Coda', between 2008 and 2011.

** Davey notes that Coda ends almost all his games with a lamppost, viewing it as his own way to mark the end of the project. [[spoiler:Later we find that not all those lampposts were Coda's.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: While ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'' was an often cruel satire of the artificiality of MultipleEndings in video games with plenty of horrifying and heartbreaking moments, it was still an ultimately lighthearted experience with a fondness for quirky humour. By contrast, ''The Beginner's Guide'' is a macabre and deeply personal story with only the occasional foray into very BlackComedy.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: [[spoiler: Davey does this to Coda's games, for example interpreting the prison games as Coda being depressed as opposed to him just liking making prison games. By the end you find out that Coda wants Davey out of his life for sharing his games with the public, at which point Davey tells you he released the entire compilation just so somebody could help him find Coda again.]]

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: [[spoiler: Davey does this to Coda's games, for example interpreting the prison games as Coda being depressed as opposed to him just liking making prison games. By the end you find out that Coda wants Davey out of his life for sharing his games with the public, at which point Davey tells you he released the entire compilation just so somebody could help him find Coda again.]] [[WhatAnIdiot Somebody really didn't get the message.]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It took ''years'' for the real-life Davey to fully clarify if this game was non-fiction or not. [[https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/11946-tone-control-season-2-episode-6-davey-wreden/ On the Tone Patrol podcast, he said it's entirely fiction,]] and that "Coda" never actually existed in real-life, ''but'' it was inspired by the experience of [[spoiler:going through friendships breaking down.]]

** During "The Great and Lovely Descent", Davey mentions how he and Coda would get into arguments over if a game should be playable and accessible. Later on, when encountering the three individuals wanting to know where the player had come from, [[spoiler:[[ButThouMust you find yourself unable to answer their question concerning solving the switch puzzle]], prompting one of the figures to beg you, stating that there ''must'' be an ending to their situation]]. Given later revelations, it's plain to see that [[spoiler:this is directly aimed at Davey]].

** During "The Great and Lovely Descent", Davey mentions how he and Coda would get into arguments over if a game should be playable and accessible. Later on, when encountering the three individuals wanting to know where the player had come from, [[spoiler:[[ButThouMust you find yourself unable to answer their question concerning the switch puzzle]], prompting one of the figures to beg you, stating that there ''must'' be an ending to their situation]]. Given later revelations, it's plain to see that [[spoiler:this is directly aimed at Davey]].

* AmbiguousGender: It's never made explicit what gender Coda is. Davey refers to them with male pronouns, but that's likely due to him just presuming their gender.

** Also provides a {{Deconstruction}} of DeathOfTheAuthor: Coda's troubles with Davey wouldn't exist if Coda would even mildly comment on past work, rather than leaving it entirely up to interpretation; [[spoiler:given the content of the last few games, (in particular, The Machine (assuming that game is being presented honestly), any reasonable person would be concerned for a friend who was working on this kind of art.]]

* OverlyLongGag:
** Exploring one of the games, the player can get stuck inside a small jail cell. Davey explains that in the original programming, the cell door wouldn't open for an hour. Luckily, Davey lets you out well before then.
** The game with the staircase gradually slows your movement to a crawl until it would take hours to climb to the top. Luckily, once again Davey is there to speed up your movement.

''The Beginner's Guide'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame published in 2015 by David Wreden, creator of ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable''. The game involves Davey guiding the player, via voiced narration, through a collection of short games created by his friend, 'Coda', between 2008 and 2011. It lasts about an hour and a half, and can be purchased from [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/303210 Steam]] or [[https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/thebeginnersguide_storefront Humble Bundle]].

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler:Davey is a narcissist who obsessively attempts to show his "friend's" work without their consent and exposes their privacy. He's not a monster, but he's deeply flawed, and likely mentally ill.]]

* AmbiguousGender: It's never made explicit what gender Coda is. Davey refers to them with male pronouns, but that's likely just because of ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet.

* NonHumanHead: There are numerous [=NPCs=] who, given the abstract and prototypical nature of many of the game's segments, have their heads replaced with brightly-colored squares. The squares have words on them, and they are sometimes able to rotate them when talking.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Davey caused Coda to stop enjoying making games, and by releasing the game the player has just played, Davey has gone against his wishes one last time, and is left in a miserable state, desperate for validation he'll probably never receive. Hell, one way to interpret the ending is that Davey ''commits suicide''. Not in real of course.]]
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: [[spoiler: Davey does this to Coda's games, for example interpreting the prison games as Coda being depressed as opposed to, y'know, him just liking making prison games. By the end you find out that Coda wants Davey out of his life for sharing his games with the public, at which point Davey tells you he released the entire compilation just so somebody could help him find Coda again.]] [[WhatAnIdiot Somebody really didn't get the message.]]

** Also provides a {{Deconstruction}} of DeathOfTheAuthor: Coda's troubles with Davey wouldn't exist if Coda would even mildly comment on past work, rather than leaving it entirely up to interpretation; [[spoiler:given the content of the last few games, (in particular, The Machine (assuming that game is being presented honestly)), any reasonable person would be concerned for a friend who was working on this kind of art.]]

* ObliviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:The end reveals that all this time, Davey thought he was helping Coda by doing things like trying to convince him to make them more playable, modifying them, releasing them to others and telling those people about Coda's supposed depression, when in reality all this was accomplishing was poisoning the gamemaking hobby more and more for Coda, ultimately dissuading him from making more games.]]

''Warning: As with [[VideoGame/TheStanleyParable Wreden's other work]], and given the short length and nature of the game, it is difficult to discuss without spoiling the experience. Expect spoilers below.''

** [[spoiler: Turns out it's explicitly this outside the game's story, as the narrative is a dramatization VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory of how Davey lost his friendship with his former roommate Robin after being overwhelmed by the success of ''The Stanley Parable''. Hence the "For R." at the very end of the game.]]

* UnreliableNarrator: Davey lies or misleads the player about at least one thing, [[spoiler:the lamppost.]]
* UnwinnableByDesign: One particular puzzle in [[spoiler:the Tower. It, along with the barely-solvable puzzles that precede it, was designed as a massive "screw you" to Davey.]]
* WhamLine: Two:
** [[spoiler:"I'm the reason that you stopped making games, aren't I?"]]
** [[spoiler:"Would you stop changing my games? Stop adding lampposts to them?"]]
* WhamShot: Also two:
** When the recurring two doors and a lever puzzle appears for the final time, [[spoiler:and there's no second lever on the inside of the first door]].
** And the main menu screen after the game ends: [[spoiler:it's a lamppost. You know you've reached the end now, because you've found the lamppost.]]

** The books on the bookshelf in the housecleaning game all seem to be real, but are very low-textured; ''Literature/OnAWintersNightATraveler'' is distinctly easier to recognize.

** The books on the bookshelf in the housecleaning game all seem to be real, but are very low-textured; ''Literature/OnAWintersNightATraveller'' is distinctly easier to recognize.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: Davey says "shitty" near the end of the game and one of the alleged online comments in one of the games begins with "holy shit".