So why is this called the beginner's guide again?

[Artifex]

so yeah, spoil all you like. I don't get the title, how does it relate to the story in any way? feel free to call me shallow or whatever...

[Normal Man]

I just assumed it was some sort of guide for beginner's?

[Artifex]

the game didn't feel like a guide at all to me. more like some biographical documentary of a person which, I only learned yesterday, may not have even existed and is only a metaphor?

Devs, I get that you want to be artsy and cryptic and all that, but does the title have to also make no direct sense? I can't even imagine why it is called like that: is coda the beginner? is the speaker the beginner? is the player the beginner? if so, why?

[What Would Spock Do]

Perhaps it's called this because this is how beginning developers may feel, like that this is a guide for what to expect emotionally once people start to critique your work or that you're being guided through Coda's experience.
I dunno.

[holly’s tea]

The name doesn't say anything about the game, similar to Stanley parable or Daveys films 'tape 1' or 'a film by Davey Wreden' - Before playing you have no idea what it is

Maybe it's a kind of Guide like 'What not to do when you start making games: Not releasing them'

[Krxken]

more like a 4hr walking simulator

[perdido_hate]

maybe the narrator is the beginner and the games are the actual guide that point himself to a better knoledge of himself

[SomeWhiteGuy]

I agree with perdido_hate , and in saying so it seems like a "begginers guide" to understanding what he thought he was doing to coda but in time relised what he was doing to both he him self and coda aswel

[LeMorrow]

Actually, "Coda" Is a musical symbol and it basically means "ending" (roughly)
Mr .R (Referenced at the end of the game) Could be R = Repeat if we're still speaking music language.
So, we have an ending and a repeat. What do we call the game?
The Beginners Guide

Could be way off. I personally don't think thats it but hey, it's a guess.

[Vertragus]

Perhaps the game could serve as a foreward to video games themselves. Due to the message the game portrays, I believe it could be considered a beginner's guide to the gaming community, with it's focus on how to view game developers (and other people) and their content as a whole.

[holly’s tea]

Originally posted by LeMorrow:

Actually, "Coda" Is a musical symbol and it basically means "ending" (roughly)
Mr .R (Referenced at the end of the game) Could be R = Repeat if we're still speaking music language.

Yes, the music symbol is also the game icon, that's kind of stated, while R can be anything, I think it's for a person, maybe Robin because Davey was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ roommate to him after the release of TSP, a kind of 'sorry'

Davey Wreden and Robin Arnott were roommates to the time at TSP HD making, idk if they still are, watch "Rise of the indies" to learn more :3

[Artifex]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I must say though, I am relieved that, as evidence shows, the title actually was cryptic and open to interpretation. I honestly thought the meaning might be something blatantly obvious which I could not get.

[Ember]

Both Coda and Davey Wreden is basically the same person.
Davey Wreden suffered from the success of The Stanley Parable before making this game.

This is the beginner's guide for making games.
Don't make your games just so they become playable or just for the sake of validations, poison making games for yourself in the process just to monetize them.

[The Party Baby]

It's because the game itself is a Beginner's Guide to a specific type of relationship/interaction - that is, viewer to artist (and even more specifically, an enthusiastic, inquisitive viewer to the artist). Moreover, it's a beginner's guide about an artist trying to give a beginner's guide *about this topic* to someone who refuses to listen. First Coda tries to communicate with the main character really gently and subtly. Pretty soon, the message and metaphors become impossible to miss - if you know what to look for. But our main character is ill-equipped to see. Finally, Coda speaks plainly and explicitly through game design, and then follows that with straight-up text on the walls. And yet even as we read this plea from Coda, the main character continues to literally talk over Coda's words and unveil more plans to directly contravene Coda's wishes.

We are supposed to take away from this a simple, actionable lesson about how to interact with people who make the art we love (or moreover, how *not* to interact with them). A Beginner's Guide of sorts.