Explanation pls

[Alesi]

I finished the game but i just didnt get it, i mean. Is really Davey the one who is depressed and all that, or its only Coda a very introverted person, i just dont get the point. And is this story real at all? or did Davey made it all up?

[PinkShot]

Same question here....

[catma59]

I think part of the explanation is left up to each person as we all will have different understandings of the ending.

My understanding was that Coda was happy making the games he was making, to him they meant something and beyond that it doesn't matter what anyone else thought. Maybe the level designs helped Coda think through problems or understand his world better. Davey on the other hand was focused far more on validation not only that he was playing a game, but that it was something that was enjoyable. Davey wanted validation from the public that he had found something that was worth while. Davey tied his self worth not only to trying to understand Coda but to the perception of other individuals. At the end I think Davey realizes this and the thought I have been left with is that if you are doing something that makes you happy, then it does not matter what others think. In addition one should not try to only find the authors meaning in works because the authors meaning is something for them to understand and each reader, listener, or player will get out of the medium(music, books, games) what is meaningful to them which explains the message to Davey in the tower. Davey was looking so hard for a meaning and believing that Coda was depressed that it didn't dawn on him that it was him that had the problem.

When we as the audience percieve a meaning in a piece of art, it reflects far more on our feelings and attitudes then it does on those of the authors. When one sees onesself in a game, any game, it is more holding a mirror up to us then it is of the author. So when we see a piece of media and see depression and isolation perhaps we are seeing far more of ourselves in that medium than we want. It's easier to say, "oh, that's what the author intended me to feel," rather than to confront our own demons.

Or maybe I am just crazy and am seeing what I want to see in this game, and maybe this whole reply doesn't help at all. Maybe I am just rambling on because I don't know how I feel about the game and I am grasping at straws to try and understand something that maybe I as the player was not meant to understand.

[Iron Pariah]

The story is a fiction, the narrator isn't the literal developer of the game, and Coda is a character in the story.

The narrator interprets the work of his friend Coda, about whom he makes assumptions based on his work, but in making those assumptions and interpreting his work, the narrator hurts Coda, and sharing his work without his permission hurts coda A LOT.

The point is to show how games do and do not express the feelings and minds of their creators, and how hurtful it was for the narrator to impose himself on Coda and his creations, and how harmful it was when he gave his games to others, like us, to play without his permission.

[Alesi]

Thank you very much for your replies i was really amazed and confused when i finished it but i guess its only the interpretation the player wants to get about it.

[joridiculous]

Game dev telling you not to critesize their art.

[Gabiru The Brave]

Looking to understand Coda through his games, Davey finds an interpretation that is a distorted mirror image of himself. And as Davey is a guy who thrives on validation, he draws the conclusion that Coda must be depressed as he does not seek validation in his games.

Davey modifying, sharing and interpreting Coda's games hurt Coda because it was just Davey imposing his own personality on Coda, and Davey just wouldn't see this.

[Tom]

Quote from a reddit user:
"Davey represents post-StanleyParable Davey and his past self's need for validation. Coda represents early Davey's way of thinking about making games. The creative machine also represents early-Davey, but it stands in for the dreamy self-motivated early Davey when Coda hits the creative wall. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these games were made before StanleyParable, but I doubt the later ones were.

I'll skip over the meaning of the word 'coda' and the blog post Davey wrote post-SP.
Consider the fact that Davey "didn't know Coda" when he first started making games. Now recall the telephone call on the last prison level. The future-prisoner tells the past-prisoner that he stays the same person but "doesn't know himself yet." (In some variation of the conversation at least).

There's a message from Coda to Davey to "stop putting lamps in his games." Davey said that the lamps gave the games a defined end point, a purpose. This represents Davey's struggle between his pure creative self wanting to make games as a dialogue with himself and his need for external validation. Coda/the creative machine doesn't need to give games direction. But Davey craves validation for his work, and so gives them direction to make them playable. Davey also mentions that him and Coda often argued about whether or not games need to be playable. Since Davey is the part that craves valdiation, of course he'd want games to be playable. Coda is the creative internal-voice though, and doesn't need that validation. So they don't need to be playable at all.

The three dots likely are something that fascinated Coda/early-Davey because they had no meaning. He put them in his games as a signature. The part of Davey that needs validation and meaning doesn't like that they don't have any at all."

Other important facts:
Aswell the credits "For R." are for his BEST real life friend Robin Arnott. In a presentation at a university he says that his friend Robin said because of Daveys depression "when you are around I feel physically ill". This same sentence is in the game aswell.
Davey got a hard time after Stanley Parables success and this game is how he is helping himself to turn his depression into something good.
TL;DR: Coda = Davey, Game= the story of his depression and how he is fighting it.

[alright]

Why did Davey have a hard time after Stanley Parables success?

[SomeWhiteGuy]

maybe thats when he realised what he was doing, and or the fact that The Stanley Parable was like a prison aswell, maybe the game was some sort of response to either coda or some sort of enthusiasm towards his games when he was first learning about coda