#the beginners guide

[profaneheaven]

he was, himself, the most horrible creature he could imagine

[thefearisoneself]

This is a HUGE reach but

I wonder if the Lamp Post Goose is teasing in the movie poster is relevant to the game The Beginner's Guide, Davey Wreden's lesser known second game after the stanely parable (which goose had said was a big influence.

For those not in the know, TBG is a surreal meta game about "Davey" compiling the games produced by a dev named Coda who he was supposedly friends with.

He spends the game running you through Coda's works and offering his interpretations on them as well as describing his and Coda's relationship, and telling us how Coda was like this tortured artist who eventually stopped making games due to creative frustration.

As you play Coda's games there's this lampost, and Davey opines on its meaning, up until the point where he reveals that the Lamposts were never actually part of the games, HE put them there because he felt they added more meaning to Coda's games and basically imposed his own views of the themes that he took away from the games, which deeply upset Coda.

"Davey" has a big falling out with Coda after he took Codas games and showed them to other people (something Coda strictly didnt want, but that "Davey" felt might help him be more confident about his work) but only lead him to seemingly stop making games

Until Coda sends him his final game, an intentionally frustrating and impossible game, that only after brute forcing around it anyways does Davey find a message addressed directly to him about how he poisoned game Development for Coda and he never wants to speak to him again

The lampost represents the injection of meaning, regardless of authorial intent, how this may or may not tie in to TADC im not sure, but I could see it maybe relating to Kinger and Scratch's relationship or Jax' with Ribbit perhaps, I guess we'll see.

[conputir]

Feeling

[janknabobfdi-xxxnitrodarkxxx]

Literal interpretation: The Beginner's Guide (2015) is literally a non-fiction confession. Coda is a real life person and Davey Wreden is openly admitting to being a toxic friend, publishing his work without his consent and is committing copyright infringement by publishing the game itself. Allegorical Interpretation: The Beginner's Guide (2015) is Real Life Davey Wreden's way of expressing that he genuinely felt pressured and burned out making The Stanley Parable and this game is his way of passively-aggressively complaining about his fans. Meta Interpretation: Davey Wreden is Coda and I'm Davey Wreden, the game does not want me to analyze it like this, by making assumptions about the Real Life Davey Wreden based on The Beginner's Guide I am literally doing what the game is criticizing the intrusive antagonist of doing. Which means that I shouldn't be looking for a deeper meaning, therefore I should take the game at face value, therefore the game wants to tell me that Davey Wreden really is a shitty person and should be sued for copyright infringement, check and mate.

[liminal-spaced-out]

This is what The Beginner's Guide is about i think

The og sketch that i think is funnier than the finished drawing

[internetmonsterxd]

i fought every urge to make stamps of spoilers, this game is great guys

[glazeliights]

I think its so poignant that the beginners guide doesnt end with a lamppost, but with the beam. an actual component of one of codas games. and it doesnt work the way davey believes it "should have", no, it works exactly how coda made it.