To people saying that Coda is Davey.

[[FRB] Monte]

Unless it's just a blatant lie, the metaphor idea has some flaws.

For people who do no know, the original The Stanley Parable was developped from 2009 to 2011.
Now unless Coda is the idea of Stanley parable, why would Stanley say that he only met Coda in 2009 although he/she started making game in 2008.

Also the whole game is about losing that spark of creativity and will of game making but
TSP was done on July 31st 2011
on August 2nd 2011 he was already making plans to remake TSP with a much better coat of paint and - as we've seen - with a lot more creativity than the original mod ever had.

Also if it were a metaphor and these are games that were made at the same time as TSP it wouldn't fit because the original TSP simply didn't show Davey has having the potential to make a game such as the houshold chore game (He didn't really use custom models back then)

That's why I say it's not a metaphor. However there are very similar themes between TSP and TBG and well he did do a game showing press anxiety which Davey would know alot more than a supposed Coda. Which means, rather than Coda being past him, Coda is more of a mean for him to explain his feelings perhaps.

Anyways, decide for yourselves.

[Felicity]

Because the game is a mix of fantasy and reality- the line is blurred pretty well on what is something that actually occurred to Davey, and that he fabricated for the sake of a compelling story. I think this is one of the weaknesses of the game, there are some large contrived elements that hurt the overall meaning. Fabricated emotions, so to speak.

If Coda is not Davey, then it is at least a part of him. It's possible the entire game is a metaphor, and that all of those maps were constructed in more recent years for the sole purpose of this game.

You know people can lie, right?

[[FRB] Monte]

I meant lie as in a creation in the sake of a compelling story without actual referring points in reality.

As in Davey made a coda to tell a story that he thought would make people think but without needing it be about himself.

So yes I know people can lie, that was one of my points.

[Plutonian Prime]

Originally posted by Ace♡:

Because the game is a mix of fantasy and reality- the line is blurred pretty well on what is something that actually occurred to Davey, and that he fabricated for the sake of a compelling story. I think this is one of the weaknesses of the game, there are some large contrived elements that hurt the overall meaning. Fabricated emotions, so to speak.

If Coda is not Davey, then it is at least a part of him. It's possible the entire game is a metaphor, and that all of those maps were constructed in more recent years for the sole purpose of this game.

You know people can lie, right?

You know people can refund the products that lied to them, right?

[[FRB] Monte]

Originally posted by Rando:

You know people can refund the products that lied to them, right?

Man you are one upset person.

Although steam's refund system is very generous, usually it's about technical problems or marketting lies.
Here Davey lies in a story sense, he didn't lie to get your money.

(Unless you'd like to say that Authors should offer refunds because they lie)

[Felicity]

Originally posted by Rando:

Originally posted by Ace♡:

Because the game is a mix of fantasy and reality- the line is blurred pretty well on what is something that actually occurred to Davey, and that he fabricated for the sake of a compelling story. I think this is one of the weaknesses of the game, there are some large contrived elements that hurt the overall meaning. Fabricated emotions, so to speak.

If Coda is not Davey, then it is at least a part of him. It's possible the entire game is a metaphor, and that all of those maps were constructed in more recent years for the sole purpose of this game.

You know people can lie, right?

You know people can refund the products that lied to them, right?

I don't intend to refund this, myself, since even if I was unhappy with the overall structure of the writing, it still made me feel something, even if that was a negative feeling. I spent a whole night pondering on exactly why I disliked it, too- that's quite a feat for a game. Usually it's obvious.

Other games I've refunded didn't make me feel anything, like Hatred, or Silicone-2.

[Plutonian Prime]

Originally posted by Ace♡:

Originally posted by Rando:

You know people can refund the products that lied to them, right?

I don't intend to refund this, myself, since even if I was unhappy with the overall structure of the writing, it still made me feel something, even if that was a negative feeling. I spent a whole night pondering on exactly why I disliked it, too- that's quite a feat for a game. Usually it's obvious.

Other games I've refunded didn't make me feel anything, like Hatred, or Silicone-2.

DAMN I CAN REFUND THIS THING? Hold on!

Oh maaan, I totally forgot this exists, thanks man! Anyway, after my refund ticket gets verified, I'll feel a lot more positive than I do now. And it's not the money, cause, if you look at my library, you can tell that I don't care much for the stuff. It's the message that I hope Davey gets: don't try to push your half-baked birthday present project gifts as follow-up games. This is something you put on ModDB for free. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

I don't wanna support lazy game development, we should have better standarts for narrative stories.

I pirated Hatred just to see what it was all about and never heard about the second one lol

[Plutonian Prime]

Originally posted by Clill Binton:

Originally posted by Rando:

You know people can refund the products that lied to them, right?

Man you are one upset person.

Although steam's refund system is very generous, usually it's about technical problems or marketting lies.
Here Davey lies in a story sense, he didn't lie to get your money.

(Unless you'd like to say that Authors should offer refunds because they lie)

But the story sense is the ONLY sense in a narrative-driven game. And steam refunds actually have the option "it's not fun" for a refund lel, so u kno dat makes me right

[|TeM| Reikhardt]

Rando, you truly are one of lifes special little ♥♥♥♥♥.

[Astrydax]

Originally posted by Clill Binton:

Unless it's just a blatant lie, the metaphor idea has some flaws.

For people who do no know, the original The Stanley Parable was developped from 2009 to 2011.
Now unless Coda is the idea of Stanley parable, why would Stanley say that he only met Coda in 2009 although he/she started making game in 2008.

Also the whole game is about losing that spark of creativity and will of game making but
TSP was done on July 31st 2011
on August 2nd 2011 he was already making plans to remake TSP with a much better coat of paint and - as we've seen - with a lot more creativity than the original mod ever had.

Also if it were a metaphor and these are games that were made at the same time as TSP it wouldn't fit because the original TSP simply didn't show Davey has having the potential to make a game such as the houshold chore game (He didn't really use custom models back then)

That's why I say it's not a metaphor. However there are very similar themes between TSP and TBG and well he did do a game showing press anxiety which Davey would know alot more than a supposed Coda. Which means, rather than Coda being past him, Coda is more of a mean for him to explain his feelings perhaps.

Anyways, decide for yourselves.

Yeah, CODA doesn't exist. Coda is an earlier version of the developer himself (Davey Wreden), Kinda like the phone booth section where you're talking to your earlier self still trapped in the prison. Davey Made all of these games inside the Beginners Guide. If you're looking for closure after playing this game, I would highly suggest playing "The Stanley Parable" one of Davey's earlier games. You really get a feel for what he's touching on after you've played that game as well. I've been following Davey for years now. So let me shed some light on a few things real quick.

1) Video games are a modern art form. Thousands of years ago you had sculptures, then you had paintings, then animated films, music and audio visuals. These were all creative outlets for artist made possible by the tools available to them at the time. In this present day, that art form is now video games. It's kind of hard to understand games in this way with titles like halo and call of duty even bioshock and any game with big name company on it, because those games are designed to SELL and to ENTERTAIN. But think of it like this, we used to have paintings because paint was an available tool at the time; computers were not. Leonardo da Vinci didn't create the Mona Lisa so that it could be sold and enjoyed, it was created to be taken as it was and appreciated for just that. This is exactly what The Beginners Guide is supposed to be, something to be taken for exactly what it is. It's not a game in the sense that you beat it or get a high score or anything. It is simply the product of an artists work manifested in the form of interactive audiovisuals known as video games.

2) After Davey released The Stanley Parable (his first huge success) he fell into a deep state of depression. I won't go into explaining it simply to avoid the great injustice it would be to misrepresent what was going on in his life. Instead, here is a link to his website under the name of his old company Galactic Cafe (the company name that Stanley Parable was released under). On the front page, its a bit of read, but he's goes into great detail as to what was going on in his life at the time. http://www.galactic-cafe.com/


These next points are going to be irrelevant if you haven't yet read the article from Davey on the above link.

3) Coda is not a real person. If when you load the game up, and look at the icon for it you will notice this symbol of a circle with a cross extending throughout the circles border. This symbol is called a Coda in music composition (don't look up a dictionary definition for this word Coda because most definitions are partially inaccurate) . A Coda is used to signify the end of a movement in a peace of music. For example, a Symphony is a type classical composition that has Four distinct movements, each movement has its own tone and feel with the first and last movements being nearly the same. The Coda symbol would be used on the sheet music to signify that the current movement has ended and likewise signifies that a new movement is beginning. If that sounds familiar, that's because this is exactly what the door puzzle is: You've reached the end of something, you take a brief moment and pause before continue to the next movement, or in this case, before opening the second door.

4) If you read the blog post you will see that this entire game:The Beginners Guide is Davey's own Coda, his own door puzzle. He was very depressed for a long time with game design, he's always strived for a connection between him and his audience and you'll notice that if you've played the Stanley Parable. at the end of The Tower level there's a quote from 'Coda' on the wall saying "I can't help you, you have to help yourself and that's OK, you're not mine to fix". This is actually Davey passively SPEAKING TO YOU AS THE PLAYER. Davey felt very disconnected from his audience that played his games and very connected to his games himself. So for people to not understand his games and games being all he knows, he felt like he didn't know himself anymore. The Beginners Guide is Davey's attempt to bridge that gap, to help his audience better understand that you don't have to have a solution, to help people understand to just take his games for what they are. In part, by doing this Davey feels that if he can bridge that gap and bring people to understand his games, he can repair himself by gaining that connection with his audience. And by doing this, Davey is walking through the door puzzle closing that second door on the depression filled part of his life and moving forward.


Please note that I have no external proof for any of this to be truth other than the examples I have provided. This is simply my interpretation that I believe to be accurate of my favorite game developer . All I can hope is that my interpretation of this is accurate and that I've reached a connection of understanding that Davey has strived for.

-Astrydax-

[TonkatsuRamen]

@Astrydax

Very beautifully written. I'm on your side on this.
The Beginners Guide shows two sides of Davey. He always says that he was able to understand someone THROUGH his work and that he could feel closer to that person. Now look at the steam forum section of the beginners guide. It's full of people who have been touched by art and emotion and try to figure out what they feel and how it corelates to the game and the protagonist. In some way TBG is a way to get to know davey "without all this messy personal social stuff" :)

[Well I'm Ryan]

the thing that made me realise Coda had to be Davey, was the line in the top of the tower "and stop putting lightposts in my games".
A thing Davey clearly states that Coda begins to do in a early stage of the game..
"okay i cant tell you why but Coda starts to fixate on this lamppost, its going to appear at the end of all of his games from here on out."(off the top of my head i belive those are his words)
i think thats is a twist on the movie Fight Club's where Davey and Coda is one and the same, he just does not realise it, sending himself games in zips by mail..

[SpartanIII]

Is Coda Davey as many have suggested? My answer is yes and no.

Let’s start with the ways in which Coda is similar to Davey. In TBG, the Coda we meet is a person whose passion and drive was hurt by Davey’s attempts at figuring him out, at “solving” the “puzzle”. This is very similar to the Davey we discover on his blog[www.galactic-cafe.com] and on that talk[livestream.com]. On the blog, Davey says that he received, “emails from fans and journalists asking over and over and over and over and over where the idea for the game came from, until the answers to those questions simply became stock and lost their meaning and even I began to lose track of where the idea had actually come from.” More Davey: “Every time I turned to someone else’s opinion of the game, I felt less sure of my own opinion of it. I began to forget why I liked the game. I was losing the thing I had created.” So both Davey and Coda struggle with losing the sense of ownership over their games. Also like Coda, Davey explains in his talk that he went through a period where he withdrew socially. So far the Davey is Coda theory is looking pretty good!

Still, in other respects, Coda shows signs of being something other than Davey. In the talk above, Davey says that during a bad period he was a total jerk to his friend Robin. Robin told him that being in the same room with Davey made him feel physical ill (Around 37:00). Sound familiar? Says Coda, near the end of The Tower: “When I am around you I feel physically ill.” BAM! So Coda has a dash of Davey’s friend as well as being kind of like Davey!

One final aspect of Coda that isn’t Davey. Davey needs validation. Davey was super depressed. After the twist we learn that Coda didn’t want validation in the same way; having his games shown to the public simply ticked him off. We learn that Coda was not really depressed; Davey was mostly projecting. See? In that respect, the whole point of the twist was that Coda was not as similar to Davey as we thought.

Conclusion: Coda is Davey, Robin, and a pure fiction. He’s a lot of things. Just like The Beginners Guide!

Originally posted by Astrydax:

Coda is an earlier version of the developer himself (Davey Wreden), Kinda like the phone booth section where you're talking to your earlier self still trapped in the prison.

If you read the blog post you will see that this entire game:The Beginners Guide is Davey's own Coda, his own door puzzle.

Two brilliant points I had not thought of.